An Indian diplomat called for an Israeli model to be implemented in Kashmir.

Speaking at a private event in New York on Saturday, India’s ambassador the US Sandeep Chakravorty told Kashmiri Hindus and other Indian nationals that India will build settlements modeled after Israel for the return of the Hindu population to Kashmir, media sources say.

A video of his speech was uploaded on Facebook.

“I believe the security situation will improve, it will allow the refugees to go back, and in your lifetime, you will be able to go back…and you will be able to find security, because we already have a model in the world.”

“I don’t know why we don’t follow it. It has happened in the Middle East. If the Israeli people can do it, we can also do it,” Chakravorty told participants.

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The event was organized in the aim to discuss Indian filmmaker Vivek Agnihorti’s upcoming project centering on the forced displacement of Kashmiri Hindus in the early 1990’s. Chakravorty asked those involved to give the government some time to implement its plans in the valley.

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Kashmir has currently been under lockdown since August 5 when the Indian government revoked Article 370 of its constitution and with it, Kashmir’s special autonomy.

The valley has been suffering with no internet and stable phone connections with thousands of people imprisoned.

“I think the return of Kashmiri Pandits is being instrumentalized to justify a settler-colonial project in Kashmir,” Mona Bhan, an associate professor of South Asian Studies at Syracuse University in New York, told media.