Srinagar, June 29 -- By Farooq Ahmad Khan

Thirty-six years have passed since Kashmiri Pandits left the valley in one of the darkest chapters of modern Kashmir's history.

Arguments over why they fled continue to dominate public debate, dividing people into competing camps of accusation and counteraccusation.

History deserves careful examination, but Kashmir now confronts a harder question: can a society fractured by violence restore the people whose absence changed its character?

That question defines Kashmir's future far more than another round of competing narratives about 1990.

Many Kashmiri Pandits built lives elsewhere. They found jobs, educated their children and adapted to unfamiliar cities. None of those achievements replaced ...