Srinagar: The rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandit community in Kashmir has once again come into focus following the return of a group of overseas Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley after 36 years to attend a tour and conference organised by the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKDP).The community held a two-day international conference followed by a week-long global Kashmiri Pandit heritage tour from June 6–12. This nine-day programme was called Pragaash heritage tour.Led by Dr Surinder Koul, head of the GKPD and a physician in the US, the initiative sought to pave the way for what the organisers described as a historic process of “dialogue, reflection, heritage preservation, cultural renaissance, and community empowerment.” Now, the event has brought renewed attention to the long-debated topic of the return of Kashmiri Pandits who left Kashmir after the eruption of Pakistan-backed militancy in the early 1990s, creating an atmosphere of insecurity for the minority community. However, is the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley feasible as they have spent more than three decades away from their homeland? Invisibilisation of the main victim Senior journalist and author Gowhar Geelani said that before debating this question, we need answers to three fundamental questions: one, who is against the return of Kashmiri Pandits; two, are they willing to return; three, isn’t an honest, objective and fair discourse necessary rather than amplifying a one-sided narrative on the events of 1990 and invisibilisation of the main victim – Kashmir Muslims.Many Kashmiri Pandits who have left the Valley and settled in Jammu and other parts of India have long held the majority Muslim community responsible for their departure, accusing them of having a pro-Pakistan ideology. However, refuting such accusations, many Kashmiri Muslims have instead blamed the then Governor Jagmohan for the act, arguing that it was a part of a strategy of New Delhi to suppress the Muslim majority population using armed forces before ensuring the Pandit community’s safe return to the valley, something they contend never materialised.The competing narratives have remained a major bone of contention between the two communities and continue to shape debates over reconciliation and return. “Neither the Sikh community nor the Muslims, not even the non-migrant Kashmir Pandit community, is responsible for the temporary flight, internal displacement and departure of a section of Pandits from South and Central Kashmir to Jammu plains. We don’t have to quantify pain. We have to demonstrate empathy, compassion and the idea of justice and honest conversations based on objective facts,” Geelani said.Geelani, author of Kashmir: Rage and Reason, said we have to talk about the Gow Kadal, Bijbehara, Zakura, Handwara and Hawal – civilian massacres of Muslims – as much as we talk about Wandhama and Chhattisingpora – civilian massacres of Hindu and Sikhs. Also read: ‘Even Our Apple is Political’: Indo-US Trade Deal, Climate Stress and Conflict Threaten Kashmir’s Farmers“We can’t indulge in invisibilisation of the pain of the inhabitants and use other mediums, including propaganda movies and social media narratives, to paint Kashmir Muslims as villains. No reconciliation will work if the conversation starts with lies and ends with hyperbole,” he said.Geelani added: “We must talk about the human rights violations committed against all human beings regardless of their ethnic, religious and political identity. Justice will pave the way for reconciliation. Resolution will ensure peace.”According to official records from the Union home ministry and Jammu and Kashmir government, 219 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by militants during the outbreak of violence that eventually led to their departure from the Valley.From common Kashmiris, Geelani said politicians belonging to competing ideological strands to religious leaders such as Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have maintained their stance that Kashmiri Hindus are an inseparable part of Kashmir. “So, no one is against their return. There are Kashmiri Pandits who never left Kashmir, like Sikhs and Christians continue to live in the Valley,” he noted.Government non-seriousness on Kashmiri Pandits returnAddressing a press conference after the conclusion of the tour, Surinder Kaul called for concrete measures to facilitate their rehabilitation, including establishing a dedicated township in Rainawari and enhancing opportunities for community-led investment in the Valley.Advisor to chief minister Omar Abdullah, Nasir Aslam Wani, addressing the Pragaash event, advocated reviving the 2009 Apex Committee – set up by the National Conference (NC) government in 2009 – to oversee the permanent rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits. Mohit Bhan, a Kashmiri Pandit and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesperson, however, dismissed NC’s proposition, citing the government’s “non-seriousness” in facilitating the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley.