No separate settlements for Kashmiri Pandits: Grand Mufti

Majlis Itihad-e-Milat, a group of religious organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, Thursday cautioned the Centre against any move to create separate settlements for migrant Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.

The group, however, said the Pandits were welcome to return and settle at their ancestral places.

"Kashmiri Pandits are an important part of our society. They are welcome to return to the Valley and settle at their ancestral places or any other place alongside their Muslim brothers.

"But the move to create separate settlements for them in the Valley would have serious consequences," Mufti Bashir-ud-Din, the group's president, told the media here. Mufti Bashir-ud-Din is also the Grand Mufti of Kashmir.

Majlis Itihad-e-Milat is a joint representative forum of about a dozen religious organisations, including Jamat-e-Islami, Jamiat-e-Ahli Hadees and Anjuman-e-Sharia Shian.

Besides, the Grand Mufti said in order to implement the plan to settle the migrant Pandits under security cover, 850 hectares of land had been identified in a design to divide the Kashmiri society on religious lines.

He accused the central government of planning to change the demography of the Valley by planning to settle RSS workers in the garb of Kashmiri Pandits under the scheme.