SRINAGAR: At a time when the Valley is on the boil in the aftermath of the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin’s Internet-savvy poster boy Burhan Muzaffar Wani more than seven weeks ago, Kashmir’s indigenous militant outfit has asked the displaced Kashmiri Pandits to return assuring them “We’re their guardians and not enemies.”
A new 11-minute video from the Hizb surfaced here on Monday evening showing one of its commanders, Riyaz Naik, speaking on varied issues including the plight of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits who had fled their homes in the Valley following the outbreak of militancy in the early ’90s.
“If they want to come back, we will welcome them warmly and there is always a place for them in our hearts,” Naik says in the clip. “They are a part of our nation, we are their guardians, we are not their enemies,” he adds.
The Hizb commander, however, insists the Pandits were not forced out of Kashmir by militants and claims it was a “conspiracy” of the then Governor, Jagmohan Malhotra. “Now we want to ask those Kashmiri Pandit brothers who left their own country in 1990s to prove which mujahid forced them out of Kashmir,” he adds.
No mercy to J&K terrorist
A fresh writ petition by a convict to set aside the life sentence is not maintainable as such an exercise will derail the process of the criminal justice delivery system, the Supreme Court held on Tuesday.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Prafulla C. Pant and A.M. Kanwilkar was rejecting the plea for release of a terrorist convicted under TADA in J&K. “Frantic cries of injustice founded on perceived erroneous application of law or appreciation of facts will not be enough to extend the frontiers of this jurisdiction,” it said.
