What about displaced KP’s Rehabilitation?
Er. P.L Khushu
On 22 April, Pakistan based terrorist group “The Resistance Front” (TRF) perpetrated a devastating attack in Pahalgam, J&K. In this attack 26 innocent tourists were killed in cold blood after segregating them based on their religion. TRF is an offshoot of the well known Pakistan backed terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. Post the attack, TRF claimed the responsibility for this attack not once but twice within a few hours. Pakistan’s subsequent refusal to acknowledge or curb these terrorist networks compelled India to take a responsible but resolute action. In response, on the night of 7-8 May 2025, the Government of India executed “Operation Sindoor,”. The response was non escalatory, precise and targeted terrorist training camps only, at nine different locations within Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. No military targets were engaged.
However, in the early hours of 8 May, Pakistan, in an escalated response launched coordinated drone and missile strikes targeting over a dozen Indian military installations across the Northern and Western theatres, including Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Bhuj. India’s robust Integrated Counter-drone Grid and layered Air Defense systems intercepted these attacks, recovering debris conclusively traced to Pakistani origin. Following these provocations, India conducted precision strikes against Pakistani Air Defence systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. These strikes were confined to the neutralization of systems that had facilitated the earlier Pakistani assault and were executed under the guiding principle of “equal intensity in the same domain.” By targeting only those installations directly involved in the aggression, India balanced the imperative of deterrence with its overarching commitment to de-escalation.
Unfortunately along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan escalated to unprovoked mortar and heavy artillery fire into civilian areas in which sixteen innocent lives were lost, including three women and five children. Here too, India was compelled to respond in equal proportion with mortar and artillery fire. Indian Armed forces reiterate their commitment to non-escalation. However, any attempts by Pakistan to escalate was responded firmly and under Operation Sindoor will be responded in future too as per the statements of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India to teach a lesson to Pakistan for harboring terrorists an their camps in Pakistan.
The operation lasted approximately 23 minutes, utilizing Rafale jets equipped with high precision Missiles and drones. Operation Sindoor, hit about 4 location in the territory of Pakistan whereas 5 within the region of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir: As per reports the terror hubs of Markaz Subhan Allah, Bahawalpur, Jaish-e-Mohammed Headquarters, Markaz Taiba, Muridke, Lashkar-e-Taiba Base, Mehmoona Joya, Sialkot, Hizbul Mujahideen Camp, Markaz Ahle Hadith, Barnala, LeT-linked Religious Indoctrination Hub, Syedna Bilal Camp, Muzaffarabad, Jaish-e-Mohammed Training Centre, Shwawai Nalla Camp, Muzaffarabad , Lashkar-e-Taiba Operations Unit , Makaz Raheel Shahid, Kotli , Hizbul Mujahideen Centre, Markaz Abbas, Kotli, JeM Safehouse, Sarjal Facility, Tehra Kalan & the like were precisely hit and destroyed alongwith its occupants, viz the terroriits manning these centers.
Operation Sindoor is a principle-driven military response underpinned by strategic restraint to convey to Pakistan not to harbor the terrorists and their camps in Pakistan, which are being used in Jammu and Kashmir for the last more than 30 years by Pakistan to disturb peace and tranquility in J & K. It was in response to a barbaric terrorist attack on innocent tourists which originated from Pakistan. India had a right to response which it did, in a responsible, restrained, measured and a non-escalatory manner.
While addressing the nation Prime Minister Modi made it specifically clear that, Terror and Talks cannot go together, Terror and trade cannot go together and Water and Blood cannot flow together. It conveys enough signals to Pakistan not to rear and fan terror and terrorists in its country and use these as a proxy war against India, in the shape of brutal terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir which is going on there for the last more than 30 years.
The word ” Sindoor” for this operation has a special emotional significance, which indicates the taking the revenge for the widowing of young Indian ladies in the terror operations at Pahalagm brutally and mercilessly, by the Pakistani sponsored terrorists, when the word “Sindoor” in Indian Hindu culture signifies the symbol of the sanctity of presence of a married status of an Indian Hindu woman, which they exhibit on their foreheads, by applying symbolic Sindoor on their foreheads as mark of and regard of their married life status. It is a sign of the sacred marriage of a woman.
Better late than never. Enough is enough now on the part of Pakistan. Operation Sindoor is a welcome step in this regard and presumably it appears that a start has been given to deal with Pakistan the perpetrator of terror in Kashmir, with some kind of kinetic reaction, though much more needs to be done on the ground security levels to tackle Pakistan militarily with an appropriate response.
Such operations were not taken recourse to in the case of the mass genocide and forced displacement of the more than six lack Kashmiri Pandits, who are living in exile as refugees in their own country.
