KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
J&K High Court Bar Association Srinagar Friday reiterated its stand against the proposed setting up separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits and colonies for ex-army men.
It termed the proposals “to be a sinister design for changing the demography of the State and reduce its Muslim majority character”.
In an Executive Committee meeting held today, a Bar statement said, “it was unanimously stated that Kashmiri Pandits are part and parcel of the Kashmiri culture and they can live in Kashmir where they were living before and as they have migrated from Kashmir of their own, they should therefore comeback of their own.”
“There are about ten thousand Kashmiri Pandits living at present in Kashmir and when they are not asking for any separate clusters for their settlement and they are peacefully living with their Kashmiri Muslim brethren at their native places, therefore, any Kashmiri Pandit willing to return to Kashmir, will surely be welcomed by his Muslim brethren,” the statement quoted minutes of the meeting.
“The state subject law has already been neutralized through various enactments and even as of now any child born to a Kashmiri/Jammu/Ladakhi women married to a non-state subject enjoys the status of a permanent resident of J&K State and as on that basis anyone amongst them living in any part of the world can come and reside in the State it is but, natural that we should be vigilant about the same and not to allow him/them to settle in separate townships/colonies but to live in between their Muslim brethren, because if it is done otherwise, it would amount to the creating and building of a State within a State for some people, without any checks, curbs, limitations and restrictions of any kind on them. It was also stated that when for Kashmiri Muslims there are no separate townships in Jammu and other places, building such townships/clusters for Jammu Dogras is also unacceptable. The Jammu Dogras being the state subjects of the state, they too can live, anywhere, in the state, in the same manner in which Kashmiri Muslims are living in Jammu and other places. Construction of shelters for pavement dwellers, who are non-state subjects shall have dangerous fallout on the demography of the State, because once shelters are constructed for them and those shelters are leased or rented to them they will have necessarily to be provided with all kinds of facilities at the cost of Kashmiri Muslims,” the statement said.
The Bar Association decided, the statement said, “to oppose such nefarious designs and any policy devised by pro-freedom leadership in this behalf should be supported by the Bar Association.”
