Rohit Kachroo can still remember flinging open his backdoor and playing on the banks of the vast River Jhelum dissecting the city of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

But recollections of his home town stop age four-and-a-half when he was forced to flee to Delhi with three generations of his family as brutal majority Muslim mobs ran riot.

“I hope that no child in the world has to see what I have seen,” Rohit said.

Rohit, 33, is one of many Pandit Hindus now mobilising for the 'rightful' return home after Narendra Modi revoked Kashmir's special status, tearing up rules that had barred outsiders from owning land there.

But fears are growing that Mr Modi, whose Hindu nationalism won him an extraordinary re-election in May, is exploiting the plight of the Pandits to encourage Hindus across India to follow suit - leading to a Palestine-style occupation that will cement a new 'unified' nation.