Centre’s demography panel ignored displaced families of LoC, says AIP

The Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) has criticized the high-level committee on demographic changes, stating it overlooked families displaced from their ancestral homes along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. The AIP's spokesperson, Inam Un Nabi, expressed concern that the committee's assessment fails to account for the outflow of indigenous populations due to violence, prolonged shelling, and insecurity.

Nabi questioned the committee's focus on alleged demographic inflows and demanded that they answer the question of what actions are being taken to bring families displaced by conflict back to their homes. The AIP highlighted Kashmir's forward areas, including Jumgund, Machil, Keran, Karnah, Gurez, Uri, Poonch, and Mendhar, as experiencing migrations since 1947.

The party emphasized that demographic correction must include restoring the population driven out by conflict, rather than ignoring the empty homes and abandoned land resulting from displacement. AIP also criticized the committee's reported interaction with Rohingya, asserting that its primary responsibility should be to listen to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have directly experienced the consequences of conflict.

The AIP called on the committee to include Kashmiri Pandits and migrated Kashmiri Pandit families in their demographic report, as their experiences are a crucial part of the region's history.