After 75 years Kashmiri pandits, celebrated Kumbh Mela at the confluence of rivers Jhelum and Sindh in Shadipora area in north Kashmir, 30kms from Srinagar.
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Thousands of Kashmiri pandits, who were here to attend Mela Kheer Bhawani, participated in Kumbh Mela and took a dip in rivers to wash off their sins and many prayed for their return to Valley.
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J&K government had made elaborate arrangements of transport, security and sanitation at the spot, while BJP had also set up a help desk at the on banks of river Jhelum. The local muslim population, mostly on fast had also set up makeshift stalls, providing necessary items including flowers, fruits, vegetables, juices and other consumables. The locals had also made arrangements of boats for Kashmiri pandits to cross the rivers.
The Kumbh was celebrated peacefully in otherwise politically charged atmosphere, where on one hand government last week disallowed Abhinav Gupta Yatra in Budgam district, while on other hand their decision to bring back pandits to exclusive settlements has been widely criticized.
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"This yug has come after 75 years. I hope, pray and wait that I will also come back one day to my homeland," Dr Bansi Lal Sharma, who lives in Jammu but has not sold his property in Tral, told ET. Sharma claims to be one of the last pandit families, who left Valley in May 1990. Like Sharma, many other Kashmiri pandits, at the spot, claimed that if they come back they should not be targeted or tortured by being in vulnerable colonies.
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According to A K Koul of Maha Kumbh Celebration Committee, last time Kumbh was celebrated in Valley in 1941, in which he claims thousands of people participated. And today, as per the Hindu tradition, configuration of ten celestial bodies has again happened after 75 years, which is very sacred configuration for Kashmiri pandits.