The Panun Kashmir (PK), an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, on Thursday claimed that their forced exodus and ethnic cleansing remain unattended in an appropriate political context even though the world was observing the 70th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, President of the PK, while talking to media persons regretted that while the world is observing the Human Rights Week in connection with the 70th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community is continuing to live as refugees in their own country.

“It is a travesty of human rights history for the last 70 years that a peaceful community of Kashmir, the members of which form the indigenous population of Kashmir –the Kashmiri Pandits, were brutally thrown out of their homeland by the Islamic terrorists and their cohorts about three decades ago.

“Their forced exodus and ethnic cleansing remain unattended till date in an appropriate political context. Despite the National Human Rights Commission describing their tragedy as ‘acts akin to a genocide committed against them’ and as ‘a genocide type design against them,’ the governments for the last 20 years preferred to be in a deep slumber on this subject,” said Chrungoo.

Chrungoo alleged that the governments’ hibernation on the issue has emboldened the fundamentalist-secessionist-terrorist combine to spread their network throughout the length and breadth of the country over the last 25 years. It has assumed the proportion of a ‘devil monster’ hell bent upon to destroy the social and political milieu of the Indian society plus the security scenario of the nation is also at a challenge all the time.

He said the hapless minorities have all along faced apartheid and discrimination at the hands of the monolithic and communal elements in the politico-administrative set-up of the J&K State since 1947 besides genocidal actions at the hands of the Islamic terror regime having full support from Pakistan. We would also urge the Human Rights bodies and particularly the State Human Rights Commission of the State to take appropriate action on matters of human rights concern regarding the minority sections of the Jammu and Kashmir state, he added.

Virender Raina, Chairman, Political Affairs Committee of the PK, appreciated the decision of the Governor regarding the J&K Bank. There is a public perception that the J&K Bank serves the cause of a privileged class of the society in the state in the matter of recruitment, promotion, financial transactions, loan disbursement, or other social initiatives. It is presumed that the Bank operates for the benefit of a few at the cost of the public money, Raina added.