“There was an important Bill tabled by the PDP [Peoples Democratic Party] in the assembly about the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmir Pandits, but none of them [Pragaash group] or the chief minister’s advisor talked about it during the conference,” Bhan said.In March, PDP moved a private member’s bill titled “The Kashmiri Pandit and Migrant Re-integration Bill-2026” in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The Bill submitted by PDP legislator Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi proposes establishing a statutory J&K Re-integration Commission to oversee the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of displaced migrants.Bhan said that rather than pitching for the revival of the 2009 Apex Committee, the NC government should pass the Bill and then form a committee to formalise the Kashmiri Pandits’ return to the Valley.“If you don’t consider a lawmaker’s Bill, then forming an apex committee is just mere words without any seriousness about the entire exercise,” Bhan said.Bhan pointed out no major Pandit association that has worked on the ground were represented at the Pragaash conference, adding that participants had previously blamed regional parties for the killings of Kashmiri Pandits. “Till yesterday, these people used to bash political parties, calling them killers of their community, and today they were garlanding the same people. I wonder what changed recently,” he said. In his speech at the Pragaash conference, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that “the time has come for Kashmiri Pandits to reclaim their place” in the Union Territory’s future, calling their homecoming the “truest victory”.Ground reality far more complexSanjay Tickoo, president of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), a Srinagar-based organisation of local Pandits, said that the ground reality for Kashmiri Pandits’ return to the Valley is far more complex than what is often portrayed at conferences and in public debates.“These conferences [Pragaash] won’t do any good. I was the first one [Kashmiri Pandit] who used to do such conferences before 2019. I have lived all my life here [Kashmir], and ground realities are contrary to what is often said,” he said.Tickoo added that attacks on the Pandit community in 2021 and the Baisaran attack in Pahalgam last year reflect that normalisation is an illusion in Kashmir.“If the situation is so feasible, then why on the governor’s cavalcade does the entire route get blocked? Why is there so much security for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra? Post 2019 [abrogation of Article 370], people can’t even talk freely. These are the facts on the ground that people outside Kashmir are not aware of,” he mentioned.Tickoo said the visiting GKPD group consists of ten to 15 people who have no stakes in Kashmir and are mostly settled outside India. “This was nothing but a business tour. They came, enjoyed, had Wazwan and left. The real stakeholders of Kashmir are Pandits who are still living in Jagti camp in Jammu and even today don’t have a two-time meal to eat,” Tickoo said. Jagti Camp, located on the outskirts of Nagrota near Jammu, with approximately 5000 families, is the largest residential settlement for displaced Kashmiri Pandits who fled the Kashmir Valley in 1990.The J&K and Ladakh high court on Tuesday sought the administration’s response to a plea for land allotment in Srinagar to establish a colony for displaced Kashmiri Pandits.Justice Shahzad Azeem passed the order on a plea filed by the Displaced Kashmiri Residents Housing Cooperative Society. The Society has urged the government to act on rehabilitation commitments made to the Pandit community who left the Valley during the militancy-hit period of 1989-90.To support the return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, the government is constructing 6,000 transit accommodation units across the Valley under the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) at Rs 920 crore.No reconciliation with ‘killers’Soon after the Pragaash heritage tour concluded, the visiting group came under attack from Jammu-based right-wing Panun Kashmir, which has long campaigned for a separate homeland for Pandits in the Valley. Its convenor, Agnishekhar, alleged that the visiting Pandits had exonerated ordinary Muslims of any role in the “community’s exodus”.“Why should we reconcile with people who are responsible for our genocide. All the culprits should be booked under the law and punished for their crimes,” M.K. Dhar, publicity secretary of Panun Kashmir, told The Wire.Dhar said that an NRI group of Kashmiri Pandits can’t be the voice of the community, reiterating that the creation of a separate homeland for Pandits within the Valley remains the only solution for their return.“Our lands have been grabbed by Kashmir Muslims. People have built Mosques and houses on them. So, we can’t ignore and forgive such actions in the name of reconciliation,” he added. Junaid Kathju is a freelance journalist based in Srinagar. He tweets @JunaidKathjoo.