Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minster Mehbooba Mufti said that there would be no separate colony for non-state subject ex-servicemen, and that transit accommodations would be constructed for Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants, until they return to their native places in the State Assembly on 28 May.
Mufti said that the migrants could only be sent back to their native places once the situation was conducive, adding:
If the political workers who have shifted from villages to Srinagar city are not ready to go back to their native places, how can you expect Kashmiri Pandits to go back to their native place at this point of time?
Mufti said that construction of transit accommodations was among recommendations made by the Prime Minister’s Working Group, formed in 2005, and it will be for Muslim and Sikh migrants too.
She said:
We will bring back Kashmiri Pandits with respect, we will live together here (Kashmiri Pandits ko baizzat laayenge, yahan saath milkar rahenge)
On the alleged setting up of a Sainik (Ex-servicemen) Colony in the Valley, the Chief Minister said up to this moment, no land, whatsoever, has been identified for this purpose.
Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister, had suggested on 27 May that the CM had agreed to the composite colonies proposal.
She (Mehbooba Mufti) said she too wants that Kashmiri Pandits come (to JK) and there is no problem in having composite colonies.Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister
The proposal for separate sainik and migrant colonies was met with resistance from previously divided Kashmiri separatists – Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yaseen Malik – who agreed to unite together against the separate colony proposal.
(With agency inputs)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)