Er. P.L Khushu
Targeted killing of Kashmiri Pandits should not be seen from prism of religion. This is what has been said by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha. Admitting to the targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir recently, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha advised that the country should stop viewing it from the lens of religion as people from other communities have also been killed in large numbers. ‘There are also labourers who come from Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand during the apple season and there were two-three incidents, but a (false) narrative is spread,” he added. Such a statement coming from the highest office of the administration of Jammu and Kashmir is very much welcome for maintaining the secular balance of the country. But a distinct question arises, how long and why such killings from a particular community belonging to a particular religion of Jammu and Kashmir selectively only. Probably in all fairness it has to be accepted that such killings of KP’s are the killings of particular community of a particular religion, planned well and schematically executed by the terror groups working in Jammu and Kashmir. There should be no doubt about it. Kashmiri Pandits have been very much secular always while living in Kashmir. But secularism is not a one way traffic. It needs response from the other end. Still KP’s hold the banner of secular character while being in exile for the last about 35 years.
Austin a great philosopher says, “A page of history is worth a volume of logic”. In the case of Kashmiri Pandits, history of last more than 35 years is privy to this fact that KP’s were killed in the valley selectively in great numbers ever since the militancy erupted in the valley since 1989-90. These killings were pre planned when warnings were issued to the KP’s about such killings, with a further dictum to leave the valley right from 1990 itself, which is being repeated now. It is being done with specific intentions to make the valley an abode of a particular community only, for pushing through the charter of terror in the valley, along with spreading of hate in Kashmir for Indian dominance. It is being done by the masters of this menace of terror and militancy which is planned and fomented across the border in Pakistan. Probably the wearer knows better where the shoe is pinching. KP’s of the valley, where they were living from ages, have now been feeling such sad and genocidal pinching for the last almost 35 years. Such comments may suit the secular fabric of India for its local or national consumption, but it is a pseudo secular statement for the KP’s, which may add more salt to the bleeding wounds of having been forcibly displaced, who are living as displaced persons somewhere else in their own country. Better said than done a famous saying. KP’s need healing touches of sympathy and warmth by the administration of all levels , including the central one, for the amelioration of their present plight of dismay and distrust due to the onslaught of militancy in Kashmir for the last 35 years. If enough cannot be done for their rehabilitation, which seems a dream under the circumstances, yet, such statements may hurt them more. KP’s in Kashmir have been the victims of such pseudo secular statements from the dynastic rulers of Kashmir for decades including the congress party rulers from Delhi, which ultimately resulted in their present turmoil and displacement along with their mass genocide ever since 1990.
A brief abstract of the chronology of the killings of KP’s in Kashmir.
The dark night of January 19, 1990, shivering with cold, is remembered by all of them, as it was the worst nightmare for the Kashmiri Pandits living in the valley. Screaming from loud speakers and crowded streets was a message for KP’s living in Kashmir, which said, Ralive, Tsaliv , Neti- Galiv. (It meant that either convert to Islam or leave Kashmir and in the alternative face death). Even after about 31 years, Kashmiri Pandits shiver remembering the night which forced them into exodus and a life of exile within their own country. Jehadi cum communal speeches from mosques were put on loud speakers meant for “Azan & Nimaz”, which would say (“Yeti- Bani Pakistan, Bhatov Bhegeer the Bhatenen-San”), meaning there in that the Kashmir will become a Pakistan without male Kashmiri Pandits, but including women folk of Kashmiri Pandits. What followed thereafter is the mass genocide of KP’s. The prominent prey in this regard among Kashmiri Pandits were the persons of immense repute, writers, community elders, legal luminaries, press and media personalities, government officers/officials who were on prominent positions in the state administration or were known prominently. The spurt to militancy had actually given birth in the year 1989 itself, which was taken very lightly by Pandits of the valley, presuming that the brother hood and compassion between the majority community and the Pandits had never received any serious jolt in the past. But it was a myth. On 14 September 1989, Pandit Tika Lal Taploo, who was a lawyer and a prominent leader of KP’s, was murdered by the JKLF in Srinagar. Prominent lawyer Sh. Prem Nath Bhat was gunned down on 27th December-1989 in South Kashmir. Soon after Taploo’s death, Pt. Nilkanth Ganjoo, an imminent judge who had sentenced Maqbul Bhat to death, was shot dead. On 29 April 1990, Sarwanand Kaul Premi, a veteran Kashmiri poet was gruesomely murdered. His young son was also killed gruesomely. On 2nd February 1990, Satish Tikoo, a young Hindu Pandit social-worker was murdered near his own house in Habba Kadal. On 13 February 1990, Lassa Kaul, Station Director of Srinagar Doordarshan, was shot dead. This is only a small tale of KP’s who were killed brutally, because of being Kashmiri Pandits. In March 1997, terrorists drag out seven Kashmiri Pandits from their houses in Sangrampora village and gunned them down. In January 1998, about 23 Kashmiri Pandits, including women and children were shot dead in cold blood in Wandhama Village. In March 2003, about 24 Kashmiri Pandits, including infants, brutally shot dead in Nadimarg Village. More than 4, 00,000 Kashmiri Pandits left the Valley and took refuge in Jammu and elsewhere, leaving their entire properties and belongings in the valley to the mercy of militants and Jehadi’s. One can understand the agony of this exodus along with travesty of having lost everything in life, like one’s property, one’s belongings, agricultural lands and orchards, commercial establishments, means to earn a living honorably and above all our own culture which was unique for all of us and was very much dear to us. The administrative set ups both at the central government and the state government levels never bothered enough to address seriously such a devastation of the KP’s till date. Reason being that we the Pandits are not a vote bank entity for anybody or any political entity in Jammu & Kashmir or outside Jammu & Kashmir.
