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| 'We will not accept anything short of separate homeland' | | Sikh, Dogra rule in Kashmir was the best | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 13: Internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus living in Jammu since their exodus in January 1990 have reiterated their commitment that they will go back to their Land of Vitasta (Jhelum) only if the authorities in New Delhi and J&K establish a separate homeland within the Valley invested with Union Territory status.
"We can't co-exist with those who hounded us out of Kashmir just because we didn't belong to their faith. Our properties have been destroyed, looted and occupied by them. Our religious places have been vandalized and usurped by them. They have no faith in India. They want a system similar to what it prevails in Pakistan, Syria and similar other countries. Our plight under such a system would be no different from the plight of the minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. We want to go back to our original habitat. But we will go back only after a separate homeland for 7 lakh internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus was created within Kashmir," said Panun Kashmir leaders Ajay Chrungoo and Agnishekhar on Saturday while expressing their views on the prevailing situation in Kashmir and the manner in which the civic polls in the Valley were being boycotted and the enthusiasm with which the people of Jammu and Ladakh participated in first two phases of ULB elections held after a long gap of 13 years.
Hailing the Sikh rule in Kashmir between 1819 and 1846 and Dogra rule between March 1846 and October 1947, the PK leaders said that "both these regimes took care of the minority Hindus in Kashmir and stopped the process of their conversion, murder and exodus - process unleashed in 1339".
"After 1339, 1819-1947 was the only period in Kashmir when the Kashmiri Hindus lived a secure and dignified life. It was in 1947 that the minority Kashmiri Hindus again fell victim to those who had caused between 1339 and 1819 several migrations of the persecuted Hindus. We are indebted to the Sikhs of Punjab and Dogras of Jammu who gave us dignity and handed down dispensations which didn't allow the zealots to touch us or convert us or to throw us out of Kashmir," the Kashmiri leaders said, adding that the "whole Hindu samaj from Kashmir will always remain grateful to the people of Jammu province who gave us shelter, support and everything that the community in exile in 1990 needed". "Our exodus from Kashmir in 1990 was the utter failure of the Indian state," the PK leaders said, adding that "it was the people of Jammu who became our saviours".
The demand of the internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus seeking a separate homeland in the Valley just can't be brushed aside or dismissed as silly and preposterous. Their demand appears genuine given the fact that Kashmiri leaders of all hues, including Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have turned hostile towards India demanding a dispensation that is outside the political and constitutional organization of India. |
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