Kashmiri Pandits will never return permanently to Valley: Farooq Abdullah

Jammu: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) President, Farooq Abdullah, said on Monday that he does not believe that Kashmiri Pandits will ever return permanently to the Valley.

“They may come as visitors, but I don’t think Kashmiri Pandits will ever return permanently to the Valley,” Farooq Abdullah told reporters here.

He, however, added that the displaced Kashmiri Pandits are always welcome to return to their homes.

Emphasising that the Valley is the rightful place for the Kashmiri Pandits, Farooq Abdullah expressed scepticism about whether the migrated community would want to return considering that they have built new lives where they currently reside in other parts of the country as their children are also engaged in employment and education outside Kashmir.

The statement was made by the former Chief Minister on a day the migrant Kashmiri Pandits are observing the ‘Holocaust Day’ to recall their forced exodus from their ancestral native places in the Valley.

Mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits started in 1990 when they were threatened by terrorists to leave the Valley or face death.

Farooq Abdullah said that many Kashmiri Pandit families never left the Valley and still continue to live peacefully in their villages and localities.

“When will they return to Kashmir? Who is stopping them? No one is preventing them. They should come back as it is their home.”

“Many Kashmiri Pandits are currently living in the Valley and have not left their villages,” the former Chief Minister answered when asked about the protests by Kashmiri Pandits for return and rehabilitation to Kashmir.

Dozens of Kashmiri Pandits under the banner of ‘Youth 4 Panun Kashmir’, blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway near Jagti migrant camp on Monday evening, demanding a separate homeland in the Valley for their return and asking for the passage of a bill in the Parliament to recognise their genocide.

When asked about the demands of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, Abdullah remarked that he had assured them that the government would construct houses for them and provide the necessary support.

He added that after the fall of his government, it was in the Central government’s hands to implement the proposal.

He noted that the Kashmiri Pandit community would first need to assess the situation as many Kashmiri Pandits are now settled across different parts of the country.

“They have grown older, many are seeking medical treatment and their children are studying in colleges, schools, and universities.”

“They may visit, but I don’t think they will return to live there permanently,” he said.

While some 3,000 Kashmiri Pandits still live in different parts of the Valley, the vast majority of this community left the Valley in 1990 to live as refugees in their own country.

Though the pain and shock of migration was eventually sustained by this educated and cultured community of Kashmir, their elders still deeply desire to return permanently to the land of their ancestors.

The younger generation, those born around or after 1990, however, think differently.

The religious and cultural brotherhood called ‘Kashmiriyat’ was rooted in the mutual love and respect between the Hindus and the Muslims of the Valley.

Though people still talk about Kashmiriyat and its powerful message, the fact cannot be ignored that terrorism sponsored by Pakistan was successful in delivering a deafening blow to the eclectic tolerant culture of Kashmir.

IANS