The culprits of the kashmiri pandits’ exodus must be soon punished. that will be justice
An Islamist movement broke out in Kashmir valley in 1989-90, when for the first time loud-speakers fitted atop mosques in downtown areas of Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley were used to terrorise the peace-loving Kashmiri Pandit community living in harmony despite extreme provocations.
But before the Pandits could take note of these developments, posters surfaced, threatening them to convert to Islam or flee or perish. In the absence of a state machinery on ground, it was free for all.
Retd Col (Dr) Tej Kumar Tikoo, in his book, Kashmir — Its Aborigines and their Exodus, has attempted to track down the exact timeline of sequence of events when they were dragged out of Kashmir valley on the fretful night of January 19, 1990.
According to (Retd) Col Tikoo, “On January 4, 1990, a local Urdu newspaper, Aftab, published a Press release issued by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, asking all Pandits to leave the valley immediately.”
Al Safa, another local daily, repeated the warning. These warnings were followed by Kalashnikov-wielding masked jihadis carrying out military-type marches openly.
Explosive and inflammatory speeches being broadcast from the public address systems of the mosques, became frequent.
Recalling these events, former Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, MM Khajooria says, “The mischief of the summer of 1989 started with serving notice to the prominent members of the minority community to quit Kashmir” valley.
The letter said, “We order you to leave Kashmir immediately, otherwise your children will be harmed — we are not scaring you but this land is only for Muslims, and is the land of Allah. Sikhs and Hindus cannot stay here.” The threatening note ended with a warning, “If you do not obey, we will start with your children. Kashmir liberation Zindabad.”
Night of January, 19, 1990: In his book, Col Tikoo wrote that the night witnessed macabre happenings, the like of which had not been witnessed by Kashmiri Pandits after the Afghan rule. For future generations, it will be a constant reminder of the brutality of Islamic radicals, who had chosen the timing very carefully. “Farooq Abdullah, whose Government had all but ceased to exist, resigned. Jagmohan arrived during the day to take charge as the Governor of the State.”
He took over charge just the previous night at Jammu. He had made efforts to reach Srinagar during the day earlier, but the plane had to return to Jammu from Pir Panjal Pass, due to extremely bad weather. Though curfew was imposed to restore some semblance of order, it had little effect. The mosque pulpits continued to be used to exhort people to defy curfew and join the jihad against the Pandits, while armed cadres of Jammu & Kashmir liberation Front marched through the streets of the valley, terrorising the people without challenge.
For the first time after independence of India from British rule, Kashmiri Pandits found themselves abandoned to their fate, stranded in their own homes, encircled by rampaging mobs.
By now it became apparent to the Pandits that Kashmiri Muslims had decided to throw them out from the valley. Broadcasting vicious jihadi sermons and revolutionary songs, interspersed with blood-curdling shouts and shrieks, threatening Kashmiri Pandits with dire consequences, became a routine mantra of the Muslims of the valley, to force them to flee. Some of the slogans used were:
“Zalimo, O Kafiro, Kashmir harmara chod do.”
(O! Merciless, O! Kafirs leave our Kashmir)
“Kashmir mein agar rehna hai, Allah-ho-Akbar kahna hoga.”
(Any one wanting to live in Kashmir will have to convert to Islam)
“Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e- Mustafa.”
(We want to be ruled under the Shariah)
Senior journalist and author Rahul Pandita in his moving book, Our Moon Has Blood Clots, had also narrated the sequence of events preceding the eviction of the Pandits from their homes and hearths. “I was 14, just an adolescent. And I remember those days very vividly, the kind of brutalisation we faced, particularly on January 19, 1990, when there was this whole series of slogans against the Kashmiri Pandit community; anti-India slogans and anti-Pandit slogans. I would like to point out one which really terrified us. It essentially meant, ‘We want our Pakistan without Pandit men but with their women’. That really terrified us. And I think from that day onwards, the exodus began. And it went on for a few months, from January 1990 to September 1990, till a point of time when 3.5 lakh Kashmiri Pandits were rendered homeless. Even after 27 years, Kashmiri Pandits are in permanent exile.”
Another writer, Varad Sharma, while working on his book, A long Dream of Home: The Persecution, Exodus and Exile of Kashmiri Pandits, spoke to several Pandits, including his own relatives, about their life in Kashmir and the loss of their homes.
He writes, “Pandits are infuriated with the Government’s attitude towards their predicament. Though Pandits wish to return to their homes, they don’t see any hope of returning to Kashmir, including my own family.”
It is because of the fact that the issue has lingered on for a quarter of a century. In the last 25 years, Pandits have got only assurances from various Governments. They have been told and retold that Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits and that the Government is committed to the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley. Governments have changed from time to time but the rhetoric hasn’t changed.
The Indian state has not even once tried to address the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits. The reversal of ethnic cleansing must begin with justice — with the prosecution of the culprits of the 1990 Pandit exodus.
However, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance Government, which has been in power for last three years, doesn’'t seem to address the issue of ethnic cleansing. The Bharatiya Janata Party is seen as a party that has compromised on its agenda so as to get a power-share in the State. Prime Minister Modi gave hope to the Pandit community; that hope is now flickering, wrote Varad Sharma. n