Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 10

On the second day of their Jammu and Kashmir visit on Friday, the group of 15 foreign envoys visited the Jagti Camp township housing 10,000 displaced Kashmiri Hindus. It’s for the first time in three decades that such a large group of diplomats from various countries have visited any of the camps housing J&K Pandits.

The envoys reached Jagti in a convoy of 21 vehicles late in the afternoon and met a small gathering at a community centre, spending nearly 40 minutes there. The displaced Pandits told the visitors that the scrapping of Article 370 had rekindled hope of New Delhi soon starting a rehabilitation process.

US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster gave a patient hearing to the issues raised by the camp inhabitants, along with other envoys, who were handed over a memorandum.

“We spoke of Pakistan’s role in supporting terrorism and the subsequent exodus. We also told the envoys that with Article 370 gone, it was now time to resettle Pandits at one place in Kashmir,” said Ashwani Chrangoo, a senior community member, who said they presented a seven-point ‘agenda of future’, including resettlement of Hindus and Sikhs forced to flee Kashmir during insurgency, reservation of five seats for the two displaced communities in the UT Assembly and a legislation to preserve religious heritage of minorities in the Kashmir valley.

“We are happy that our voice is being heard. We told the envoys the plight of our youth. We are hopeful the world will understand why scrapping of special status was necessary,” said Desh Rattan, Virander Raina, KK Khosa and SL Koul.

The envoys were greeted with ‘Free Kashmir from Islamic terrorism’ posters. For more than four hours, two protesters stood outside the community centre carrying these, one saying: “We are here to deliver a message that the world should unite against terrorism.”