Chairman of Panun Kashmir, Dr Ajay Chrungoo, has said that the Pahalgam killings of 26 Hindus were not an isolated act of terrorism but a pogrom designed to reinforce Hindu extermination. This pogrom has been ongoing with no break for the past many decades. The Kashmiri Pandit (KP) community faced its brunt, and those who would not, or could not, leave Kashmir were killed, he pointed out at a function organised in Jammu on World Refugee Day (June 20).
Delivering a hard-hitting speech, Dr Chrungoo traced the continuity of genocide from the 1986 Anantnag riots to the 2025 realities. “The massacre at Pahalgam is part of the same uninterrupted genocidal campaign. The victims of Kashmir are now being asked to vote in exile, cohabit with perpetrators, and stay silent for peace. This is nothing but the political consolidation of our genocide,” he said.
He dismissed all talk of reconciliation as psychological warfare against victims and termed the return of Kashmiri Pandits to Kashmir without justice a “fraud in the name of democracy’’.
Former Director General of Police Dr. S.P. Vaid shared insights into Operation Sindoor, recalling the grim intelligence leading up to and after the Pahalgam massacre. “The threats were real, the targets were known, yet the system failed. Why? Because there was no political will to protect the Kashmiri Pandits,” he asserted.
Referring to his tenure when he headed J&K police, Dr Vaid stated that every operation meant to safeguard KPs was either delayed, or diluted. “I witnessed how the machinery was systematically programmed to ignore red flags. Pahalgam wasn’t a failure of intelligence. It was a failure of intent,” he said. He lauded Panun Kashmir for preserving the truth of the genocide and urged the youth to document each injustice. It needs to be mentioned here that Panun Kashmir is the foremost organisation representing KPs.
At the Panun Kashmir organised community meeting on the occasion of World Refugee Day at Jammu, several speakers spoke about the systematic marginalisation of KPs. Organising Secretary B.L. Kaul asserted that “refugee status is not an identity but a reminder of the unfinished battle for justice’’. He said: “Today is not a day of mourning, but of assertion. We gather here not to seek pity but to remind the world of the betrayal we continue to endure.”
He lamented the global silence around the Hindu genocide in Kashmir and urged the community to consolidate its demand for rightful restitution, not symbolic gestures.
Another community leader, Bhushan Lal Bhat, reminded the gathering of the foundational commitment that Panun Kashmir was built upon — justice, not compromise. “We are not refugees in search of food and shelter, we are a civilisation denied its homeland. This is not exile but an erasure,” he said. Referring to international justice mechanisms, he highlighted that recognition of genocide is not just about memory but about survival. He demanded an international tribunal and a sovereign homeland in Kashmir for the victims, the KP community.
The event concluded with a collective oath of remembrance and resistance, defying global attempts to erase the Kashmiri Hindu struggle. The audience comprised genocide survivors and young activists who resolved to carry forward the truth of the community, not as victims, but as witnesses determined to seek justice.
