Cong mediates between migrants, Mufti

The displaced leaders are wary of Mufti’s policy of releasing jailed militants but, at the same time, they do not want to spurn his reconciliatory gestures. ‘‘We can’t wish away the fact that Mehbooba Mufti was the first Kashmiri leader to visit the migrant camps in Jammu and she spoke with a lot of sincerity and pain,’’ a samiti leader said.

‘‘We have no rapport with the PDP, so have chosen to approach the Congress that has a national perspective on terrorism,’’ Shakdhar said.

Sources said the Kashmiri Samiti has sought inclusion of a clause in the Common Minimum Programme of the PDP-Congress coalition that would treat the return of displaced Kashmiris as top priority. ‘‘We expect the Congress-PDP to say in the CMP that they would work for the return of the Kashmiri Pandit community (instead of Kashmiri Pandits),’’ Shakdhar said.

This, he said, would make a political point that Kashmiri Pandits are a distinct ‘‘micro minority’’ and bind the government to a commitment where it can’t get away with the mere return of a few individuals to the Valley.

‘‘We have told Manmohan Singh that the Mufti government should try to look into the root cause of our exodus. The conditions for our return would become conducive only when fanaticism is rooted out of Kashmir,’’ Shakdhar said. Singh is also trying to arrange a meeting between the migrant leaders and Mufti and his Cabinet, he said.