SRINAGAR: Amid the ongoing preparations for celebrating the long-awaited physical integration of the Kashmir with the rest of the country through a seamless railway line—an engineering milestone soon to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister—members of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community are raising a far more emotional and urgent question: when will they be permanently reconnected with the land of their ancestors?
In a powerful appeal issued by Sanjay K Tickoo, President of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), the community has called upon the Government of India to go beyond symbolism and deliver concrete action on the rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits. “Every displaced Pandit now looks towards the Hon’ble Prime Minister, expecting a single word—either a green signal or a clear deadline—that would mark the beginning of their long-overdue return,” Tickoo said.
More than three decades after their forced exodus from the Valley in 1990, the community remains scattered across India and abroad, waiting for more than just infrastructure. “What we await is not just trains and tunnels, but justice, dignity, and belonging,” the KPSS statement read. The group submitted a detailed representation to the Home Minister of India through the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, demanding a concrete rehabilitation roadmap within the next 60 days.
Tickoo pointed out that successive governments have reduced the question of Pandit rehabilitation to political posturing. “For thirty-five years, we have been used as a talking point—no different from the hollow slogans once raised across the border,” he said. “Temporary housing schemes and the Prime Minister’s employment package cannot substitute for the return of a people to their homeland with dignity and security.”
The statement underlined that the displacement was not only about the violence that drove the community out but also about the long-term trauma and marginalisation they have endured. “Many perished in exile—not from bullets, but from weather, lack of healthcare, and the slow erosion of identity,” Tickoo said. “What was meant to be temporary has become a permanent exile.”
The KPSS has made a strong case for a comprehensive and dignified return policy—one that includes land ownership rights, political representation, cultural preservation, long-term security guarantees, and above all, truth and justice. “We fear not just the failure of policy. We fear the death of the very idea of return,” Tickoo said.
Calling for the creation of a Truth and Justice Commission to formally acknowledge the events of 1990 and counter attempts to rewrite history, the KPSS warned that without such a measure, no rehabilitation policy could restore trust. “Rehabilitation without justice is meaningless,” the statement asserted.
If the government fails to respond within the stipulated 60-day window, KPSS has said it will be forced to seek judicial intervention.
“The road of exile has stretched far too long. The time for speeches is over. The time for action is now,” Tickoo said, emphasising that the community still believes in the ideals of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, but insists that belief must now be honoured in practice.
As the nation celebrates its newest connection to Kashmir through steel and stone, a displaced community waits—silent, steadfast, and still hopeful—for its own reconnection to the Valley it once called home, the appeal added.
