Srinagar: In a significant move, an interfaith committee has been set up to pave the way for the return and rehabilitation of the minority Kashmiri Pandit community to the valley which will be headed by moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a civil society group said on Saturday (February 1).
The announcement is likely to irritate the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led Union government, which has so far failed to rehabilitate the Valley’s displaced Pandit community despite promising to and being in direct control of Jammu and Kashmir from 2018 to 2024.
It is also significant because it represents the re-emergence of the Mirwaiz as a political voice in Kashmir. Last week he travelled to Delhi in an attempt to apprise the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Bill of the concerns and apprehensions of Muslims in J&K – something regional political parties like the National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party have largely avoided speaking about – even meeting BJP MP and JPC chair Jagdambika Pal.
The Mirwaiz also met senior National Conference leader and Lok Sabha member from Srinagar, Syed Aga Ruhullah in the national capital last week in a rare meeting between senior Kashmiri leaders of two opposing political ideologies. The meeting was termed as a “positive development” for Jammu and Kashmir by Tanvir Sadiq, the ruling party’s chief spokesperson and the newly elected member of legislative assembly from Srinagar’s Zadibal constituency.
A meeting in Delhi
A statement issued by JK Peace Forum, a society registered with the government, on Saturday said that a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits led by Satish Mahaldar, a prominent activist from the minority community, met the moderate Hurriyat chief at JW Marriott hotel in New Delhi on January 31.
A member of the Kashmiri Pandit delegation offers a bouquet of flowers to the moderate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Photo: JK Peace Forum.
During the meeting, the participants drafted a six-point charter for the committee which will work for “facilitating the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homeland”, “addressing the concerns of other minority communities” and “promoting economic development, trade, and employment generation.”
The committee will work for “preserving Kashmir’s unique cultural heritage”, “encouraging cooperation” among the young Kashmiri professionals from Muslim and Pandit communities and setting up of “inclusive designated colonies to aid (the) reintegration (of Kashmiri Pandits) into society,” the statement said.
The interfaith committee “will represent all communities of Kashmir,” the statement noted.
According to sources, the committee will reach out to the underprivileged groups of Kashmiri Pandits who continue to live in the migrant colonies that were set up by the government in Jammu in the early 1990s when an armed insurgency broke out in the Valley. It will also formulate a roadmap for their return.
‘Hopeful’: Mirwaiz
Speaking with The Wire, the Mirwaiz confirmed that he has agreed to head the committee whose composition was going to be announced “in due course of time.”
“The issue of Kashmiri Pandits is a humanitarian issue which needs to be addressed urgently. I am hopeful that this initiative will pave the way to healing reconciliation and unity between the Kashmiri Muslims and our Pandit brethren,” the Mirwaiz said.
Earlier, the meeting in New Delhi between the BJP leader and the Mirwaiz, who heads one of the two factions of the Hurriyat Conference, had raised some eyebrows in Kashmir, as it took place at a time when other Hurriyat leaders continue to languish in jail following the reading down of Article 370.
Former cabinet minister of J&K and senior Peoples Conference leader Imran Reza Ansari had said that the Mirwaiz should have “avoided” meeting the JPC chief.
In wonderment after seeing the J and K Muthida Majlis-e-Ulema, in Parliament ostensibly for the Waqf Bill.
I don’t see the purpose of descending upon a JPC who we all knew would not change their mind unless the ruling party desired them to do so.
I would have thought about…
— Imran Reza Ansari (@imranrezaansari) January 24, 2025
Since 2019, J&K administration has also barred the Mirwaiz on many occasions from delivering his Friday sermon at Srinagar’s Jama Masjid by putting him under house arrest.
Many believe that the meeting between the Mirwaiz and Pal has opened a window for the BJP-led Union government to engage with the Hurriyat. The Hindu reported earlier that “a more structured dialogue may take place between New Delhi and the Hurriyat after the Delhi Assembly election.”
Interestingly, Sidiq Wahid, former vice-chancellor of the Islamic University of Science and Technology, was also present in the meeting between the Mirwaiz and the delegation of Kashmiri Pandits on Friday. Wahid has been a participant in Track-II diplomacy between New Delhi and Islamabad on the issue of Kashmir in the past.
The Mirwaiz is visiting the national capital as head of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema, a conglomerate of religious bodies and Islamic scholars in Kashmir, who have opposed the new avatar of the Waqf Bill after their meeting with the JPC chief Pal last week.
This is the first time since 2016 when Kashmir convulsed in a wave of civilian protests in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen’s Burhan Wani that the Hurriyat leader has stayed in New Delhi for more than a week.
Earlier, the NC leader Tanvir Sadiq had welcomed the meeting between the Mirwaiz and Ruhullah.
“MP Aga sahab is our parliament member and a religious leader and Mirwaiz is also a religious leader. Their meeting took place in a good and happy atmosphere and we want every person from Jammu and Kashmir to come on one platform so that we can solve our problems,” the NC leader and a political aide of J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said.
