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Destruction and InjusticeTheTribulations Of Kashmiri PanditsThe Seventh ExodusK.L. Bhan
(
This article is an abridged version of the chapter “The Seventh Exodus” from
Prof. Bhan’s book “
Paradise
Lost,” which describes the seven times Kashmiri Pandits had to leave Kashmir
because of persecution. The present exodus, the seventh, started in 1989, and
continues. Even though this material was written a few years ago and some of its
references are out of date, it nevertheless gives history of the ethnic
cleansing up to the point of the forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from
Kashmir Valley and continues with their first few
years of horrible life in refugee camps.-Editor)
The
wounds inflicted on the Kashmiri Hindus in the 1986 disturbances were not
allowed to heal. Looking back now the episode looks like a mild arm twisting of
the State administration and that of the so-called mighty
Indiato gauge their real might and will-power to deal with the recurrence of such
disturbing situations. The unexpected speed with which anti-India and
anti-Kashmiri Hindu designs, the seeds of which had been sown over the years,
began to unfold themselves was the most terrifying thing about it. The madrasas
financed and run by the Jamait-e-Islami had poisoned the mind of the younger
generation with Islamic fundamentalism under dictation from the theocratic
Pakistan. The Jamaite-Islami activists had crept into the services at a large scale.
They had found their way even into the top rung of the State machinery and also
influenced and won the members of the bureaucracy that crossed over to their
side. So for all practical purposes the State bureaucracy was hand in glove with
pro-Pak elements and forces that had most sinister plans up their sleeves.
Though
Dr. Farooq Abdullah saddled himself in power by allegedly rigged elections in
1987, the power had, as a matter of fact, slipped from his hands. The Muslim
United Front, a new fangled Muslim outfit owing political allegiance to
Pakistan, did not take its defeat at the busting lying down and vowed to get its own
back. A monster with virulent fangs was harnessing itself for the charge. The
Government headed by the nincompoop Chief Minister was too inefficient to crush
the monster raising its horrible head. Law and order machinery that had
developed cracks became steadily defunct. Farooq Abdullah openly admitted having
sent numerous Kashmiri Muslim youth to Pak for training in arms. He released
about seventy of them soon after they had been arrested. It is clear that armed
insurgency and subversive activities were receiving state patronage and
protection. Soon the forces inimical to secularism and democracy, having got
sufficiently pretty good time and long rope, found the time ripe for sounding
alarm calls of terrorism, which before long became the rage throughout the
length and breadth of
KashmirValley.
Then
entered Gen. Zia-UI-Haq into theKashmir
arena. Addressing a top secret meeting in April, 1988 at Islamabad
he said, "Gentlemen, let there be no mistake, however, that our aim
remains quite clear and firm the liberation of the
KashmirValley. Our Muslim Kashmiri brothers can't be allowed to stay with
Indiafor any length of time now. The Kashmiris have a few qualities, which we can
exploit. First, his shrewdness and intelligence; second his power to persevere
under pressure, and the third, if I may say so, he is a master of political
intrigue. If we provide him with means through which he can utilize these
qualities he will deliver the goods". Spelling out his methods of combat in
terms of moral and physical means 'he singled out the Kashmiri Muslims to get
hold of the power apparatus of the State by political subversion and intrigue
and seek collaboration of favored politicians' help for subverting all organs of
the State. He went on to say, to elaborate his Kashmir Plan "OP TOPAC,"
“we plan our chosen men in all the key positions to subvert the police force,
financial institutions, the communication network, whip up anti-Indian feelings
amongst the students and peasants, preferably on some religious issues. Detailed
plans for the liberation of
KashmirValleyand establishment of an independent Islamic State in the third phase will
follow".
