Resettlement of Kashmiri pandits purely political issue: KPOs

The issue of Kashmiri pandits' resettlement is a pure political issue and can be resolved only at a political level, the Joint Forum of Kashmiri Pandit Organisations (KPOs) today said.
"The issue of Kashmiri Pandit community's resettlement is a pure political issue and can be solved only at a political level," official spokesperson of the Joint Forum Virender Raina said in a statement here today.
The community has been a victim of... Mass exodus due to fundamentalism and terrorism, he said, adding the successive governments failed to address the issues of the displaced community, he said.
The sops like economic packages for return to the valley ... Is an attempt to trivialise the basic issue, he said, adding there is a paramount need to shun the policy paralysis attitude and come out with a new thinking on the subject.

"As a first important measure, we ask the government to establish a commission of enquiry that will go into the details of mass exodus and fix the responsibilities," he said.
"The report of National Human Rights Commission on genocide can be the basis for such an enquiry," Raina said, alleging that the socio-political conditions that existed in Kashmir at the time of the exodus have not changed much since.

While on the one hand the DGP of the Jammu and Kashmir state and GoC of the Northern Command are preparing for combating al-Qaida, on the other hand Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist groups are quite active and engaged in terror activities all over the valley, he said.

As a confidence building measure, the government should immediately take up the issue of the encroachments of the properties of the Kashmiri Pandits and temples in Kashmir and announce special job package for the youth without conditions and also compensation for the overaged youth of the community, he said.
The meeting was among others attended by president, Panun Kashmir, Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, senior vice president, ASKPC, R K Raina, president, AIKPC, H N Jattu and others, it said.