Introduction: Kashmiri Pandit’s Organisation Panun Kashmir
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s address to the nation was received with a feeling of distrust by Kashmiri pandits in New Delhi who said that going by past experience his sincerity was doubtful.
“On the basis of past experience, there is lot of mistrust about sincerity of the Pakistani leaders whosoever it may be. Now only time can tell whether Pervez Musharraf is actually going to do what he has stated,” Panun Kashmir general secretary Ramesh Manvatti said here.
Pandits object to Gen. Musharraf’s utterances on the Kashmir issue and they said that the best indicator of how effective the Pakistani action would be the ground situation in the Valley.
Leaders of the community, which was the prime victim of the Pakistan-sponsored terrorism resulting in the en masse exodus of over three lakh people from Kashmir Valley in 1989, asked the Centre to continue the diplomatic offensive to “force” Islamabad to “translate words into action.”
Kashmiri Samiti president Sunil Shakdher also said that Gen. Musharraf might be misleading the world. Mr Shakdher said that Pakistani President’s talk on giving moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmir cause puts a question mark on his credibility.
All-India Kashmiri Pandit Conference president H.N. Jattu hoped the steps announced by Gen. Musharraf would affect the activities of terrorist groups in Kashmir “so that we can go back to our Valley.”
The Kashmiri pandit leaders felt
Gen. Musharraf had announced the steps under “immense international pressure”
and asked the Indian government to continue the diplomatic offensive till
the Pakistani leader’s words are translated into action. They also attacked
Gen. Musharraf for refusing to handover Pakistani terrorists involved in
many activities in India.