Former senior police officer of Jammu Kashmir, Ali Muhammad Watali, has termed the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits as a “big game” orchestrated on January 19, 1990, with the arrival of then-Governor Jagmohan.
Watali in his book ‘Guns Under My Chinar’ writes that no Kashmiri Pandit had migrated during Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s tenure, asserting that the displacement was politically driven rather than a communal issue.
Watali states that militants targeted both Kashmiri Pandits and pro-India Muslims, suggesting that the idea of India was under attack, rather than any specific community. He emphasized that the pattern of killings supports this perspective.
He further observed that the present generation of Kashmiri Pandits, who are now well-settled across India and abroad, show little interest in returning to the Valley.
Even those who were employed under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special employment package have refused to serve in Kashmir following the targeted killings of some Kashmiri Pandit employees in 2022, despite the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019.
Dr Farooq Abdullah had echoed similar sentiments, describing the exodus as the “biggest betrayal” of Kashmiri Pandits by Jagmohan, accusing him of using their victimhood for political gains.
According to Abdullah, Jagmohan assured the Kashmiri Pandits that their displacement was temporary and that they would return within two months, a promise that was never fulfilled. [KNT]