Police on Friday took JKlF chairman Yasin Malik and his associates into custody after they attempted to hold a sit-in in Srinagar against the Central Government’s plans to rehabilitate displaced Kashmiri Pandits in “composite towns” in Kashmir Valley. Barricades were put to halt the advances of protesting JKlF activists towards the lal Chowk area, the commercial hub of Srinagar.
Malik and hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani called for protests after the midday prayers on Friday and extending their protest with a daylong shutdown on Saturday. All separatist groups, including their militant fronts like United Jehad Council and Hizbul Mujahideen have supported shutdown call on Saturday.
The Central Government took up the issue of resettlement of displaced Kashmiri pandits in Kashmir with newly-appointed Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed earlier this week in New Delhi. While the Union Home Ministry said the process for rehabilitation of displaced Pandits in “composite townships” have been initiated, the Jammu & Kashmir Government clarified that the Pandits would not be relocated in “exclusive colonies”.
“I want to clarify that there is no plan for separate homeland (for Kashmiri pandits). There should be no noise and rumors that separate colonies are being established for the migrant community,” Mufti said in legislative Assembly. “We will not take any decision in haste. We will take all stakeholders on board. We want to see a garden with different flowers,” he said adding “no Israel-type colonies would be established in Kashmir”.
Mufti’s clarification did not impress the separatists. Malik and his associates shouted slogans against the “exclusive colonies”.
“Alahida colony, manzoor nahi (separate colony is unacceptable). Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq appealed to the pandits on behalf of Kashmiri Muslims to return to Kashmir valley to live along-with the Muslim brethren.
“On behalf of Kashmiri Muslims I make an ardent appeal to the Kashmiri pandits Community to not look towards the Government but to look towards Kashmiri Muslim Community and wholly and solely trust fellow Kashmiri Muslim community to welcome them back to their homes, to their rightful places.”
Addressing a large gathering at jamia Masjid here, Mirwaiz said the Kashmiri pandits should look at their fellow members, who either stayed back or returned to the valley and seek their advice on the issue. He said Kashmiri Pandits should understand that successive Governments at the Centre have exploited their suffering for furthering their own agendas, as is clear from the security-centric and communal thinking approach of the RSS and the BJP that is at play right now. Mirwaiz said the three identified places for Pandit rehabilitation would be open to settlement of people from other places of India.
“This move is in keeping with New Delhi’s agenda of settling outsiders to change the demographic composition of the State,” Mirwaiz said.
A leader of Geelani-led Hurriyat Merajuddin said no person is against the return of Kashmiri pandits as they were a part of the Kashmiri society “but communal forces of India, on the pretext of their return, want to make another Palestine in Jammu & Kashmir and they want to divide the people of Kashmir on religious lines”.