Don't call us migrants, we are internally displaced: Pandits

Objecting to being called "migrants", an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits today said they were "internally displaced" people and demanded proper implementation of the Prime Minister's Rs 1,618 crore package for their rehabilitation.

Objecting to being called "migrants", an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits today said they were "internally displaced" people and demanded proper implementation of the Prime Minister's Rs 1,618 crore package for their rehabilitation.

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The organisation - All Kashmiri United Front - also demanded a "white paper on the exodus and killings" of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley in the early 1990s.

"We have lost faith in the administration. The government of India was responsible for our lives...we were deprived of our fundamental rights and nothing was done for it," AKUF General Secretary S K Ambardar told reporters in New Delhi.

"We want the Union of India to define our status. Calling us migrants is a wrong thing to do. We are not migrants, we are internally displaced," he said.

The organisation has asked the Indian government to utilise the funds already announced with further allocation to rehabilitate the community properly wherever they are and not "discriminate" such as in cases like appointments of teachers and demolition of the shops of the community members.

The AKUF recently approached the Delhi High Court to restore 21 shops to the displaced people which were demolished by the authorities.

"If our genuine needs are not fulfilled and our status not identified, we will be approaching the Supreme Court with a case against the Union government," Ambardar said.