No plans to make separate clusters for Kashmiri Pandits: Mufti Sayeed

Jammu: In a flip-flop, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Thursday told the Assembly that his government has no plans to set up separate clusters for settlement of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.

"I want to assure the House that we will not make any separate clusters for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley (for their rehabilitation)" Sayeed told the House which was rocked by opposition protests over the state government's move to create "composite townships" for Kashmiri Pandit migrants who had left the Valley in the wake of militancy over two decades back.

After a meeting Sayeed had in Delhi on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, it was officially stated that the Chief Minister had assured that the state government will acquire and provide land for creating composite townships for displaced Kashmiri Pandits. Major opposition political parties and separatists groups in Jammu and Kashmir had slammed the move, saying it will divide the people and pose security risks.

Clarifying his government's stand, Sayeed said, "I have told the Union Home Minister that they (KPs) cannot live separately (in Kashmir Valley) and they will have to live together". He maintained that Homeland is not possible in Kashmir and rumours are being floated to create controversies in the state.

Asserting that it is government's endeavour to create a conducive environment for the return of Kashmiri Pandits, he said if such controversies are created how can they come back.

"We do not want to do it in hurry. We will take all the stakeholders on board before taking a decision. We want flowering of secularism in Kashmir so that Kashmir becomes a garden of different varieties of flowers," he said.

The Chief Minister also appealed to separatists that they should not play politics over the issue as it gives a bad name to Kashmir.

Asking KPs to return to the Valley, he said the state government will create a conducive environment to settle them at their places with "respect and dignity".

"Those (KPs) who want to come back should not live in separation. There will be no Israel-type clusters and we welcome them to settle back in their places," he said.