Srinagar, June 16: Kashmiri Pandits have warned the land sharks – from within and outside the community – involved in usurping the centuries-old KP temples and their properties all over the valley.
“There has been a well-orchestrated design going from years to rupture the Hari Parbat temple and its properties and dislodge Kashmiri Pandits from its traditional centuries-old control,” Shree Shree Jagat Amba Sharika Chakreshwar Sanastha, Hari Parbat, Srinagar said in a statement issued here.
The Kashmiri Pandit body said it organised an emergency meeting to “chalk out a strategy and frame a concrete policy to defeat the anti-Kashmiri Pandit activities of the notorious cartels and individuals working within the community and their handlers from the outside community”.
“In the marathon meeting, all aspects and challenges being faced for the control of Kashmiri Pandit temples and their properties in Kashmir valley were discussed. Threats and intimidation to the incumbent president of Shree Shree Jagat Amba Sharika Chakreshwar Sanastha, Hari Parbat, Srinagar, Ranjeet Gurkha by the subversive cartel were taken seriously and it was resolved that the offenders will be dealt with at social, legal and political level. The members unanimously resolved that the whole community stands with him,” the statement said.
The meeting observed that Ranjeet Gurkha is doing a “commendable service” to uphold the traditional spiritual and religious legacy of the institution. Any attempt to create hurdles in his organisational work or any attempt on his life will be treated as an attack on the entire community, the members resolved.
“It is part of this dangerous ploy to extend the genocidal war of attrition against the Kashmiri Pandits into the new domain. That is the tampering of their legal and civilisational rights on all temples and their properties in the valley,” the statement said.
Those who attended the meeting included Prof B L Zutshi, Hindu Education Society, Dr Sushil Wattal, Dr Ajay Chrungoo, Chairman, Panun Kashmir, Kuldeep Dhar, U P Handoo, President, Brahman Mahamandal, Kashmir, Sanjay Raina, B L Jalali, President, Rainawari KP Action Committee, Dr Mahesh Kaul, J K Kher, Ravi Dhar, President, Alkeshwari Roop Bhawani Trust, Dr Ramesh Razdan, Jai Krishen Raina (Reshi), Shadi Lal Ji (Khrew), C L Pandita, President (Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Trust), Bharat Raina, Ajay Raina (Kheer Bhawani), M K Yogi, Secretary, Vishwa Kashmiri Samaj and a galaxy of representatives from civil society.