A high-level meeting in New Delhi chaired by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah decided in principle to create over eight highly militarized ‘Safe Zones’ in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, to settle Kashmiri Pandits in them.
The meeting was convened in the wake of eight targeted killings by unknown gunmen in the Kashmir Valley whose victims included both Muslims and non-Muslims.
The participants of the meeting attended by Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande, and Lt-Governor of IIOJK Manoj Sinha also announced that the recent escalation in targeted attacks would not lead to any change in plans for holding the annual Amarnath Yatra which is scheduled from June 30-August 11.
Indian Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Director of Intelligence Bureau Arvind Kumar, Director General of Central Reserve Police Force Kuldiep Singh, Border Security Force chief Pankaj Singh, and IIOJK’s Director General of Police Dilbag Singh among other key officials took part in the meeting.
Scores of Kashmiri Pandits, who were employed in 2012, have been staging protests threatening mass exodus since the killing of Rahul Bhat, who was shot dead by unknown gunmen on May 12 in the Chadoora area of Budgam district in central Kashmir.
Bhat’s killing sparked demonstrations by around 6,000 employees at various places who demanded their relocation outside the Valley. However, the authorities in IIOJK made it clear that the employees would not be moved out of the Valley but transferred to safer locations.
The analysts, however, believe that the Indian government was implementing a plan to settle the pandits in separate colonies on the Israeli pattern. They say India’s announcement to create eight highly militarized Safe Zones for Kashsmiri Pandits is only aimed at splitting the Kashmir Valley and enslaving the Muslims of the Valley on pattern adopted by Israel in Palestine.
On the other hand they rubbished the Indian rhetoric of atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits in IIOJK terming it nothing but a plethora of mere lies and propaganda.
