'Pandits ignored in Mufti's healing-touch policy'

Kashmiri Pandits on Tuesday said the 'healing touch' policy of the Mufti Sayeed-led Jammu and Kashmir government has 'bypassed' members of the community.

Kashmiri Samiti, a frontline organisation of the Pandits, has written to President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee protesting the community's non-representation in the recently reconstituted National Commission for Minorities.

"We welcome the healing touch policy of Mufti government. But even though the government has completed 100 days, there has been no such gesture towards Kashmiri Pandits who are living in exile after forced migration 13 years ago," Samiti president Sunil Shakdher said in a statement in New Delhi.

He said the Pandits were being 'ignored in this policy although the interests of the majority of the community members of the valley are being taken care of'.

"If the chief minister takes care of the problems of one community, he has to look after the other community as well," Shakder said. "When will we go back to our valley? There is no concrete policy regarding it."