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Jammu: Panun Kashmir Movement (PKM), an organisation of Kashmiri Pundits, on June 12 demanded a separate homeland with Union Territory status during a meeting with Centre's interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir N N Vohra and said their representatives should be included in any dialogue between India and Pakistan on the troubled state.

In an hour-long meeting with Vohra on the fifth day of his visit to Jammu, a PKM delegation said Kashmiri Pundits have an "aboriginal" right on the state's territory and the government must recognise this.

They said the return of migrant Kashmiri Pundits to the state should not be merely a "symbolic gesture" but should result in their permanent re-settlement in the Valley.

"Their return is possible only when they are provided with an exclusive territorial enclave, namely, a homeland in the Valley with political power to decide their own fate," the delegation added.

It said if Kashmiri Muslims were included in Indo-Pak talks, then representatives of Kashmiri Pundits should also be included as an interested party.

Vohra also met state Chief Secretary Sudhir Singh and discussed welfare issues including those relating to migrants and the "perceived sense of neglect or discrimination harboured in certain quarters," sources said.

Among the 14 other delegations, which met Vohra on June 12 was the Gujjar United Front.

PTI