Kejriwal slams killing of Pandits, says Centre has no Kashmir plan
NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday condemned the ‘targeted’ killing of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley and warned Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism in India even as the slammed the BJP-led central government for mishandling the issue.
Addressing a ‘Jan Akrosh’ rally at Jantar Mantar, Kejriwal said Kashmiri Pandits are being forced to leave the Valley due to the targeted killings of the minority community, and added that this shows that the BJP cannot handle Kashmir and it only knows how to do dirty politics.
“The era of 1990 has come again. They (government) don’t have any plan. Whenever a killing takes place in Kashmir, it is said that the Union home minister is holding a high-level meeting. But where is the action plan? What is the plan? Kashmir wants an action plan. Yesterday, I saw that a three-hour-long high-level meeting was held. There have been too many meetings. Please take some action on the ground. People are dying,” Kejriwal said.
The security of Kashmiri Pandits living in the Valley was discussed at a high-level meeting in Delhi on Friday that was chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah, who took stock of the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, according to officials.National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Army Chief General Manoj Pande, and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha were among those who attended the meeting.
At least 12 civilians – of which six were local Muslims, four were Hindus from the Valley, including one Kashmiri pandit, and two non-locals— besides five security personnel have been killed by unidentified militants in the Valley since March. Many members from the migrant and Pandit communities said they feared for their lives and a return to the 90s, when many Pandit families were forced to flee their homes under the shadow of terror. The rally at Jantar Mantar was organised by the AAP to protest against the spate of violence against the Pandits.
“With all the bloodshed that has happened in the recent past it has become clear that the BJP has no plan to stop this genocide. They have no plan to combat terrorism. In the last 30 years, these two periods of the BJP being in power have seen Kashmiri Pandits being forced into an exodus while these champions of internal security have done nothing. Why is it that Kashmiri Pandits have to flee their homeland whenever BJP comes to power? It seems like the BJP is not competent enough to take care of Kashmir. Either their interests lie in some adverse situation or they have no clue about governance,” Kejriwal said.