Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini, Kashmiri Sabha Dehradun and other groups staged a demonstration to observe displacement of Kashmiri Hindus as ‘Black Day’ here on Monday. A memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Kashmiri Sabha was also submitted to the district magistrate by the protesters.
The protesters gathered under the leadership of VHP city head Chandragupta Vikram and Kashmiri Sabha head Suresh Kumar Dhar at the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Park. Addressing the gathering, Vikram said that in 1990 the Kashmiri Pandits living in the Kashmir valley were forced to leave behind their homes, lands, ancestral properties, jobs and businesses and migrate to other parts of the country.
“More than seven lakh Kashmiri Pandits who amounted to more than 95 per cent of Hindus in Kashmir have been living in poor conditions for many years now following their exodus from the valley fuelled by religious fanaticism abetted by Pakistan. As a result, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits have been forced to live like refugees in their own nation,” he pointed out.
Speaking at the protest, the Kashmiri Sabha Dehradun head SK Dhar said that the torture meted out to Kashmiri Pandits in the last six months of 1989 and first six months of 1990 are known to all. “Ironically, even 25 years after their exodus from Kashmir, neither the Jammu and Kashmir Government nor the Government of India have seriously considered the problems of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits. Due to this the properties, religious monuments and pilgrimage centres left behind by the Kashmiri Pandits have been destroyed or taken over,” he said.
Bajrang Dal district coordinator Amit Tomar stressed on the need for standing in solidarity with the displaced Kashmiri Pandits. “The State Government should maintain the properties they were forced to leave behind till they are honourably resettled in Kashmir,” he stressed. The protesters later rallied to the Collectorate where they submitted a memorandum to the PM through the DM.