Khan Feroz CNI
Representing the collective voice of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community, Kashmiri pandit Conference (KPC) strongly reiterates its long-pending and fundamental demands for the establishment of as under.
- A Statutory Sansthan Board like Waquaf Board in India and its branches in Jammu and Kashmir. 2.,The passage of the long-overdue Shrine and Temple Protection and Management Bill In Kashmir.
- An urgent enactment of a Genocide and Rehabilitation Bill that recognizes and addresses the horrors and consequences of the mass exodus of our community in 1990. These are not merely administrative or symbolic measures—they are urgent constitutional, cultural, and human rights imperatives.
Despite being among the most patriotic, peaceful, and intellectually enriched communities in India, the Kashmiri Pandits were targeted, victimized, and systematically driven out of their ancestral land by religious extremism, cross-border terrorism, and local collaboration. This organized ethnic cleansing left thousands killed, women violated, children orphaned, homes looted, and temples desecrated. The community has spent over three and a half decades in exile with no justice, no formal acknowledgment of the genocide we suffered, and with little to no action towards dignified rehabilitation and return.
It is deeply troubling that while minorities across India enjoy constitutionally backed religious property management through bodies like the Waqf Boards, there exists no statutory authority in India or in Jammu and Kashmir to safeguard the Hindu religious sites, temples, shrines, and other spiritual institutions—many of which are thousands of years old and central to the civilizational and cultural heritage of Kashmir. Waqf Boards have legal status, political support, funding, and wide operational reach, including in Jammu and Kashmir. Yet, the demand for a Sansthan Board for Kashmiri Hindu religious places has been repeatedly ignored and delayed, resulting in encroachment, desecration, and complete collapse of the ancient religious ecosystem in the Valley. The demand for a Statutory Sansthan Board is not just justified but constitutionally required to ensure equality and protection under the law. Such boards already operate in other parts of India, and their branches function across the country including in Jammu and Kashmir. Hence, a fully empowered, legally constituted Sansthan Board must be immediately created to register, restore, manage, and preserve all Hindu religious institutions in Jammu and Kashmir.
Likewise, the Shrine and Temple Protection and Management Bill—pending for decades—must be immediately passed by the Government. Since 1990, over sixty percent of temples and shrines in the Kashmir Valley have either been destroyed, damaged, or occupied illegally. Temple lands have been encroached upon by land mafias, anti-national elements, and even certain political interests. The absence of legal protection has allowed this slow cultural destruction to go unchecked. This Bill must establish criminal liability for desecration, reclaim temple lands, digitize all temple records, create temple restoration funds, and bring all religious places under a protected, accountable framework. The revival of these temples is not only a religious necessity but also a cultural and civilizational obligation of the Indian state.
The most critical demand remains the urgent enactment of a Genocide and Rehabilitation Bill for displaced Kashmiri Pandits. What happened to the community in 1990 was nothing short of a genocide—recognized by every international standard of definition. The killings, rapes, forced migration, public threats, targeted assassinations, destruction of homes and temples, and total demographic erasure were part of an organized campaign of religious and political cleansing. It is a grave national injustice that even after 35 years, no Commission of Inquiry has been set up, no perpetrators have been tried, no documentation of crimes has been officially released, and no law has been passed to either acknowledge or rehabilitate the victims. The Genocide and Rehabilitation Bill must legally recognize the 1990 exodus as genocide, establish Truth and Accountability Commissions, constitute Special Tribunals to try identified criminals, and provide full compensation to the victims for loss of life, land, property, education, employment, and cultural identity. It must also make provisions for political reservation and institutional representation of Kashmiri Pandits in the J&K Assembly, Rajya Sabha, civic bodies, and other statutory forums to ensure that their voice is not erased further.
The Kashmiri Pandit Conference (KPC) believes that the Indian nation’s commitment to democracy, secularism, justice, and human rights will only be proven when it responds decisively to the legitimate and long-suppressed demands of its own children—those who have held the national flag high even when abandoned, orphaned, and exiled. We urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the National Human Rights Commission to act without further delay. The time to debate is over. The time to deliver justice has arrived.
Kashmiri Pandits must not remain refugees in their own country. Our temples, our rights, our history, and our dignity demand protection. Let this be the moment when India corrects a historic wrong and re-establishes the broken link between Kashmiri Pandits and their sacred land. The nation will be judged not just by its economic rise or global ambition but by how it treats its most wounded and loyal citizens. KPC stands united, vigilant, and determined in the pursuit of justice for our community and restoration of our rightful secure place in the land of Rishi Kashyap.
[ Kundan Kashmiri]Sevak & Voice of Displaced Kashmiri Pandit community & President KPC.
Mobile No 8802167955
Email kundankashmiri@gnail.com