The killing of a Kashmiri Hindu pharmacist in Srinagar is a bizarre attempt of a timid and coercive acts of impious Jehad and thus an anti Islamic act as per the settled cosmic norms of Islam conveyed through Holy Quran. Gunmen stormed into the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Srinagar’s Eidgah area and shot two teachers at close range, after identifying these as non Muslim teachers. These victims were members of the region’s minority Sikh and Hindu communities.
Yet another brutal killing of a young non-Muslim teacher Rajni Bala, 36, who belonged to Samba district and was posted at a government school in Gopalpora, was shot dead by terrorists earlier in the day.Bala’s is the second killing of a non-Muslim government employees. . Similarly, earlier so many non-Muslims working in Kashmir working to earn their bread and butter, belonging to the other parts of India, were similarly killed mercilessly by the terrorists. Kashmiri Pandit Rahul Bhat, working in the office of Tehsildar Chadroo, in the district Badgam of Kashmir. He was shot dead inside the main office premises of the Tehsil Office at Chaddora, district Budgam, Kashmir on 13th May-2022, in broad day light, under the very nose of others working in that office, of course being mostly the Muslim employees. The lured terrorists barged into the Tehsil office Chadoora and shot from a close-range Rahul Bhat, working under Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package (PMRP), as a clerk. Another brutal killing of such a nature was of a Kashmiri Pandit Sh. Rakesh Pandita, the President of Municipal Committee Tral, which was done by Jehadis at Tral Kashmir, on 2nd June-2021, after another gruesome killing of Ajay Pandita a Kashmiri Pandit and a sarpanch at Larkipora, Anantnag, who was shot dead by unidentified terrorists at Lokbawan in Anantnag on 8th June-2020. . Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package (PMRP) for the KP’s has become a death trap for Rahul Bhat, who was working just as a clerk under this rehabilitation scheme of the Prime Minister of India for the migrant Kashmiri Pandits. What can be a better proof other than this when KP’s belonging to particular community were killed on the community card linked to a particular religion and being true Indians.
Can all such killings of KP’s in Kashmir be called as ” Secular” killings. If yes, ” what should be then called as communal killings”. The point is to make Kashmir an Islamic hyperbole with the sole aim to ensure that no one other than a fanatic Muslim lives there. Such an unholy epic has its seeds in Pakistan which want that Kashmir must be non-Muslim free, to further its anti-India activities in Kashmir. This conspiracy of evicting the KP’s from Kashmir along with their genocide has apparently a hidden go ahead from most of the fanatic Muslims of Kashmir believing in the establishing of ” Nizame- Mustaffa”, the pure Islamic Rule in Kashmir.
After passing through a protracted turmoil of almost more than three decades, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits are presently facing a piquant situation for them. Kashmir Fight blog, the mouthpiece of The Resistance Front (TRF), Pakistan’s new terror outfit , established in Kashmir and an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, has issued threats and released a ‘hit list’ with the names of 57 Kashmiri Pandits, who are working as government employees, under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package in the Kashmir Valley. In an open letter, the Islamic terror organization pledged to continue targeting Kashmir’s Hindus. They ranted about how the non-locals and Kashmiri Hindus were stealing employment and land from Kashmir. The terror group further stated that Delhi is imposing a ‘fascist’ Hindutva ideology on Kashmir and Kashmiries, which they will not tolerate. TRF also vowed to continue attacking Hindus who are “maligning the atmosphere of the valley.” “We once again want to warn such elements not to become pawns of Delhi Regime and don’t become the carriers of their filthy and fascist agenda,” read the threat letter.
What can such a threat noise or warning be called as, when such terror groups have already executed their some of such threats. Is it a secular warning? Why to KP’s only. No political party including the BJP, wants to antagonize the majority population of Muslims both in Kashmir and the other Muslims in India. Let the government act and save the innocent KP’s as pigeons before cats. Who comes to their rescue is a million dollar question.
(The author is a retired chartered civil engineer as also a displaced Kashmiri Pandit, who loves his motherland the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir).
