Roots in Kashmir: Kashmiri Pandits protest against Amnesty International

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Kashmiri Pandits protest against Amnesty International

A worldwide initiative of the Kashmiri Pandit youth "Roots In Kashmir" protested against the international human rights group Amnesty International on the occasion of 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Sunday.

The group accused Amnesty of being biased in their human rights reports in the last two decades on the issue of Kashmir and Kashmiri Pandits.

"It has just failed to come to our rescue; Amnesty has failed to rise to the occasion wherein it could have played a greater role in raising the issues connected with the Kashmiri Pandit exodus," said a group member.

To escape persecution, more than 500,000 Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their home and hearths back in the Valley of which more than 50,000 refugees are still languishing in uninhabitable refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi.

"A blind attitude towards the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Pandit community speaks volumes of the discrimination against the Kashmiris," the group further said. The group further asks the Amnesty International to send its representatives to the Kashmiri Pandit camps in Jammu and conduct an on ground survey and a report on the present situation. They claimed Amnesty should also extend the same privileges to Kashmiri Pandits; as they do to other Internally Displaced People across the globe.