During the armed rebellion of 1989, many Kashmiris who were believed to be supporting Indian rule in Kashmir were selectively killed. Several Kashmiri Pandits were also killed, mostly on allegations of being informers of the government.

The first militant attack was on a Muslim police officer, Ali Muhammad Watali. The first militancy related civilian killing was also of a Muslim, Muhammad Yusuf Halwai, on 21 August 1989. He was an activist of National Conference.

Mir Mustafa, a former legislator, was kidnapped and killed on 21 March 1990. Professor Mushir-ul-Haq, VC of the University of Kashmir and Abdul Gani were kidnapped and killed on 6 April 1990. On 23 December 1990, senior politician Maulana Mohammad Sayeed Masoodi was gunned down.

Some Kashmiri Pandits like Tika Lal Tapiloo of BJP, Neel Kant Ganjoo - a sessions judge who ordered the hanging of Maqbool Bhat, Lassa Koul – Director of Doordarshan Srinagar and Pushkar Nath – Assistant Director in the State Information Department — were also killed.

All these killings were political rather than communal in nature. The first militancy related abduction was also of a Muslim Kashmiri woman, Rubaiya Sayeed, who was later released in exchange of five jailed rebels.

As per Anuradha Bhasin, "Many of them (Kashmiri Pandits) were shot dead for their affiliation with the intelligence agencies or their role in the government decision- making. Kashmiri Pandits occupied a prominent place in government jobs and bureaucracy."

Recently, AS Dulat was the IB chief in Kashmir during the 90s also accepted that IB, in J&K, had a fair amount of Kashmiri Pandits. “They sneaked in and out of all sorts of places and got the intelligence flowing… they rendered yeoman service to the nation."

On 1 March 1990, Almost a million Kashmiris marched towards the Headquarters of UNMOGIP to handover a memorandum seeking freedom of Kashmir from the Indian rule. The demonstration continued for days without a break but not a single Pandit or his/her property was harmed.

Rastriya Seva Dal, after visiting Jammu & Kashmir in April 1990, wrote in a report published by the Economic and Political Weekly that -

"Whether the Islamic sloganeering from mosques was widespread or this happened only in selected pockets, since there is no recorded document or media reports, the truth is likely to be a causality with imagination and prejudice clouding the real picture."

Most of the Kashmiri Pandits were unaware of the Government's plan to shift them to Jammu or other places temporarily to pave a way for a massive crackdown on the Muslims. Here is how Kashmiri Muslims helped their brethren.

In April 1990, Justice V. M. Tarkunde visited Kashmir and reported total communal harmony, -

All these statements prove that there were no blood-thirsty frenzied mobs on streets or in mosques who forced the Kashmiri Pandits to migrate. How would it have been possible? Kashmir was under curfew and shoot at sight orders were implemented on 17 January itself.

"There is no dispute about the fact that Kashmiri Pandit community was made a scapegoat by Jagmohan, some self-styled leaders of our community and other vested interests…. "

Pandits were assured by the government that once the proposed massacre of Muslims in Kashmir was completed and the movement curbed, they would be sent back to the valley. - KL Koul

In this letter below, Rajnath Turki, a Kashmiri Pandit writes to his friend Mushtaq Wani about how the security forces at Karan Nagar forced him to leave.

In a letter published in the Daily Alsafa on 18 September 1990, K.L. Koul also wrote -

Kashmiri Pandits faced overwhelming problems in Jammu and continue to do so. The weather was hot, tents were crowded, washrooms were ill-equipped. Young Pandit girls were subjected to stalking on daily basis. Kashmiri Pandits were facing an identity and cultural crisis.

As per some Indian Media channels and Kashmiri Pandit organizations, 3,50,000 to 7,00,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to migrate from Jammu & Kashmir but according to the Census of 1981 the total population of Hindus (including non- Kashmiris) was 124,078.

Given the decade growth of the community from 1971 to 1981 as 6.75% their population in 1991 would have been around 132,000. If we subtract at least 8,000 Kashmiri Pandits who didn’t leave the valley, we get almost 124,000 Kashmiri Pandits who migrated.

Following the migration, BJP came up with a list of 55 allegedly destroyed temples in Kashmir. On the day of the demolition of Babri Masjid (6 December 1992), Lal Krishna Advani claimed 55 temples had been destroyed in #Kashmir. He lied.

Journalist Harinder Baweja had busted this myth with photographic evidence and revealed that the BJP had misled people to score political points. In many cases, Muslims have been taking care of temples since decades.

Many non-Kashmiri Pujaris came from India and took over the temples here. These Pujaris started selling away various properties that the temples owned. In one case three Pujaris looked over 375 Kanals of temple land which they had rented to non-state-subjects, violating the A370.

In another case, a lease holder, Kuldeep Narayan Jaggi sold the rented land illegally for 2.5 Crore. Even an ancient idol from the temple is missing. Some Kashmiri Pandits say assets worth Rs 500 Crore are already sold out.

Source - Kashmir: Exposing the Myth behind the Narrative By Khalid Bashir Ahmad.