All Communities in Kashmir Came Between Guns of India, Pakistan: Mehbooba Mufti on The Kashmir Files

Addressing media, the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti demanded the setting up of a 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' to address the atrocities committed on minorities across the country.

New Delhi: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday broke her silence on the controversial film ‘The Kashmir Files’, which is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley. Coming down heavily on the BJP-led Central government she accused it of promoting the movie with an intention of spreading communal divide in the society. Addressing the media, the PDP chief demanded the setting up of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ to address the atrocities committed on minorities across the country.

“I have not seen ‘The Kashmir Files’. I have heard that the film shows a lot of violence and bloodshed and that it has painful scenes. What happened with the Kashmiri Pandits was horrible. We feel their pain. But you cannot hate every Kashmiri Muslim (for the exodus of Pandits),” she said.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief recounted the massacres of Sikhs in Chittisinghpura, Hindus in Bajrala (Doda) and Kotdhara, and Muslims in Surankote and said, “Every community faced the worst oppression in Jammu and Kashmir. All communities in Jammu and Kashmir were caught between the guns of our country and Pakistan. The Kashmiri Pandits were also victims of the crossfire.”

Maintaining that the makers of the “The Kashmir Files” have to make money, Mufti accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of promoting the film to incite people on religious lines. She said the way “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP are promoting the film, if they have dome something for Kashmiri Pandits the same way in past eight years, they would have been in better conditions.”

Mufti further claimed that the last time any aid was provided to the displaced Kashmiri Pandits was when her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile state during the UPA government at the Centre when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of India. “Whatever aid had been given to Kashmiri Pandits, it was done when Mufti Sahab was Chief Minister and when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister. They were given employment packages. They were rehabilitated by being shifted from tents to flats. After that nothing was done for them,” she said.

Demanding the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, Mufti said, “There should be a forum where everything is discussed including atrocities on Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. There should be discussions about Gujarat and Delhi riots, along with whatever happened in Jammu and Kashmir with Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and Muslims.”

Earlier today, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah also lambasted the BJP for promoting the film for political gains and said the film was far from reality and nothing but ”propaganda” to polarise the nation. He also suggested setting up of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ headed by an ”honest” person to find out what had happened at that time.