Kashmiri Pandits victim not only of violence, but of complete collapse of civilization: J&K Peace Forum

STC NEWS DESK
JAMMU, JANUARY 25 (STC): Kashmiri Pandits are victims not only of violence, but of a complete collapse of civilization – a collapse of governance, social restraint, institutional responsibility, and moral courage, said the J&K Peace Forum while rejecting the statement issued by Panun Kashmir (PK).
It’s pertinent to mention that the Panun Kashmir seeks to monopolize the suffering of Kashmiri Pandits through legally un-adjudicated claims while dismissing dialogue, reconciliation, and civilizational responsibility as denial.
The peace forum said that to reduce this civilizational breakdown into a single rhetorical charge, while bypassing legal process altogether, is intellectual dishonesty masquerading as advocacy.
In its statement issued to the media, the forum said, “The events of 1989–90 were brutal, traumatic, and criminal. Killings occurred. Fear was systematically engineered. Targeted intimidation forced an entire community into exile. Law and order disintegrated. These facts are beyond dispute. What remains unproven, however, is the conversion of an un-adjudicated legal term into a moral weapon. Such misuse does not strengthen the Kashmiri Pandit cause, it weakens its credibility.”
PK’s contemptuous dismissal of moral and humanitarian language reveals a troubling mindset. To sneer at humanitarian concern as mere “sentiment” is to reject the very foundations upon which healing and return, are built. No society has ever emerged from collective trauma without moral acknowledgement preceding legal remedy, reads the Forum’s statement and further states that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, speaking at a Kashmiri Pandit forum in Delhi in 2025, publicly acknowledged that Kashmiri Pandits faced genocide that destroyed their family structures and community life. He not only expressed this sentiment many times in his Jama Masjid addresses, but spoke the same language at a prayer meeting in Delhi organized in memory of Late Bushan Bazaz.
“To erase this acknowledgement while accusing others of denial reflects selective memory and bad faith. Accountability for 1989–90 must be institutional, evidence-based, and legally grounded. The crisis unfolded amid militancy, administrative paralysis, and systemic collapse,” the statement reads further.
The J&K Peace Forum has made it clear that the safety, dignity, and rights of returning Kashmiri Pandits are non-negotiable. However, as per the Forum, weaponizing security models as ideological litmus tests, or portraying alternative rehabilitation frameworks as hostility to victim protection, is dishonest and counterproductive. “Security that institutionalizes permanent segregation is not justice; it is managed exile. Moreover, if at any point of time, if at all, Panun Kashmir demand is granted, the negotiations relating to border issues, supply logistics and intergovernmental issues – all will have to be negotiated through the civil society as well,” reads the statement. It further adds that the return of Kashmiri Pandits is not a slogan, not a bargaining chip, and not a political performance. It is a constitutional obligation of the State and a civilizational duty of society. Those who turn this sacred responsibility into perpetual confrontation are not accelerating justice they are delaying it.
Stating that Kashmiri Pandits are a civilization, not an emotional outburst, the Forum states that “from the Upanishads to Kashmir Shaivism, our civilization has upheld Samvad (dialogue) as strength, not surrender. Justice without dialogue becomes vengeance. Dialogue without justice becomes hollow theatre. Those who reject this balance reject India’s civilizational wisdom itself.”
(Straight Talk Communications)