Kashmiri Pandits write letter to Antonio Guterres against issuance of stamps by Pakistan

Rights groups representing the Kashmiri Pandit community have written to the secretary general of the United Nations against the issuance of stamps by the Pakistan government.

The group ‘Roots in Kashmir’, in its letter to secretary general António Guterres on October 1, demanded that the UN intervene and write a formal letter to the Pakistan government to withdraw the stamps.

Group’s member Anil Raina wrote that the release of stamps by Pakistan is a “malicious attempt to raise the bogey of Kashmir”. “We have found one stamp, which is the picture of a protest carried out by the Kashmiri Pandit group ‘Roots in Kashmir’ to protest against its forced exodus and exile, the perpetrators of which are terrorists and subversives supported by Pakistan,” Raina wrote.

He said the stamps were an attempt to “appropriate the exodus and exile” of the Pandits. “A spiteful attempt at not just deflecting blame but also an attempt to deny victims of ethnic cleansing a right to protest by appropriating their symbols of protest,” he said.

In the letter, the group has demanded that the UN intervenes in order to safeguard the community’s existence, and asked it to write a formal letter to the Pakistani government to withdraw the stamps. It further demanded that the Pakistani government issues an apology to the Kashmiri Pandit community.