Jammu, Nov 03: Panun Kashmir (PK), an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits today alleged that several temples and shrines in Kashmir have been vandalised as a part of ethnic cleansing process of minorities from the valley. "We are shocked to find that a number of revered religious places and temples in valley, especially in south Kashmir were in a devastating shape and their properties and material were gradually being taken away by anti-social elements," the chairman of political affairs committee of Panun Kashmir, Ajay Chrangoo said here.
Chrangoo, who had led a team of PK activists to Baramulla Anantnag, Srinagar and Kupwara districts recently, said that Shangus-Kokernag belt in Anantnag district presented a pathetic situation with the properties of Hindus and their religious places having become non-existent there.
Alleging that communal elements were behind the desecration of Hindu properties and their religious places with the sole object of wiping the remnants of Hindu culture from the valley, the PK chairman said a number of local Muslims had told us that they were feeling pained and shocked to see such things happening and expressed their helplessness in the given situation.
He also referred to the inventory made by revenue department about the left over properties of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley and said that it showed that 40-60 per cent of these were either, destroyed, occupied or in a state of dilapidation.
Bureau Report