JKLF protests townships for Kashmiri Pandits

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 18

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik, along with his party workers and supporters, today launched a 30-hour fast here today to protest the proposed separate settlements for migrant Kashmiri Pandits.

Malik was joined by social activist Swami Agnivesh and members of the minority community, including non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and Christians, as the separatist leader began his protest in the Maisuma neighbourhood of the city.

Talking to mediapersons, the JKLF chairman said Pandits were welcome to live with the majority community, as they did prior to their migration in 1990. He opposed the proposed isolated settlements for Pandits, dubbed as composite townships.

“Rulers want to divide us in the name of religion and are creating an atmosphere of constant fear and agony for Pandits who want to return,” Malik said. He said isolated settlements would create “walls of hatred” between the communities and compared those with Jewish settlements in Palestine.

The protesters were addressed by Manjeet Singh of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandak Committee, Christian priest Vino Koul, Pandit leader and educationist CL Vishu and Bushan Lal as well.

The state government’s nod to the Government of India’s proposal to construct composite townships had created a political storm in the region as separatists had opposed the idea.

They had warned that they would not allow such isolated settlements. They had accused the government of replicating the Israeli tactics of constructing separate settlements.

Swami Agnivesh, a former legislator from Haryana, attended Malik’s protest and advocated dialogue between the communities.

Agnivesh said the protest, for which members of various religious communities gathered, was a “clear message that they want to live together in a composite way and no one can stop them from doing so”.

Later, Malik and Agnivesh were briefly detained when they attempted to go to Narbal, a locality on the outskirts of the city, where a teenager was reportedly shot by the police during a demonstration.