Kashmiri Pandit organisation flags ‘revived existential threat' to community in Valley, warns of permanent relocation
SRINAGAR: A Kashmiri Pandit organisation on Wednesday threatened permanent migration of the community from
Kashmir Valley
, if immediate security cover around their settlements and religious sites is not provided.
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'We are seriously concerned and pained to the core with the recent intelligence reports suggesting an imminent danger to Kashmiri Pandits and non-Muslim migrant labourers in Kashmir Valley,'
Sanjay Tickoo
, president of
Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti
(KPSS), said. 'A report that The Resistance Front (TRF) is orchestrating targeted retaliatory strikes in the wake of the razing of nine terror-linked houses is a spine-chilling reminder that the tiny religious minority in Kashmir is forever hostages to the guns of both the state and non-state actors,' he added.
While asking J&K and Union govts to and acknowledge the specific threat profile of Kashmiri Pandits and implement community-specific protection regimes, Tickoo, who has been a leading voice of the community for over three decades, said, 'If a single member of our community is harmed or targeted in this new cycle of coordinated terror, we will have no choice but to relocate from the Valley permanently.'
KPSS takes up the causes of Kashmiri Pandits who stayed back in the Valley even after the exodus of the community in 1990 when widespread insurgency broke out in the Valley.
'For 35 years, the non-migrant
Kashmiri Pandit community
has stood its ground — often defying death, discrimination and deliberate exclusion — not as tourists or outsiders, but as legitimate stakeholders and indigenous inhabitants of this land. Yet, today the community finds itself orphaned once again in the national conscience,' Tickoo said.
Alleging that 'the so-called candle march brigades' have not lifted a finger or spoken a word to recognise the renewed existential threat to the community, he said: 'Let it be amply clear that a callous attitude on part of either the Union govt or the local administration is no longer an option.
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Prevention, protection and proactive safeguarding measures are the only workable options left. This is not just about increased deployment of quick reaction teams or increased security measures; this is about making our right to life, dignity and presence in our own ancestral land non-negotiable.'
'The Kashmiri Pandit community has maintained the civilisational spirit of Kashmir for centuries. But if the State lets us down once again, history will note not only the silence of our oppressors but also the indifference of those constitutionally bound to defend us,' Tickoo said.
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