India warned against separate cities for pandits in IOK

Srinagar, July 04, 2014 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the Majlis Itihad-e-Millat Jammu and Kashmir, an umbrella body of prominent religious organisations, has warned the Indian government against creating separate settlements for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.

Mufti Bashir-ud-Din Farooqi, head of the Majlis, while addressing a press conference in Srinagar said that the Indian government had drafted a sinister plan to settle the Kashmiri Pandits in separate zones for which about 17,000 kanals of land had been identified at three different spots in the Kashmir Valley.

He said that the move would be resisted tooth and nail and also threatened to launch a mass movement against imposing Hindi language in the territory, which he termed was a conspiracy against Urdu language. He said that the Pandit community was welcome to return to the Valley. “They have lived among us for centuries, but we won’t allow their settlement in separate zones,” he added.

He claimed that India was planning to settle workers of Hindu extremist group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in the proposed colonies for the Pandits to change the demography of the territory.

Farooqi, who is also the grand mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, while rejecting the separate homeland proposal for rehabilitation of the Pandits said, “This is actually an anti-Muslim policy to divide Kashmiri society on communal lines.”

Heads and representatives of all constituent groups of the Majlis including Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami, Mohammad Abdulllah Wani, President of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, Professor Ghulam Mohammad Butt Al-Madni, President of Islamic Study Circle, Dr Yusuf-ul-Umar, representative of Anjuman-e-Sharie-Shian, Ghulam Mohammad Nagoo, founder of Tehreek-i-Imamia Kashmir, Ghulam Ali Gulzar, Principal Oriental College, Professor Tayib Kamili, General Secretary of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, Dr Abdul Latief Al-Kindi, representatives of Muslim Personal Law Board and Dawat-ul-Haq Tral, and spokesperson of Jamaat-e-Islami, Zahid Ali were also present during the press conference.

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