Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has slammed doors on Pandits' return to their homes in the Kashmir Valley. Frightened of militancy, the Pandits had fled their homeland 17 years ago. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's supreme commander Syed Salaha-ud-Din has stated that, "time was not ripe for the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley." "The return at this juncture would create complications," he told Srinagar-based news agency CNS on Monday. However, he did not elaborate the "complications". Salaha-ud-Din's statement has virtually closed all doors for the Kashmiri Pandit community to their homes in the Valley, according to a leader of the community in Jammu. Chairman of Panun Kashmir, Ajay Charngoo, told Hindustan Times that this made it clear that they did not want Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley in any case. This also proved that the claims of the government that the situation has improved and the community can return to the Valley were "hollow". "Terrorists are calling shots there," Charngoo said.
Many Kashmiri Pandits, however, are living in the hope of returning to their homes one day. Their last wish is to die there. But the situation in the Valley has not changed to make their return safe. And now the statement coming from the Hizb chief has only added to their fears. Approximately, 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus -- a microscopic minority in Kashmir but an important component of the regionÂ’s history and ethos -- fled their homes in the Valley, starting November 1989. The winter of horror continues for them even now.