Will bring Kashmiri Pandits back: J&K CM Mehbooba
May 28, 2016  17:16
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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday asserted that her government was committed to bringing back Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants to the Valley and would set up transit accommodations for them till they feel safe to return to their native places.
Rejecting claims of opposition parties and separatists that the government was setting up separate colonies for Kashmiri Pandits, she told the assembly that the construction of transit accommodation 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 wondered how migrants can be asked "to return to their native places when our political workers -- be it from the People's Democratic Party, the Congress, the National Conference or any other party -- are
living under security in hotels in Srinagar".
"Why don't we tell them to return to their places? Because they don't feel secure. No body raises questions why we have made a colony for them," Mehbooba said.
She said her government was committed to setting up composite transit accommodation with basic facilities.
"This is a facility for migrants. Don't we have Muslim migrants? Don't we have migrants in Jammu? Are not there Sikhs and other people among them? If we are saying 50 per cent will be Kashmiri Pandits and the rest others, you are saying it is Israel-like situation," she said.
Mehbooba said the migrants can return to their native places only when they feel secure enough. "They can go to Ganderbal, Pulwama or Baramulla after that," she said.
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