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US Congressman demands "high level of attention" towards Kashmiri pandits

Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone wants the United Nations and the US state department to accord a ''high-level of attention'' to the plight of the Kashmiri pandits, whom he described as the ''victims of massacre and displacement as a result of the conflict in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.''

He also sent a reminder to India's National Human Rights Commission, reiterating his plea that the pandits should be declared as ''internally displaced people'' and that arrangements should be made for their safe return to the Kashmir valley.

He called on the NHRC to substantiate ''the on-going genocide that the pandits are enduring.''

Pallone, the founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, raised these issues at the Indo-American Kashmir Forum's annual gathering in Hershey, Pennsylvania recently.

He said he would ask the state department to raise the Pandit issue whenever the US discussed the Kashmir issue with India. He also said he would write to the UN Human Rights Commission to ask why the problems of the Pandits did not figure in its recent report on Kashmir.

He will also seek action by UNICEF to provide educational grants to benefit Kashmiri Pandit children and by the World Health Organisation to tackle health and sanitation problems, including lead poisoning.

He promised to look into the Kashmiri Pandits' demand their community should be recognised as a minority under the law, so that they could avail of additional benefits and protection.

UNI

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