India should include Sharda pilgrimage issue in talks with Pakistan: APMCC

NEW DELHI: The All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee ( APMCC), an amalgam of Kashmiri Pandits outfits, today demanded that India include the issue of reopening of Sharda pilgrimage at PoK in its dialogue agenda with Pakistan.

The organisation's Chairman Vinod Pandit claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had supported the demand before the Lok Sabha elections and had promised to take steps on the issue in case of an NDA victory.

"If the government can talk to Pakistan even after the Pathankot attack, I don't see why it cannot raise this demand as well. Not allowing Kashmiri Pandit's to visit their holiest shrine amounts to human rights violation," Pandit said in a press conference here.

Ravinder Pandita of APMCC said that annual pilgrimage to the site, which was a "seat of learning" for Hindus, located in Neelam valley of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, used to take place till 1947.

Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain, who was also present, said that even the Amarnath shrine "may not be" as important as the Sharda Peeth. He also pitched for the setting up of a 'Sharda seat of learning' or a similar centre at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Utpal Kaul, a founder member of 'Panun Kashmir', said that Sharda Peeth was inseparable from Jammu and Kashmir and that historically Kashmir has also been known as 'Sharda Desh'.

"The only script that Kashmir has produced is also known as Sharda script," he said underscoring the need for setting up Sharda university.