Sharma arrives in Jammu, meets Pandits

Tribune News Service/ PTI

Jammu, November 24

The Centre’s special representative on Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma today visited the Jagti township, the largest settlement of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits here, and met people to understand their problems.

He visited several households in the area where people apprised him of their problems, officials said. Sharma, who visited Srinagar and Jammu earlier this month, will be in the state for the next four days.

Sharma met nearly 15 delegations of displaced Kashmir Pandits at Jagti township in Jammu. Earlier upon reaching Jammu, he straightway went to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s residence, where he had a 25-minute meeting with her.

Sharma’s meeting with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is significant as the Central government has already initiated a slew of measures, including amnesty for first-time stone throwers, to improve the situation in the Kashmir valley.

The officials said Sharma would also meet people who came from West Pakistan immediately after Partition in 1947 and settled in Jammu. There are nearly three lakh such people.

Besides, he will visit camps housing those displaced from their homes in border villages to understand their plight and ensure that they are properly rehabilitated.

Around 60,000 Kashmiri Pandit families migrated in 1990 after the onset of militancy. Of these, 39,000 families live in various camps in Jammu.

Discusses with Governor geopolitical developments

Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre’s special representative on J&K, met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan for over an hour in Jammu on Friday. They discussed the significant geopolitical developments in the region since the latter’s last visit to the state.

Pandits want to return to Kashmir with ‘dignity’

Even as the Centre has ruled out composite township for displaced Pandits in the Valley, all delegations which met Dineshwar Sharma demanded settlement in Kashmir. Pandit representatives demanded return to their native places with “dignity and honour”.