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Kashmiri Pandits demand setting up of probe panel

Pandits used the occasion to make a plea to the government to set up a SCT and book those responsible for the crimes against the minorities in the state

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Kashmiri Pandits staging a sit-in protest outside Raj Bhavan, Jammu
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On the 29th 'Holocaust day', exiled Kashmiri Pandits stepped up their campaign for setting up the Special Crimes Tribunal (SCT), similar to the International Crimes Tribunal, to probe the killings and other excesses against the minority community that forced them to leave their homes and become refugees in their own land in 1990.

Several Pandit organisations under the aegis of Panun Kashmir staged a sit-in outside Raj Bhawan in Jammu to observe the 28th anniversary of the migration of lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits.

Pandits used the occasion to make a plea to the government to set up a SCT and book those responsible for the crimes against the minorities in the state.

"We appeal government of India to set up a Special Crimes Tribunal to probe the crimes committed against the minorities in Kashmir. We demand that the governments at the Centre and the state initiate a serious dialogue process with the representatives of the Kashmiri Pandit community for their resettlement in the Valley," said Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, President, Panun Kashmir.

Figures compiled by the state government reveal that 219 Kashmiri Pandits were killed in the state since 1990. Figures released by Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), an apex body of non-migrant Pandits, however, reveal that 677 Pandits have been killed by terrorists since 1990. The figures include the mass massacres of Kashmiri Pandits at different places at different times.

"Kashmiri Pandit community cannot afford to ignore the scars of history, and January 19 is an important date for the community to learn lessons for the future. We are deeply rooted in the ethos of Kashmir as a living civilisation, and the Kashmiri Pandits have an inalienable right on the land of Kashmir," said Chrungoo.

The demonstrators also used the occasion to renew their demand for homeland in the Valley with a union territory status. In a 1991 resolution, Panun Kashmir asked Centre to create a homeland comprising the regions to the East and North of river Jhelum for Kashmiri Pandits.

PANDIT POPULATION

Official figures reveal that around 41,117 migrant families from Kashmir are registered in Jammu, and 21,000 others in Delhi and other states across the country.

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