Panun Kashmir hails revocation of J&K's special status

Panun Kahsmir, an organisation representing displaced Kashmiri Hindus, on Wednesday welcomed the Centre's decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and create two Union territories out of it.

The organisation had been demanding for over three decades creation of an Union territory in the Kashmir valley as homeland of displaced kashmiri Hindus.

"We welcome it. We are happy that the government of India has now taken the cognisance of the Panun Kashmir's campaign and its struggle spread over three decades across the country and abroad," said the outfit's convenor Agni Shakhar.

The government has rightly realised the "dangerous implications" of continuing with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 270 and 35-A of the Constitution, he added.

He said Panun Kashmir shall lend all possible support to the Centre in its endeavour to "dismantle the existing separatist and militant structures in the newly-created Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir".

"We demand that immediate consultations must be initiated by the government of India in this direction and take us on board to finalise the rehabilitation plan for the victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir," he said.

Shakher said the Panun Kashmir appeals to the government to "abandon the half-separatist administrative mechanisms" and put in its place a "nation-building policy paradigm".

"Panun Kashmir demands creation of a centrally-administered area for the rehabilitation of seven lakh Kashmiri Hindus in the north and east of river Vitasta (Jehlum) in Kashmir," he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Panun Kashmir's chairperson Ajay Chrungoo said by stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and dividing the state into two Union territories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have "liberated the people of the state from the servitude of a Muslim state".

"Both of them have become liberators of enslaved non-Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir. No praise is sufficient enough to acknowledge the importance of their epoch- making decisions," he said.