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Kashmiri Pandits plan protests
KASHMIRI PANDITS have decided to stage protests against the second roundtable conference to be held in Srinagar on May 25. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to chair the conference.
KASHMIRI PANDITS have decided to stage protests against the second roundtable conference to be held in Srinagar on May 25. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to chair the conference.
Earlier, a Kashmiri Pandit representative was invited to the first round table conference held at the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi on February 25. But, he was not allowed to speak. Now, the community has been denied representation in the second round table conference.
Sources said the All India Kashmir Samaj had issued a circular to its units across the country to mobilise support for a protest at Srinagar on May
25.
“We have received a letter from the Delhi office of the All India Kashmiri Samaj, instructing us to mobilise support for the May 25 rally outside the round table conference venue in Srinagar,” Kashmiri Pandit Association (Varanasi) general secretary SL Dhar told Hindustan Times.
He said Kashmiri Hindus should reach Jammu on May 24 for their onward journey to Srinagar for the proposed protest on May 25. Kashmiri Pandit leaders were critical of the Union Government’s decision to invite all shades of terrorist organisations, who they maintained were responsible for death and destruction in Jammu and Kashmir.
“It is an insult to Kashmiri Pandits that while terrorist sympathisers are warmly welcomed, Kashmiri Hindus, who are true nationalists, are not allowed to join the conference. We were not allowed to speak at the first roundtable on February 25 at the Prime Minister’s residence. We should be allowed to express our views at the May 25 meeting,” another Kashmiri Pandit leader L N Dhar had said earlier.
Kashmiri Hindu leaders have already approached Union Minister for Minority Affairs AR Antulay and complained to him about the government’s decision not to allow their representatives to attend the second round table conference.
“We should be allowed to present our standpoint on Kashmir, our birth place from which terrorists have hounded us out,” Kashmiri leaders had told the Union minister.