Former IIOJK police officer exposes Jagmohan’s role in Kashmiri Pandit exodus
‘Displacement was politically driven rather than a communal issue’
Srinagar: Former senior police officer of Indian illegally occupied Jammu Kashmir, Ali Muhammad Watali, has termed the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 as a “big game” orchestrated with the arrival of then-Governor Jagmohan.
According to Kashmir Media Service, in his book ‘Guns Under My Chinar’, Wattali asserts that no Kashmiri Pandit had fled the occupied Kashmir Valley during Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s tenure as Chief Minister, emphasizing that the displacement was politically driven rather than a communal issue.
Watali also states that Kashmiri Pandits remain reluctant to return despite the abrogation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019. Even those who secured jobs under the special employment package introduced by former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have refused to serve in Kashmir.
Earlier, Dr Farooq Abdullah had echoed similar sentiments, describing the migration as the “biggest betrayal” of Kashmiri Pandits by Jagmohan, stating that the then IIOJK Governor used their victimhood for political gains.
According to Farooq 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.
It is worth mentioning that the Pandits’ exodus was never about their safety but about advancing India’s nefarious agenda. The exodus was deliberately orchestrated by the Indian government to communalize the indigenous mass uprising against its rule in IIOJK and it was never about their safety. By engineering their displacement, New Delhi sought to portray the freedom struggle as sectarian rather than political, thereby justifying its brutal military crackdown.
