Ex-J&K Guv Jagmohan put Kashmiri Pandits in buses, said they’d be brought back in 2 months: Farooq Abdullah

Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah said on Tuesday that late Jagmohan Malhotra, Governor of J&K in 1990, had put Kashmiri Pandits in buses and told them they would be brought back in two months. However, that did not happen, he said.

Speaking on the Kashmiri Pandit exodus of 1990, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said then Governor Jagmohan Malhotra had put Kashmiri Hindus in buses and told them they would be brought back in two months. However, 32 years have passed and his promise remains unfulfilled, Farooq Abdullah said.

In an exclusive interview with India Today’s Raj Chengappa, Farooq Abdullah said, “We cannot forget the then Governor [Jagmohan Malhotra] who put the Pandits in buses and said, ‘We will bring you back in two months because I have to use force on these people [insurgents] and the retaliation might impact you’. It has been 32 years. Where are the Kashmiri Pandits?”

Further, he said, “I was not ruling then [during exodus]. The minute Jagmohan came, I gave up. I said, try and save the situation. You don’t trust me, trust him. On the very first day [of his rule], 50 people lost their lives. He was the man in charge. Was he able to save the situation?”