National Conference president Farooq Abdullah’s scepticism over whether displaced Kashmiri Pandits would wish to return to the Valley is not an expression of concern but an attempt to normalise a historic crime, said Girdhari Lal Raina, former MLC and spokesperson of BJP J&K-UT.
In a strongly worded statement, Raina said Abdullah’s remarks reflect personal convenience rather than empathy and are aimed at diluting political responsibility for a tragedy in which the National Conference and its government played a decisive role. “This scepticism is not neutrality—it is a calculated attempt to absolve himself and his party of historic guilt,” he asserted.
Raina said Farooq Abdullah would be remembered in history as a “modern-day Sikandar Butshikan” for presiding over an era when an ancient, indigenous minority was systematically targeted, terrorised, and driven out of its homeland. As Chief Minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, Abdullah abandoned the Kashmiri Hindu community at the very moment when the first flames of ethnic cleansing were ignited, he said.
Recalling the early phase of targeted violence, Raina said the historical record is unambiguous. Several killings of Kashmiri Pandits took place during Abdullah’s tenure, including Ashok Kumar Ganjoo, stabbed to death on November 10, 1987; Pandit Keshav Nath, killed on December 9, 1988 at Vichar Nag Temple; Smt Prabhawati of Chadoora, murdered on March 14, 1989; Dina Nath Raina, killed on August 15, 1989; senior advocate Tika Lal Taploo, assassinated on September 13, 1989; and Sheela Tickoo and Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, brutally murdered on November 1, 1989.
Emphasising that Abdullah therefore has no moral authority to speculate on the wishes of a community he failed to protect, Raina said that as Chief Minister, he presided over the early stages of an organised campaign of terror against the indigenous Kashmiri Hindu population. “While minorities were being hunted, his government chose appeasement over constitutional duty,” he said.
Raina further alleged that the release of 70 ISI-trained terrorists during Abdullah’s tenure emboldened the very forces that enforced the mass displacement of Kashmiri Pandits. “This was not mere negligence; it was abdication,” he said.
Criticising Abdullah’s resignation following the appointment of Governor Jagmohan, Raina said that instead of showing decisive leadership, Abdullah fled the scene and later participated in propaganda efforts from abroad to deflect blame, malign institutions, and distort history. “Cowardice was followed by deception,” he remarked.
The former MLC said that claims that Kashmiri Pandits are now “welcome” in the Valley amount to an insult to their suffering. “Their resettlement outside Kashmir was not voluntary. It was forced at gunpoint, under threats of annihilation. The loss of homes, temples, and centuries-old civilisational roots cannot be erased by hollow assurances,” he said.
Raina reiterated that Farooq Abdullah would be remembered as a ruler under whose watch a civilisation was attacked, though not destroyed. “The Kashmiri Pandit community survived betrayal, terror, and exile, and it will outlast the politics of denial practiced by the Abdullah dynasty,” he added.
Concluding his statement, Raina said that Kashmiri Pandits would return to Kashmir not because any political party permits it, but because history, justice, and truth demand it.
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