Mehbooba lambastes BJP for promoting ‘The Kashmir Files’

Calls for setting up panel to probe circumstances that led to the exodus of Pandits

ISLAMABAD:

President of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is promoting "The Kashmir Files", a film on the plight of displaced Kashmiri Hindus, to incite people on religious lines in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).     

According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS), while talking to reporters on the sidelines of her party's convention in Jammu, Mehbooba called for the setting up of a panel to probe the circumstances that led to the exodus of Pandits from the valley.

Asking people to watch the film but not harbour hatred towards Muslims, Mehbooba said the circumstances that led to the 2020 Delhi riots and the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 should also be probed.      

"Of course, the Government of India should take a decision in this regard (probing the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits).”

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 She said the Indian government should set up a "truth and reconciliation commission" to probe not only the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits but also the Gujarat and Delhi riots.

"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 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 IIOJK. The people of IIOJK were caught between the guns of Pakistan and India. The Kashmiri Pandits were also victims of it."      

Maintaining that the makers of the "The Kashmir Files" have to make money, Mehbooba said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP are promoting the film to incite people on religious lines.