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| KP bodies united on one demand: Separate homeland | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 21: Carving out of separate homeland for over seven lakh displaced Pandits in Kashmir Valley is gaining momentum in the community, with KP diaspora settled outside the country too supporting the demand now.
This has become quite clear during the recently observance of Martyrs' Day by displaced KPs all over globe including various places in India as well Jammu on September 14 to pay tributes to Amar Shaheed Tika Lal Taploo, a towering KP leader and former vice president of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) who fell to the bullets of terrorists on this day in 1989 while daring to call terrorists as cowards "who attack people from hideouts, but by such cowardice acts they can't browbeat India which is powerful to crush terrorists as well as Pakistan."
Taploo made these remarks after the killing of NC leader Yousuf Halwai a day before his killing in Srinagar. He took the separatists and terrorists to task saying that India will not be cowed down by such heinous acts of terrorists.
Taploo was a leading lawyer of J&K High Court and a great social activist who helped Hindus as well as Muslim community alike and did not hesitate in offering free assistance in fighting the cases of poor people without any fee belonging to any community.
His killing was followed by selective killing of hundreds of members of KP community in 1989 and 1990 including massacres of Sangrampura in Budgam, Wandhama in Ganderbal, Telwani in Anantnag, Nadimarg in Shopian besides the members of Sikh community in Chattisingpora of Anantnag district.
The prominent KP leaders and social activists who fell to the bullets of terrorists included Amar Shaheed advocate Prem Nath Bhat, Sarwanand Koul Premi, a well-known poet and writer and his son, former Sessions Judge Neelkant Ganjoo, the then Director Radio Kashmir Srinagar, Lassa Koul, and many others. They forced the Pandits to flee the Valley by issuing open notices in Srinagar-based newspapers giving them a 24-hour ultimatum.
The displaced KPs who took refuge in Jammu and other parts of the country struggled for their survival and finding no way to return to the Valley which has totally been under the control of radical forces being directly controlled by Pakistan and its Inter Service Intelligence (ISI).
The Pandits through Margdarshan resolution in 1991 at Jammu gave a call for separate homeland for their resettlement in Valley which should be carved out on north eastern side of river Jhelum.
On the day a new organisation came into being which was mostly supported by the youth of community who vowed to take the demand to the logical conclusion and made it clear that no option except separate homeland within Valley with free flow of Indian Constitution was acceptable to them for their return and rehabilitation.
However the demand was opposed by some organisations of Pandits at initial stage which included some old KP organisations active in Valley for decades together. The Government of India as well as state government and main political parties of the country also rejected the demand. There was no unanimity among the Pandit organisations over the homeland demand and some organisations including All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) openly opposed it saying that whole Kashmir belonged to them.
The differences within the community over the issue and later the split in Panun Kashmir gave a setback to the momentum and it did not get such forceful support on ground which it needed for over a decade with different KP factions talking in different terms.
However the recent observance of the Martyrs' Day has revealed that the entire community has come to realise that the homeland was the only solution to their problem so far as the return and rehabilitation of displaced Pandits with honour and dignity is concerned.
The KPs who held demonstrations at different parts of country as well as abroad to observe the Martyrs' Day on September 14 openly supported the demand by sinking all their differences over the issue. It has been an unanimous opinion in the cross section of the community now that their return and rehabilitation in Kashmir was not possible unless and until the Pandits are not settled at a separate place within Valley as per the Margdarshan resolution of 1991.
The deans for homeland echoed from KP diaspora abroad and they too have realised that the Pandits settlement in Valley was not possible without the same. The KPs have also made Government of India aware of their demand a senior KP leader and protagonist of the demand said.
He said that GoI was told in unequivocal terms that nothing short of separate homeland was acceptable to Pandits and quadruplication of J&K was the only solution to Kashmir issue. |
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