{"id":23142,"date":"2026-06-27T03:01:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=23142"},"modified":"2026-06-27T03:01:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:01:53","slug":"buoyed-by-improved-security-displaced-pandits-converge-on-kashmir-temple-in-their-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2026\/06\/27\/buoyed-by-improved-security-displaced-pandits-converge-on-kashmir-temple-in-their-thousands\/","title":{"rendered":"Buoyed by Improved Security, Displaced Pandits Converge on Kashmir Temple in Their Thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JAMMU AND KASHMIR, June 23, 2026 (The Hindu): Buoyed by the improvement in the security situation, a record number of displaced Kashmiri Pandits converged on the Kheer Bhawani temple in central Kashmir\u2019s Ganderbal on Monday (June 22, 2026). They were welcomed by local Muslims and regional parties, including the ruling National Conference (NC) and Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Pandits have pledged to return every year and continue the tradition.<br><br>Over 214 buses ferried the displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the temple over the past few days. Most devotees said the security situation had changed for the better: Kashmir was \u201cfree of fear\u201d and \u201cit was possible to travel even at night\u201d. The Mata Kheer Bhawani Ji Yatra Welfare Society served over 10,000 devotees at its langar a day before the festival on Sunday. \u201cA record number of devotees participated in this year\u2019s pilgrimage,\u201d said M.K. Yogi, general secretary of the society. NC president Dr. Farooq Abdullah, while pressing for \u201cthe dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits,\u201d said, \u201cThe annual mela is a symbol of Kashmir\u2019s age-old tradition of communal harmony and brotherhood. I pray for the restoration of coexistence and strengthening of social bonds among all the communities.\u201d<br><br>More at source.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/jammu-and-kashmir\/buoyed-by-improved-security-displaced-pandits-converge-on-kashmir-temple-in-their-thousands\/article71134174.ece\/amp\/\n\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/jammu-and-kashmir\/buoyed-by-improved-security-displaced-pandits-converge-on-kashmir-temple-in-their-thousands\/article71134174.ece\/amp\/<br><\/a><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JAMMU AND KASHMIR, June 23, 2026 (The Hindu): Buoyed by the improvement in the security situation, a record number of,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23160,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142\/revisions\/23160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}