SRINAGAR, INDIA, 6 September 2005: Jammu and Kashmir government is going ahead with plans to rehabilitate displaced Kashmiri pandits in their homeland. “The first batch of 350 families of pandits living in different camps at Jammu and Udhampur is returning to Kashmir in October,” said Revenue and Rehabilitation minister Hakim Mohammad Yaseen. About 60,000 families had fled from Kashmir after the eruption of militancy in 1990. Yaseen said return of Kashmiri pandits has been a commitment by the ruling coalition and time has come to fulfill it. The Muslims of Kashmir are eagerly waiting for the return of them. They feel that Kashmir is incomplete without pandits. Very soon Kashmiri pandits and Muslims will be living like a community similar to the period before the onset of militancy. As a prelude to their return here, representatives of migrant pandits stayed here for a fortnight and visited all areas and met people of all walks of life including moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq who welcomed the move to bring back Kashmiri pandits in the valley. The reaction of more militant groups to the move remains to be seen.
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