Need to instill confidence among Kashmiri Pandits to return: Mehbooba

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said there was a need to instill confidence among Kashmiri Pandits for their permanent return to the Valley and the present situation was not such that they could live in their native places.

“I will only appeal to Kashmiri Pandits that they should trust us and pray. We are trying to create peace here, Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits,” Mehbooba told reporters here after paying obeisance at Mata Kheer Bhawani temple situated around 25 km from Srinagar. She said there was a need to infuse confidence among the community before they could go back to their native places. “To infuse confidence among them, first they will be brought to transit camps, transit communities, where our Muslim migrants will also live with them. Once their confidence grows, then they can live wherever they want,” the chief minister said.

She said the present situation was not such that Pandits could live in their native places and referred to last night’s stone pelting incident in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district where a police post was pelted with stones. A vehicle carrying Kashmiri Pandits for the festival at Kheer Bhawani temple had got caught in it.