The release of ‘The Kashmir Files’, an in-your-face movie directed by Vivek Agnihotri about the systematic and bloody targeting of the Kashmiri Pandit community in the Kashmir Valley in 1990 by jihadi insurgents, has reignited memories of those harrowing years.

While the movie’s cinematic and thematic merit is a matter of debate, its impact on India’s movie audiences has been undeniable. In particular, it has profoundly affected the Kashmiri Hindu community, almost all of which was driven out of the valley amid death and destruction.

Kusum Kaul Vyas, President of the Kashmiri Samaj, Gujarat based in Ahmedabad, is one of some 150,000 Pandits who suffered a wrenching personal loss of family members as well as lifelong displacement from their homes.

Vyas spoke to Mayank Chhaya Reports offering a firsthand account of what transpired in 1990 when she and her family had to flee their home in Anantnag amid mortal threat to them and having nowhere in particular to run to.

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