I inform Your Excellency Government that in this emergency I intend to establish an interim government with Sheikh Abdullah to carry out responsibilities with that of our Prime Minister." These were the words of Maharaja Hari Singh which he wrote in his treaty of accession. The Maharaja had no idea that these words would lead to the forceful expulsion of Kashmiri Pandits in the future.

As a consequence, Sheikh Abdullah took charge as Head of the Emergency Administration on 30 October 1947.

He assembled a force of local Kashmiri volunteers to fight against tribal sent from Pakistan. This volunteer group later formed the Jammu and Kashmir Militia. Sheikh Abdullah had thought that after the departure of the Indian Army, this army would become the defense force of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In 1976, this Militia, also known as the Dagan Brigade, was renamed the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment.

On August 8, 1953, he was dismissed as Prime Minister by Dr. Karan Singh, the then-Sadr-i-Riyasat. Sheikh Abdullah was immediately arrested and imprisoned for eleven years in the infamous "Kashmir Conspiracy Case," accused of conspiracy against the state.

The Kashmir Conspiracy Case was a legal case filed by the Government of Kashmir and the Investigations Department of the Government of India in which Abdullah was charged with treason against the state for allegedly advocating for a separate Kashmir.

However, subsequent events, such as the disappearance of Hazratbal in Kashmir, prompted Pandit Nehru to abandon the case. Sheikh Abdullah spent nearly eleven years in prison, from 1953 to 1964.

Sheikh Abdullah was interned again from 1965 to 1968 after Nehru’s death in 1964. Lal Bahadur Shastri ordered the internment, which Indira Gandhi continued. The Plebiscite Front was also barred from operating. This was allegedly done to prevent Sheikh and the Plebiscite Front, which he supported, from participating in the Kashmir elections.

He was exiled from Kashmir for 18 months in 1971-72, during which the Bangladesh Liberation War erupted, ending in the foundation of Bangladesh. Sheikh Abdullah concluded that it was critical for the region's survival to forsake hostile politics in lieu of promoting issue resolution through a resettlement process and negotiation rather than confrontation after witnessing the worrying course of events in the region.

He began talks with then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to normalize the situation in the region and came to an agreement known as the 1975 Indira-Sheikh accord with Indira Gandhi, in which he gave up the demand for a referendum in exchange for the people being granted the right to self-rule, as envisaged under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, by a democratically elected government.

Sheikh Abdullah agreed to measures previously undertaken by the central government in Jammu and Kashmir to integrate the state into India under the 1975 Indira–Sheikh Accord. This agreement was met with hostility by the people of Kashmir, laying the groundwork for a future insurgency. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), based in Pakistan-administered Azad Jammu and Kashmir, was among those who opposed the accords.

The Islamization of Kashmir began in the 1980s when Sheikh Abdullah's government renamed hundreds of locations with Islamic names. He also began giving communal speeches in mosques.

The armed struggle of the Afghan mujahedeen against the Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan War, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Sikh insurgency in Indian Punjab against the Indian government became sources of inspiration for a large number of Kashmiri Muslim youth. Both the pro-independence JKLF and pro-Pakistan Islamist groups, including Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, capitalize on the rapidly growing anti-Indian sentiments among Kashmiris.

Following the events of JKLF militant Maqbool Bhat, Kashmiri Muslims staged mass protests across the region, with large numbers of youths involved in prevalent anti-India demonstrations and then being met with severe retaliatory action by state security forces.

Farooq Abdullah, the then-chief minister, was accused of losing control of the situation. Ghulam Mohammad Shah, with Indira Gandhi's support, replaced his brother-in-law Farooq Abdullah as chief minister on 2 July 1984, after Abdullah was dismissed.

G. M. Shah's regime, which lacked mass support, pursued validity through religious sentiments from Islamists and India's adversaries. This created political space for Islamists, who had been soundly defeated in state elections in 1983. In 1986, Shah decided to build a mosque on the grounds of an ancient temple in Jammu's New Civil Secretariat area for Muslim employees for “Namaz”, which sparked a Hindu-Muslim conflict.

As a result of this, the Kashmiri Hindu minority in Kashmir was targeted by other inhabitants during the 1986 Kashmir riots. Many incidents in various areas have been reported in which Kashmiri Hindus have been killed and their properties and temples have been damaged or destroyed.

The army was called in by Shah to quell the violence, but it had little effect. Following communal riots in south Kashmir, then-Governor Jag Mohan dismissed his government on March 12, 1986. As a result, Jag Mohan assumed direct control of the state.

