Will bring back Pandits: Farooq

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 12

National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said the Kashmiri Pandit community was an “essential element of the cultural milieu” of the Valley and will be brought back.

“The need of the hour is to defeat vested interests that are hell bent to create a wedge between the two communities,” he said while addressing a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits at his residence here.

The party president and former Chief Minister also said that despite the turbulence of the past few decades, “the cultural equation of brotherhood and camaraderie stand as strong as they were for the last several decades”.

“Whole of Kashmir belongs as much to Pandits as it does to Muslims. We have been trying our best to bring back the community to the Valley. Many effective employment schemes were doled out during the Omar Abdullah-led government to help the community to settle back in Kashmir,” he said.

Farooq blamed the previous BJP-PDP state government for not being “able to carry forward the momentum of the good work done until 2014”. “Once in power, we will rejuvenate the efforts of bringing them back to their homes with dignity,” he said.