Kashmiri Muslims Suffered 50 Times More Than Pandits In 1990s: Sajad Lone

“There is no doubt about injustice to the Kashmiri Pandits. Kashmiri Muslims have suffered 50 times more than Pandits. You cannot document the pain of just one community. We are all in it together. I have lost my own father to bullets,” Lone, a former minister in Jammu and Kashmir, said.

He further said that Kashmiri Muslims in the 1990s were as helpless as Pandits. “Everyone has suffered here, although they (the filmmakers) have exaggerated… But the main objective of Vivek Agnihotri (director of the film) is not to show the pain of Pandits but to only sow seeds of hatred between different communities. He doesn’t know that Pandits are living with us even today. Has he thought about them? They are our brothers and we love them but in the 1990s we were as helpless as the Kashmiri Pandits,” he added.

“I appeal to Prime Minister to make him (Vivek Aghintori) Rajya Sabha MP. Otherwise, I don’t know what else he will make. There is a new trend now that people like Vivek Aghintori and Anupam Kher are desperate to go to Rajya Sabha. They should be sent to Rajya Sabha, otherwise, they will drown this country in hatred,” Lone said while speaking to media persons here. The film, which focuses on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the 1990s, has been mired in controversy since its release on March 11 with the BJP and Opposition parties sparring over the portrayal of the incidents.

The movie, which was released in theatres on March 11, stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumaar, and others. The movie revolves around the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s and has been directed by Vivek Agnihotri, known for films like ‘Tashkent Files’, ‘Hate Story’ and ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam’.