Kashmiri militants murdered anyone who openly expressed pro-India sentiments. Kashmiri Hindus were specifically targeted because they were perceived as representing the Indian presence in Kashmir due to their faith. Though the JKLF launched the insurgency, groups arose over the next few months advocating for the establishment of Nizam-e-Mustafa on Islamist groups proclaimed the Islamification of socio-political and economic setup, merger with Pakistan, Ummah unification, and establishment of an Islamic Caliphate.

Central government officials, Hindus, liberal and nationalist intellectuals, social and cultural activists, and others are said to have fixed in the valley to rid of un-Islamic elements. In July 1988, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) launched a separatist insurgency for Kashmir's independence from India. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front is accused of assassinating Indian spies and political collaborators. Over the course of six months, more than a hundred officials were assassinated in order to bring the government's administrative and intelligence apparatus under control.

In 1989, Dr. Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the then-internal affairs minister in the right-wing supported Janta Dal government, was kidnapped in December and five terrorists were released in exchange for her release. This incident caused public celebrations throughout the valley. Farooq Abdullah stepped down in January following the appointment of Jag Mohan Malhotra as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

Calls were made over loudspeakers from mosques, threatening Pundits to leave the valley and invoking the institution of an Islamic state. The headlines of threatening letters create terror, although later interviews revealed that the letters were received sparingly. Furthermore, many Pundit properties were set on fire. Per the Human Rights Watch, militants slew Hindu villagers and destroy Hindu temples.

Tika Lal Taploo, a right-wing member and lawyer, was assassinated by the JKLF on September 14, 1989, in his Srinagar home. Shortly after Taploo's death, Nilkanth Ganjoo, a Srinagar High Court judge who had sentenced Maqbul Bhat to death in 1984, was assassinated.

On January 4, 1990, the Srinagar-based newspaper Aftab published an op-ed where it threatened all Hindus to leave Kashmir immediately. Banners were placed on walls threatening all Kashmiris to strictly follow Islamic rules.

People were forced to return to Pakistan Standard Time by unidentified masked men wielding Kalashnikovs. As a symbol of Islamic rule, office buildings, shops, and other establishments were painted green. Kashmiri Hindus' shops, factories, temples, and homes were all burned or destroyed. Threatening posters were placed on Hindus' doors, threatening them to flee Kashmir as soon as possible.

Right-wing Hindu groups in India quickly championed Pandit’s cause, preying on their insecurities and further isolating them from Kashmiri Muslims. Many Kashmiri Muslims objected violence to against religious minorities. The departure of the Kashmiri Pandits provided an excuse for portraying Kashmiri Muslims as Islamic radicals, contaminating their more genuine political grievances and providing a rationale for the Indian state's surveillance and violent treatment of them.

The Hindutva Sangathan has made a concerted effort to take advantage of this situation by using it as an opportunity to spread its ideology and agenda. The Kashmiri exodus has been devastating for the region, but it has also put the right wing in a position of strength. Since then, the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homeland has also been an important part of the ruling Party's electoral platform.

The majority of Kashmiri Hindus fled the valley and settled in other parts of India, particularly in refugee camps in the state's Jammu region. Following the exodus, militancy in Kashmir increased. Following their exodus, the militants targeted the properties of Kashmiri Hindus. After conducting a survey in 2008 and 2009, the local Hindu organization in Kashmir, Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, reported that 399 Kashmiri Hindus were killed by insurgents from 1990 to 2011, with 75 percent of them killed during the first year of the Kashmiri insurgency and that approximately 650 Hindus have been killed in the valley over the last 20 years.

Panun Kashmir, a political organization representing Kashmiri Hindus, has published a list of approximately 1,341 Hindus killed since 1990.

As a result of militant forces’ persecution and harassment of Pandits, their population in the Kashmir Valley has decreased from roughly 160,000-200,000 in 1989 to 5,000 or fewer today.

Because they have not crossed an international border, Kashmiri Pandits are not considered "refugees". Many people want to be classified as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).

Nevertheless, the Indian government has denied this status to these persecuted Kashmiri Pandits, and they are still considered ‘migrants' in their own country by the Indian government.

Even today, while waiting for their return home, these Kashmiri Hindus are looking at every incoming government with hope. But whether it is the previous government or the present government which calls itself the flagbearer of Hindutva and nationalism, they have got disappointment everywhere till now and they still don't know how long they will have to bear the burden of waiting.