Kashmir unrest: Govt insensitive towards minorities in state, says Sikh body

Adds that hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit employees working in Kashmir were forced to leave the Valley

The central and state governments have been insensitive towards the plight of minorities in Kashmir, including Sikhs and Pandits, during the current unrest, an umbrella body of various Sikh organisation today claimed.

"It is unfortunate that minorities, including Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs, Gujjars, Shias and other such groups who are the victim of the ongoing unrest in the Valley are being ignored not only by the state government but also by the central government," Guru Manyo Granth Society chairman Rinku Singh said here.

He said hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit employees working in Kashmir were forced to leave the Valley after their transit camps were attacked.

On one hand, minorities in Kashmir were facing threats and on the other the state and central governments have "forsaken" them, he said.

"Sikhs are forced by protesters to come out and join them and if they don't they are harassed that their houses would be burned," Singh claimed.

Singh, however, acknowledged that a handful members from the Sikh community were playing in the hands of separatists.

"There are some self-proclaimed Sikh leaders, who have become stooges of separatist leadership and are speaking in unison with them for their vested interests," he said.

Extending support to the agitation by the Kashmiri Pandit employees, who have been protesting outside the office of Relief Commissioner Jammu for over a month, Singh said had it been the members from the majority community government would have had their issues resolved.

Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that the areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were an integral part of India, Singh said it was the minority community who suffered the worst when tribals aided by the Pakistan Army attacked Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.