With five pro-Pakistan militant outfits imposing ban on their return to their hearths and homes in Kashmir Valley, there is a big question mark over Jammu and Kashmir government's moves to bring back Kashmiri Pandits who have entered in the 16-year of exile.
"Our hope to return to Kashmir Valley in September-October this year has died as five pro-Pak militant outfits have banned our return process to Valley completely," Battal-Ballian migrant camp dweller Roshan Lal Raina told PTI.
Raina, whose family is enlisted in the first batch of Kashmiri Pandits for their return to the Valley's Sheikhpora migrant flats, said, "he would not go there to die now. We will become target in the crossfire between government, separatists and militants."
Like him, hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits hopes for return to the Valley, which had touched a high note after state government's initiative and Hurriyat Conference-Pandits' meet, has been punctured by the threats of militants last month.
In April this year, J-K government had announced return of migrants to newly constructed colonies for the Pandits at Shiekhpora on the outskirts to Srinagar city by July end.
In this direction, J-K government took a 42-member Pandits' delegation to Kashmir for interaction and assessing the security situation for a week from June 24. It was followed by Hurriyat-Pandit meet in Srinagar on July 19.
The pro-Pakistani terror outfits, al-Badr, al-Monsareen, al-Nasreen, Save Kashmir Movement, Hidiat-ul-Kaleefa slapped blanket ban on the return of Pandits to the Valley on July 22.
The threat of ban by militant outfits against Pandits's return to the Valley is nothing new. In June 2002, powerful Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) had done it.
"It has virtually given a setback not only to our return to Kashmir Valley but also government and separatist’s initiatives for speeding up the process of return of Pandits to the Valley," Pandit leaders said.
"Why we did not respond to the government or Hurriyat’s invitations is due to the fact that gun still dictates the language of insurgency in Kashmir Valley," top leaders of the Panun Kashmir, All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC), Kahmir Samaj, PKM, AIKPC and Kashmiri Samiti said.
The top leaders, including A N Vaishnavi, Ajay Charangoo, Ashwani Kumar, R L Bhat, R K Bhat, H L Chatta, Agni Shakher, have now converged on one platform to intensify the movement of "home land" for 3 lakh Pandits within Kashmir Valley and rejected the moves by Hurriyat and government to bring them back.
"Militants cannot stop us from living in our motherland and we will go there on our own condition of homeland with Union territory status and free flow of the Indian Constitution," said a declaration signed by All Pandits' outfits on August 3 conclave.
Besides, there are various factors which have contributed to the despondency among the community. "Failure" of the government to formulate a complete plan as promised in its manifesto and various statements issued by Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed and his colleagues reiterating their policy of taking Pandits back to their homes and hearths.
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