Farooq Abdullah Blames Kashmiri Pandits For Not Returning To Kashmir. The Internet Reacts

There's a small Indian 'minority' for whom January 19, 2016 isn't just Tuesday - it's Kashmiri Pandit Exodus Day.

A history lesson that Indian schoolbooks want you to forget

Ticket to exile: Bus ticket purchased by family on 19th Jan., 1990 when we were forced out of Kashmir. #KPExodusDay pic.twitter.com/dXBzVrKXoT

¡ª Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) January 19, 2016

It is a day of mournful reminiscing for India's biggest communal genocide, an attack on lakhs of Kashmiri Pandit Hindus, the original residents of Kashmir.

Evicted after threats of rape and murder by Islamist radicals who used the call of the azaan to draw participants into India's biggest land grab, these people were secretly shipped away in army convoy trucks to find shelter across the nation.

Their demands were ignored by successive government, and today these pandits, easily identified with their fair skin, light eyes, and distinctive names (including Kher and Haq) are afraid to go back to the land that gave them their identity and language.

Also read: Anupam Kher Writes A Passionate Post Asking India To Give Kashmiri Pandits Back Their Home

On Twitter, probably the last bastion of free speech in India, #KPExodusDay is trending across the nation

Kashmiri Pandits are sharing photos to ensure we can never forget, even as history books conveniently ignore this episode in our history.

On 25th Jan 1998,23 Kashmiri Hindus were massacred in #WandhamaMassacre #KPExodusDay pic.twitter.com/pB0ty8z0N2

¡ª Rashneek Kher (@Rashneek) January 19, 2016

Our destroyed houses still tell our bleeding stories. We once lived there thinking of a bright future. #KPExodusDay pic.twitter.com/8bI4AkOd3l

¡ª Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) January 19, 2016

So when former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah puts the blame on Kashmiri Pandits for not returning to the Valley, there was only shock.

"They (the Pandits) have to realize one thing- nobody is going to come with a begging bowl and say 'come and stay with us' , they have to make the move, " Mr Abdullah said to NDTV's Barkha Dutt.

He claimed to have made attempts to return to the Valley, which has still not ceased its militancy and radical Islamist activism in the name of separatism (#Azadi). Instead of acknowledging the horrors that have never been forgotten by the generation that almost perished trying to survive, he only blamed them. "When (J&K) government made a move that the officers and doctors who are settled here (Delhi) should come back, they came to see me and said 'look, our children are in schools here, our parents are ill and they need medical care...we can't take them back, so for God's sake, let us live here¡±, he added in the interview.

Kashmiri Pandits, and their friends and supporters do not agree.

Refugee camps in Jammu were like concentration camps,Hundreds died of snake &scorpion bites+heat stroke #KPExodusDay

¡ª Rashneek Kher (@Rashneek) January 19, 2016

Rupawati Bhan tourtured to death. No Justice, No CBI, No SIT. #KPExodusDay pic.twitter.com/G3kiNyfD6B

¡ª Amal Magazine (@amalmagazine) January 19, 2016

Farooq Abdullah says no one will beg Pandits with katora to return to Kashmir! Only in India such vulgar insensitivity towards Hindus!

¡ª ?? ???? ?? ??? (@India_Policy) January 19, 2016

Farooq Abdullah, u killed & raped us, burnt our houses, temples & now mock us. I thought u were physically unwell & nt mentally. #KPExodus

¡ª Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) January 18, 2016

Farooq Abdullah's hand on the Ex-Terrorist now love of Delhi. Image Speaks #KPExodusDay #ShameOnFarooq @ashokepandit pic.twitter.com/XudsuhIJwc

¡ª Shivanshu Bhardwaj (@ShivaBhar) January 19, 2016