Kashmiri Pandits living in Delhi held a protest at Jantar Mantar on World Refugee Day on Saturday. The protesters demanded a homeland, separated from the North Indian State, for the displaced Pandits in the country.
“We want creation of a homeland of Panun Kashmir as a union territory within the Kashmir valley to the north-east of the river, Vitasta,” they said.
Raising slogans against the Centre for not taking up their cause and not declaring the exiled Kashmiri Pandits as internally displaced persons as per the United Nations conventions, they said that they continue to be called migrants.
“We aren’t migrants because we never left our home on our will. We were forced out, killed, and beaten. We have been living in exile for over 25 years. It was genocide,” said Rupesh Pandita, secretary, Panun Kashmir.
A memorandum was submitted to the Prime Minister and the President with their key demands, including a permanent return of Hindus to the valley and arrest of the terrorists.
“The government seems to be guarding them. The people who killed our people without any personal enmity are rewarded by the government of J&K,” said Nalin Kaul, a protestor.
“We aren’t migrants because we never left our home on our will. We have been in exile for over 25 years”
