Recalling the fateful night of January 19, 1990, Panun vice-president Dr K L Chowdhary said how threatening announcements were issued against the minority community simultaneously throughout the Valley, which led to their mass exodus.

Declaring the ``holocaust day'' as a ``Day of National Shame'', Choudhary said as people started fleeing from the Valley, the State administration and Government at the Centre remained mute spectators to the biggest exodus in a civilised, democratic society.

Reiterating their demand for ``homeland'', Chowdhary declared that the day will also be observed as a ``day of resolve'' to return to the ``homeland'' and urged the people to prepare for the sacrifices to achieve the goal.

He also made an appeal to the communitymembers, people of the State and all Indians to support their struggle for their right to return with honour and dignity to the Valley, which has been their motherland for over 5,000 years.

Chowdhary also made an appeal to those in the Valley who had taken to violence, to see divine light on the holy day of Eid and shed the culture of murder and destruction.

Speaking on the occasion, All Kashmiri Pandit Solidarity Conference (Women's Wing) Coordinator Rajni Bhat urged the members of the community to unite under one umbrella to force the government to accept their demand of homeland.

Flaying the remarks of Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah during his visit to the migrant Mishriwala and Purkhoo camps yesterday, Choudhary said Farooq was creating wedge between the community and the people of Jammu by saying that Jammuites would not tolerate the migrants for too long in the region. Expressing his gratitude to the people of the Jammu region for accepting them warmly in this hour of crisis, he said themigrants are living in harmony with the people from Jammu.

However, reiterating the community's resolve to return to the Valley with a separate homeland, Chowdhary challenged the Chief Minister to react to the three-tier rehabilitation formula released by the organisation on December 24 last. Later, a delegation of the Panun submitted a copy of the ``appeal issued to the people of India'' to the Governor.