Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Tuesday held a dialogue with a group of visiting Pandits and discussed the process to start their return and re-assimilation in the Valley.
“I assured the visiting Pandits that all Kashmiri Muslims want them to come back and live together as before. Kashmir belongs to them as much as it does to those who did not leave,” said the Mirwaiz.
The delegation of Pandits was led by Satish Kumar and Nathil Razdan. Hundreds of migrant Pandits are in the Valley in connection with Mela Kheer Bhawani, which concluded on Monday.
The Mirwaiz said he would help in “building a consensus among all the segments of people and will try to bring others on board too”. “We have decided to stay in touch and work on the idea to concretise it further,” he said.
The Pandits expressed their desire “to live in all-community colonies and opposed segregated enclosures”.
“Land prices are much high than before and individual plots and homes may not be affordable. Each district of the Valley should allocate land for affordable flats. Members of other communities can also buy flats there. We do not want segregation but want to live together,” the delegation told the Mirwaiz.
Hundreds of Pandit families migrated in the face of raging militancy in the 1990s. While many set up houses in Jammu, hundreds of families are still living in different parts of the country.
