Jammu, Sept 25 Panun Kashmir has described the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits in the early 1990s as the community’s “seventh exodus” and “seventh cycle of genocide”, asserting that repeated displacement, dispossession and cultural disruption underline the need for a permanent political and constitutional settlement in the Valley.
Panun Kashmir convener Agnishekhar said the crisis cannot be viewed as an isolated episode or reduced merely to rehabilitation and return.
Panun Kashmir is an organisation advocating the cause of displaced Kashmiri Pandits and demanding a separate homeland with the Union territory.
“This is our seventh exodus and seventh cycle of Jatividhvans (eradication). The significance is not merely numerical. It represents, in our understanding, a recurring historical pattern involving loss of life and property, displacement, disruption of institutions and erosion of the indigenous Kashmiri Hindu presence in its ancestral homeland,” he told reporters.
He said the concept of “Jatividhvans” provides an Indic framework through which the consequences of repeated displacement could be understood in their broader historical and civilisational context.
“The Kashmiri Pandit experience cannot be reduced to rehabilitation statistics only. It involves questions of identity, cultural continuity, property, institutions, justice and preservation of a community’s relationship with its ancestral homeland and return with comprehensive and permanent retention precisely in the context of the Margdarshan Resolution,” Agnishekhar said.
He said coexistence cannot be reduced to temporary arrangements that could be altered or withdrawn.
Panun Kashmir chairman Tito Ganju reiterated that the organisation’s principal political demand remained the creation of “Panun Kashmir” as a separate, secure and constitutionally protected homeland in the Valley, with guarantees for security, dignity, cultural continuity, political rights and the collective existence of Kashmiri Pandits.
“The seventh exodus must be the last. History has demonstrated the limitations of temporary assurances and arrangements. We seek a permanent political and constitutional settlement that guarantees security, identity, rights and continuity in the homeland,” Ganju said.
He said any discussion on return must place justice, restitution and security at its centre.
“Return cannot be treated merely as an administrative exercise involving housing, employment and resettlement. The fundamental questions are what happened, what rights were lost, what justice is required and what institutional arrangements can ensure non-recurrence,” he said.
Ganju said voluntary return should take place only under conditions of safety and dignity, with the creation of a separate homeland as envisaged in the Margdarshan Resolution of 1991. He said reconciliation could not become a substitute for justice or constitutional safeguards.
“Reconciliation is possible between parties who have quarrelled. It cannot mean overlooking allegations of killings, destruction of homes, desecration of religious places or sexual violence. Those accused of crimes must be dealt with through due process of law. Justice and accountability are essential foundations for mitigating the sufferings of the genocide-inflicted community,” Ganju said.
Panun Kashmir reiterated its demands for recognition of what it describes as the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, enactment of the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Bill, 2020, accountability for alleged atrocity crimes, restitution of properties, restoration and protection of temples and cultural heritage, comprehensive reparations, political and constitutional safeguards, and enforceable guarantees of non-recurrence.
“The objective cannot simply be a physical return. It must mean security, institutions, cultural identity, political rights and dignity for displaced Kashmiri Pandits in a separate homeland. The seventh exodus must be the last. The cycle of Jatividhvans must end through recognition, justice, security and a permanent constitutional settlement, i.e., Panun Kashmir, as envisaged in the Margdarshan Resolution,” Ganju said.
(PTI News)
