Qaisar Mansoor
India is planning to change the Muslim majority status of illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir into a minority under the garb of rehabilitation of Pandits.
IIndia is constructing separate colonies to settle non-locals in the Kashmir Valley in the guise of Pandits’ rehabilitation, said a report
Indian government is rehabilitating Kashmiri Pundit families back to Kashmir. These families were displaced in the wake of unrest during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is widely believed that this exodus was orchestrated by the Indian government so it could use it as a pretext to garner domestic support in favor of large scale military operation to quell freedom movement.
Now, Indian government is rehabilitating these Pundit families back to Kashmir, with substantial rewards, to bring about demographic change in the Kashmir valley. Indian government is channeling all its energies, cunningness and resources to subdue Kashmir but it remains resistant and resilient. According to the Indian government, 3800 Kashmiri Pundit families have been rehabilitated. 44000 Kashmiri Pundit families receive INR/- 13000 per month. 6000 jobs have been created for Kashmiri Pundit families; out of which, 3800 have already been given.
Interestingly, after the Gujarat riots, the displaced Muslim families were given a stipend of only INR/- 500 and that too was discontinued shortly thereafter and their camps were forcefully shut down. It shows the status of Indian Muslims who are treated as ‘second-class citizens’. The exodus of Kashmiri Pundit families from Kashmir Valley is a controversial issue. On one side, there are stories of thousands of Pundits who left the valley during the insurgency erupted in IIOJK in 1989, suggesting that the community suffered enough intimidation to abandon their homes.
On the other hand, accounts of Kashmiri Pundits who stayed behind in Kashmir contradict claims by Pundits in the diaspora who say that Kashmiri Pundits suffered ‘a genocide’ and were forced ‘into exile’. Many scholars believe that the government of India orchestrated Hindu-Muslim riots.
As it was a time when Kashmir was facing ‘intifada’ and Kashmiri youth took up arms against occupying Indian forces. Owing to the timing (political power struggle) and suspicious circumstances of killings which were never properly inquired to identify the killers there was a popular belief that the killings were state-sponsored and politically motivated.
