Kashmiri Pandits hit out at Pak, separatists

Jammu: Kashmiri Pandits (KP) on Friday hit out at Pakistan over its objection to settlement of the community in Kashmir, saying it has no locus-standi to dictate terms to India.

The KPs also said that if separatists and mainstream political leaders of Kashmir decide when and how KPs settle, the Pandit community would decide how they have to live and settle outside Kashmir. Pakistan's foreign ministry had on Friday termed the proposed resettlement of Kashmiri Pandit community in the Valley as a ploy of India to change the demography of the only Muslim majority state in India. "Any effort to create special dedicated townships or zones, or any other step to alter the demographic make-up of Jammu and Kashmir, is in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions," its spokeswoman, Tasneem Aslam had said.

Rejecting the statement, President of the Panun Kashmir Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo said, "Her statement is absolutely absurd and uncalled for. Pakistan has no locus standi in the affairs related to the resettlement of the Pandits and it has no business to interfere in the internal matters of the Indian state."

National spokesman of the All Party Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) King Bharti said while Pakistan has settled non-Kashmiri's in Kashmir under its occupation, it was objecting to India's plan of resettling the aborigines of Indian Kashmir.