Kashmiri Pandits will flourish as individuals wherever they go but there may be no KP community as such in a decade or two, Peoples Democratic Party MP Muzaffar HussainBaig has said, saying Pandits were original inhabitants of Kashmir.
He was speaking at a conclave – The Kashmiri Pandits: Right the Wrong in Kashmir – which was also attended by National Conference leader Abdul Rahim Rather, among other panellists.
"The year of 1990 will go down in the history of Kashmir and perhaps the rest of India as the one of the darkest days of our history," Baig said. "It was in this year that the mass exodus of the KP community who were the original inhabitants of Kashmir took place in the wake of a mass uprising."
"The community was made to feel so insecure that some of them left only with the clothes they were wearing," Baig was quoted in a statement by the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD), an organisation of KPs.
On the occasion, Rather said, "I have immense love and respect for the KP community and KPs are an important and integral part of our society and culture."
"The best thing I like about this community is that even in the most difficult conditions, this community never compromised on the education of its children," Rather said.
"The issues being faced by KP community is not their issue alone, it is our composite issue, considering this community is an inalienable part of the larger composite society and this community has immensely contributed to the entire society of Kashmir," he added.
