Pandit outfits demand action against Kashmir-based newspaper

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) Coming down heavily on a Kashmir-based newspaper group for hurting religious sentiments of the Hindu minority from the state, Kashmiri Pandit Organisations today demanded that the Jammu and Kashmir Government take stringent action against the newspaper and the writer of ''blasphemous and anti-national'' comments.

The Kashmiri Samiti Delhi and Roots in Kashmir (RIK) said the June 6 comments, by a reader on the online edition of the 'Kashmir Observer' over the Amarnath pilgrimage, were a deliberate attempt to communalise the situation in the strife-torn state.

''What a shame...the writing is a challenge to India's integrity and a deliberate attempt to communalise the situation,'' Kashmiri Samiti Political Affairs Chairman Sunil Shakdher said.

He said the entire community was deeply offended by such comments and urged the National Human Rights Commission and the National Minority Commission to take suo motu action in the matter.

Demanding an apology by the proprietress of the group, RIK said the organisation had ''misued'' the freedom of speech and press provided by the Constitution of India.

''This communal reporting by ''Kashmir Observer'' has reminded the minority community in the valley of the horrors of January 1990 when terrorist groups gave warnings to them in the form of advertisements in leading dailies of Kashmir,'' said RIK founder member Aditya Raj Kaul.

He said the Government should take serious note of the incident and take action to check ''anti-national'' activities.

''Such mindless reporting backed by some "motives against the nation should be not be repeated,'' he added.

The reader by the name of SOBI had written, ''It is time for India to go. Their Bhagwan is wise enough as he has already left...Please take a hint and you people also pack your bags...Don't humiliate your religion...by recreating what is not there.'' UNI