Kashmiri pandits submit MoU to Modi for their safe return to Valley

A delegation of Kashmiri Pandits today submitted a memorandum to Narendra Modi seeking their return to the Valley even as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said efforts should be "redoubled" for their safe and dignified rehabilitation.

 

"Today see the start of the 25th year that Kashmiri Pandits had to flee their homes in the valley. Words will never be enough. Nor should they be," Omar wrote on micro-blogging website Twitter.

 

"Time to redouble efforts to create conditions where their sense of security is restored and Pandits can consider returning," he tweeted.

 

Earlier, a delegation of Jammu and Kashmir Vichar Manch comprising Sanjay Ganjoo and Manoj Bhan and other Kashmiri Pandits met the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, dressed in their traditional attire and submitted a memorandum.

 

"Neither the Central nor the State government drew any clear policy for return and restitution of Kashmiri displaced people, Prime Minister's Kashmir package contains not a single word about the political dimensions of return of the displaced Hindus. The scattered return module in clusters is a separatist elite strategy therefore stands rejected," the memorandum said.

 

Modi, after meeting the delegation, said in his twitter "injustice to Kashmiri Pandits is not only an attack on their rights but an attack on our national ideal of Sarva Pantha Sambhav.

 

"No words will ever explain the extent of suffering Kashmiri Pandits experienced. Justice toward the community remains our firm commitment," Modi tweeted.

 

On this day in 1990, hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit families had migrated from the Kashmir Valley due to increase of militancy leaving behind their properties and valuables. PTI SKL