It is not a new phenomenon of terror for the forcibly displaced Kashmiri Pandits , as they have witnessed it 35 years ago, when they are living as refugees in their own country for long now. Thanks to the pseudo secular policies of the power corridors of this country. With the extreme influx of the of Islamic fundamentalist wave in Kashmir right from 1988, even though its deep roots were very much there in a section of the majority population, it resulted in the shaking of the foundations of the basic existence of the roots of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir, being the aboriginal dwellers of Kashmir. KP’s were driven out from Kashmir at the gun point, naked and barren, along with carrying of the deep scars of their genocide, loot, arson, rape and mass devastation with them. Since then the displaced KP’s continue to live as refugees in their own country as a “Caged – Community”, anticipating and expecting a fair treatment with them at the hands of the power corridors, when tall claims are being made about the same day in and day out. Nothing has matured on the ground, nor does it appear to happen. Displaced KP’s lost everything under this communal fiasco of Islamic fundamentalism, which was more loaded with terrorism than any Islamic peeping of any sacred principles of even the tough Islamic teachings and preaching’s, to be classified under any ism of reality or truth of a religious dogma or faith. History is privy to the fact that the role of the terrorist imported in Kashmir across the border with the aim to Islamize Kashmir fully under the umbrella of fundamentalism, almost turned the other way round, when they targeted Kashmiri Pandits first to cleanse the valley from their presence. It was aided and abetted by most of the political leaders of Kashmir along with the majority of the local population. The authorities in power of varied classifications that matter for peaceful governance and freedom for all ignored it spitefully, as KP’s do not have a vote bank tag, being a miniscule community.
It reminds the KP’s of their past periods of tyrannies of Muslim rulers like Moguls’, Pathans, Chaks and the like. It is said that seven mounds (about 280 Kgs) of the sacred thread of the murdered Brahmans were burnt by Sikandar Butshikan and all of their sacred books were thrown into the Dal Lake. The KPs numbering over one lakh were drowned in the Lake and were burned at a spot in the vicinity of Rainawari in Srinagar City, known as Bhatta Mazar (The grave yard of the Bhattas, the KPs) beyond present day Jogilanker.
According to the living memory of the KPs, only eleven KP families stayed back in Kashmir, the rest, rather than abandoning the religion of their father’s, chose to migrate leaving behind their beloved homes hearths, lands and everything, only to protect their religion and faith}.
With the brute advent of militancy in the year 1989-90, during the national conference rule, abetted by the sympathetic support of the Congress party from Delhi, the situation for the KP’s became a death knell for them. It is almost like a last nail in our coffin to get extinct from the history of Kashmir and become a mystery and a history of past. Mass genocide and exodus of the KP’s occurred, which is reverberating still on the fascia and the minds of the KP’s and will continue to be so as long as humanity exists in this universe. Prominent leaders, intellectuals, politicians, individuals, government officers and the like amongst the KP’s were brutally killed in broad day lights in thousands, along with the mass migration of this minuscule community to their destinations of devastations. It shows an extreme apathy of the various governments who have not doing anything tangible to save the KP’s from extinction.
Actions initiated by the government of India in the past for the return and rehabilitation of the KP’s to the Kashmir valley were half hearted and were not taken after due consultations with the community members, who were knowing as to where the shoe is pinching in this regard. As soon as such a news with regard to government moves for the rehabilitation of KP’s, became public, Muslim leadership across the political divide in Kashmir valley rejected the return of KP’s to any kind of secured settlements in the valley. This unanimous rejection of the return of KP’s to the Valley by the entire populace of the Muslims of Kashmir along with their leadership shows clearly that the forced migration of Kashmiri Hindus was not only an act committed by a few, but an organized off shoot of “Islamic Jehad”.
It shows that there was a societal connivance amongst the majority community of Kashmir, in this entire operation of religious cleansing of KPs. Kashmiri Muslim leadership of all the ranks and files including the so called pseudo secularists were thus an integral part of the intolerant Islamic fundamentalists, when these elements continue to be so.
If Operation Sindoor could be taken recource to for the brutal killings of just 26 souls at Phalgam, which was a shocking situation for Tom, Dick and Harry, why such operations were not taken so for by the various governments, particularly the present government at the Centre, to avenge the mass destruction of KP’s through terror and terrorists.
Are the KP’s on the path of extinction, after their throttled ouster from the valley of Kashmir, due to the Islamic fundamentalists terror assaults of sorts upon them, during 1989-90. Should KP’s now at least get alarmed about their extinction as an ebb original community known as Kashmiri Pandits ( Battas), having been shattered by the tyranny of the times since last 35 years, when no one is listening to our woes with concern and appropriate remedies.
The authorities in power have no causative concern about them, as they are not a vote bank treasure and tag, due to their minuscule and displaced status.
KP’s are being applied fragile balms like petty job packages that too with suicidal moratoriums, when our youth who opt for such jobs under situational circumstances have to work in Kashmir only under the threat of Islamic gun, which has taken so many precious lives of our meritorious young men . These are petty sops as political Lollypops, for national consumption by the present ruling dispensation at the centre.
Is not the concept of ” Viksit Bharat” or ” Vikasit Bharat” applicable to KP’s. Do they have no right under such schemes of development, which are for the welfare of the people of India? KP’s could have been accommodated for a “Home Land” under such schemes. The simple reply is that they do not carry a vote bank tag with them, thus are neglected.
Under such circumstances displaced KP’s want a return to their “homeland”, but not to the servitude of a Muslim State, as Kashmir has become now. Under such grave circumstances, the only solution left for the rehabilitation of the KP’s is to create a “separate homeland” for the KP’s, with in Kashmir, having a status of “Union Territory”. Such a call is not any political proposition. It is in fact the only way to ensure the return of the KP’s to their “homeland” securing their return with safety and dignity.
Let rehabilitation of the KP’s back to their home land ” Kashmir”, become a part of “Operation Sindoor” at least now for the forcibly displaced KP’s who are victims of grave acts of genocide, murder, loot and indignation due to terror assaults of sorts upon them , during 1989-90., when they are living as displaced persons in their own country, but away from their birth home land Kashmir.
(The author is a chartered consultant civil engineer)
