KL Report
SRINAGAR
Asserting that few migrant pandits are hell bent to malign the Muslim population of the valley National Front chairman, and Hurriyat (JK) leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan Tuesday said that Muslims had nothing to with the migration of pandits and it was the then Governor of J&K Jagmohan who forced Kashmiri Pandits to leave the valley.
According to a statement Nayeem Khan was addressing a party meeting to commemorate the martyrs of Gawkadal massacre. He said that sincere pandits should react against those who have started a campaign since two days against the valley Muslims.
“The Panun Kashmir like so called pandit representative organisations are working on the behest of Indian agencies and the same kind of elements are responsible for the pandit migration,” Nayeem Khan said.
He added that pandits have imposed self exile on themselves and it is the people like Panun Kashmir who are creating problems in their return, otherwise the whole population of Kashmir is ready to welcome their Pandit brethren.
“Did not the people who have started a campaign against the Muslims see the massacres like Gawkadal, Kupwara, Islamabad, Bijbehara, Baramulla, Sopore and so on,” Nayeem Khan asked. He added that Kashmiri Pandits who did not migrate are a best answer to the “paid agents” like in Panun Kashmir.
While paying glowing tributes to the martyrs of Gawkadal on the eve of their anniversary, Nayeem Khan said that Kashmir is a land of tragedies where forces committed massacres on every nook and corner.
“The Irony is that the killers involved in these massacres have not been dealt with as per law instead they have been promoted for killing Kashmiri Muslims,” Nayeem Khan said he asked, “Is not the conscience of Panun Kashmir people enough alive to condemn the Gawkadal massacre.”
He said that more than 50 innocent people were killed in Gawkadal area of Srinagar on January 21 in 1990 when Indian forces resorted to indiscriminate firing on peaceful demonstrators who were protesting against the molestation of several women by troops, the previous night.
Nayeem Khan said that during the last three decades more than one lakh Kashmiri people have been killed. He appealed to the international human rights organizations to play their role in conducting impartial investigation into the incidents of all massacres in the territory to punish the perpetrators.
Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Indian state Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, has revealed that the then Governor of Kashmir, Jagmohan Malhotra, had forced the Kashmiri Pandits to leave the Kashmir Valley in 1990. “Kashmiri Pandits were unnecessarily forced to leave the Valley by Jagmohan. Hindus and Muslims lived together for Centuries in Kashmir,” Singh wrote on microblogging site Twitter.
Senior Congress leader, Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his book titled, ‘Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist’ has written in details how Jagmohan gave a safe passage to the Kashmiri Pandits to Jammu before unleashing terror in the Kashmir Valley.
A day after Kashmiri Pandits migrated to Jammu, the troops of Indian Central Reserve Police Force fired upon peaceful protesters in Gaw Kadal in Srinagar on January 21, 1990. Though official figures put the number of fatalities at 21, human rights groups say 51 persons were killed in the massacre. Sopore massacre of 50 civilians on January 6 in 1993 and the troops of India’s Border Security Force set afire more than 500 shops and houses in Sopore town. Handawara massacre on January 25, 1994, and Kupwara massacre on January 27, 1994
In April 2014, National Conference leader, Omar Abdullah, also blamed Jagmohan for exodus of Pandits from the Valley. He had stated that the exodus of Pandits from Kashmir took place under Jagmohan, who was appointed Governor by the Indian government, which was supported by BJP.