Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 22: Chairman, Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD), Dr K L Chowdhury, has said that his organization is in the process of filing a petition with the UN assuring the world body to recognize the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmir Pandits.
Talking to reporters here along with other office bearers of the organization, he said for this, a large team of our intelligentsia are working on the various dimensions of the petition to compile validated data in order to present the true and total picture of the atrocities and crimes committed against KPs, including the severe, systematic and sustained deprivation of human rights at all levels before and after their forced exile. He said that the Netherland-based Global Human Rights Defense is supporting the community for the UN venture.
Dr Chowdhury made it clear that GKPD is not a new organization or party but a global initiative that included every Kashmiri Pandit uprooted from their homeland in Kashmir.
Dr Chowdhury traced the genesis of Kashmiri Pandit diaspora to the events preceding and following the January 19 holocaust 30 years back; the terrorizing slogans booming out from thousands of loud speakers from mosques; the frenzied masses marching in processions, threatening Pandits, asking them to quit the Valley and leave their women behind; etc.
He said it was craftily orchestrated ethnic cleansing and genocide and nothing short of it, while vehemently rejecting the conspiracy theories that it was Jagmohan who led the community into exile.
Dr Chowdhury rued the fact that only one narrative about Kashmir was visible at the global level, the narrative of separatism and human rights violation of Muslims by the security forces. The narrative of Pandits, the main victims of Islamic terrorism, has been conveniently brushed aside and forgotten. It is to set the narrative right that GKPD has set up a Task Force to reach out to stakeholders in India and across the world.
Dr Chowdhury said that he has already sent a letter to Mr Bondevik, the Norwegian ex- PM who, after meeting the separatists recently, advocated their participation in any solution of the Kashmir problem, reminding him that it has to be the Kashmiri Pandits, the real victims of Islamic jihad, who should be invited for such deliberations.
Shiban Khaibiri, vice-chairman of PNBMT, which spearheads the demand of Kashmiri Pandits for a temple bill for the protection and preservation of temples and shrines in Kashmir, said that Pandits faced a cultural and religious genocide.
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