27-Yr in exile, KPs return finds place in Assembly resolution

Separate safe settlement not acceptable: Geelani

Jammu Tawi, Jan 20: Even after twenty seven years of displacement and miseries the Kashmiri Pandits and others who were forces to flee Kashmir Valley under the gun, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has passed a resolution on respectable return of KPs to Kashmir.

Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani said on Friday that a separate settlement for displaced Kashmiri Pandits would be “unacceptable”.

In a statement issued after the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed a resolution for the return of displaced Pandits to the Valley, the hardline separatist leader said their return was welcome, but a separate colony for them was not.

“We will welcome return of Pandits to the Valley. However any separate colony for their settlement is unacceptable,” Geelani said, as he called the resolution a “gimmick”.

He said Pandits were “part of our society and we have always asked them to return and we will welcome if they are willing to settle within us and in our society”.

“However, we will resent any decision about separate colonies and it will be opposed by one and all.”

In a significant development on Thursday, the Assembly passed a resolution for creating “conducive atmosphere” for Kashmiri Pandits return 27 years after militancy forced them to flee the Valley.

On Friday, the legislative council passed the resolution unanimously.

The state government has said that it would set up transit camps for the displaced community.