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| Plight of Kashmiri Pandits finds echo in US House of Representatives | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 5: From Ghulam Nabi Fai,head of the Kashmir American Council who has been charged with being an ISI agent trying to influence the US policy on Kashmir, to influential Democratic Congressman, Frank Pallone, the events in Washington seem to be moving at a faster rate than they were in the past.
In the context of these developments a new trend has started emerging in the United States which speaks of growing concern over the plight of Kashmiri Pandits.During the last over 20 years the exodus of Pandits,their traumatic experience while fleeing from Kashmir and their ordeals they faced in the plains had not found any echo in either the US Senate or the House of the Representatives.
Possiblly it was so because Washington did not want to annoy Islamabad after the Kashmir Pandits have openly blamed Pakistani agencies for having directed terrorists,especially foreign mercenaries, to create conditions in the valley that may leave no other alternative for the microscopic minority but to migrate to the plains.
Now that the relations between Islamabad and Washington have registered tension and conflict following the former's failure in giving adequate assistance to the US forces in their war against terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan the issue of Pandits has figured in the House of Representatives.
When Frank Pollone introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits it created ripples in various corners of the world.It caused dismay and displeasure among the policy makers in Islamabad.
Pollone's resolution wanted the House to recognise that the violation of religious freedom and human rights of Kashmiri Pandits has been going on since 1989 when the Pakistan sponsored insurgency took roots in the valley.Through the resolution Pollone wanted the House to condemn extremist violence,lack of religious freedom and human rights violations committed against Kashmiri Pandits which they have endured for over two decades.
The US Democratic Congressman wants terrorist infrastructure be dismantled in the region,which implies the infrastructure not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in Pakistan also.
Setting at rest various theories being propounded by those trying to change names of historical places,district headquarters and villages in the Kashmir valley Pollone has claimed that the original inhabitants of Kashmir were Pandits.
He is the first American to say that before the exodus the total population of Pandits in the valley was over four lakhs and it had decreased to just 4,000 at present.Therefore,he wants a campaign against foreign militants and foreign terrorist organisations so that peace was established in the South Asian region facilitating the Pandits not only to return to their land of birth but also to come out of the painful spell of deprivation and frustration.
Will Washington listen to Pollone?It depends on the latest turn the US-Islamabad relations take.If he two sides fail to reduce the trust deficit Washington may lend support to New Delhi's stand on the Kashmir issue.
Even the leaders of the Hindu American Foundation have been pleased over the role Pollone has played while introducing the resolution on the Kashmiri Pandits because they know it fully well that during the last two decades the US policy makers have done little for ameliorating the lot of the displaced people.Had Washington intervened things would have been different for the Pandit community.It did not do anything as it preferred cordial ties with Islamabad to thinking about the problem of Kashmiri Pandits.( |
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