The
speech of Gen. Zia-UI-Haq speaks volumes for the ongoing insurgency and
terrorism in
KashmirValleyand Doda and which is now escalating to other parts of the State. The message
to the Kashmiri Muslim was loud and clear and urgent declaration of Jehad, holy
war, against the infidels ruling from
New Delhi. But the beginning was to be made with hitting the Kashmiri Pandit, a very soft
and easy and non-retaliating target. Give the dog a bad name and kill it, they
say. That is what they did with the Kashmiri Pandits (KP’s). Posters were
pasted outside Mosques and at selected busy places labeling KPs as agents of
Indiaand branding them as traitors; accusing that the KPs had always and invariably
acted as traitors and stabbed in the back of Kashmiri Muslims and their
sectarian movements. It was quite easy to incite the motivated, indoctrinated
Muslim youth in particular and other Muslims in general, and make them rally
one and all under a religious theme to fight the enemy, the KP in the first
instance. Thus fundamentalists axe fell on the KP and drew the first blood. The
fundamentalists exhibiting their terrorist credentials included government
employees more than most police officials. The Muslim policeman posted for the
security of the Mahant at Vicharnag, Mahant Pandit Keshav Nath, killed him with
his rifle butt for refusing to embrace Islam. The savage killer Mohd. Yusuf
represented only the tip of the iceberg of the all pervading deeply embedded fanaticism,
religious prejudice and intolerance. The truth about the motive and intentions
of the frenzied Kashmiri Muslims obsessed with Islamic fundamentalism was no
longer concealed. Their battle against Hindu Indian would be half won by
decimating the KPs, by the ethnic cleansing.
This
immediate goal with far reaching consequences had been dinned into the ears of
the rank and file of Kashmiri Muslims by all from within and without the State
in unmistakable terms. The Allah-Wallahs rode rough shod on idol worshipping
Hindus and openly exhorted and urged their mammoth congregations to
concentrate all their attention and efforts for the establishment of Nizame
Mustafa. The KPs scanned the public mood, the collaborative nuances of the
government and the trends of the future. They became wary but did not lose faith
in the saner leadership among the worked up Muslims and the capability of the
Central Government to act to shield its cherished values of secularism,
religious freedom, pluralism, national integrity and solidarity. It proved a
highly mistaken conviction that got shattered more easily than most brittle
glass at one jolt.
Days
went by and each day saw the floating of a new terrorist and militant outfit.
Their number went on swelling steadily but surely. JKLF had been there in the
vanguard. Among others that crept up were AI-Jehad, Dukhtarane Milat, Muslim
Janbaz force, Ikhwan-ul-Muslameen, Allah Tigers, Hizbul-Mujahideen and many
more by scores. Hindu temples, shrines and their properties came to be attacked,
looted and damaged or torched, not to speak of Hindu houses. This after all, did
not augur well for the KPs. All was not well for them. The rot had set at work,
the canker had eaten into the entrails of communal harmony. The Islamic bigots
and frenzied zealots gone crazy were prowling about drawing up their lines for
wholesale onslaught. The air, the mist, the sunshine, the good earth, the
whole environment tingled and vibrated with threats of danger in security,
instability and gory days ahead. There was no lull, a storm was brewing.
Frightened
Pigeons that was what the KPs felt like. This feeling was not anything new to
the KPs. History bears eloquent testimony to the fact that since the coming of
Muslim rule till today Kashmiri Pandits have been the worst victims of terrorist
violence. The recent trouble in the Valley started in 1989 when some miscreants
masquerading as followers of Islam began to frighten the Kashmiri Hindu
Community and others by resorting to violence. "Within a span of a few
years not less than 300,000 members of the Hindu minority had to leave their
hearths and home, they are now leading a miserable life in the camps atJammu
,Delhi, Chandigarh,
Amritsar
and other places, " writes Himanshu Shanker Jha (Hindustam Times, August
15, 1995). The writer further adds " It may be recalled that the first mass
exodus of Pandits started 500 years ago when an irreligious despot, Sultan
Sikander, made a proclamation that if a Hindu did not become a Muslim he must
either leave the country or be killed; the persecution of Pandits continued
during Aurangzeb's regime too. Teg Bahadurji, the 9th Sikh Guru, boldly faced
death at Chandni Chowk in
Delhiin 1675 to protect the lives and honor of Kashmiri Pandits".
Subsequent
to the passing away of the great son and iron man of
India, Saradar Vallabhai Patel, no Central Government had noticeable hold on the
State bureaucracy and the local leadership. The Indian army stationed in the
State was sitting on the fence and non-interfering and, therefore, a mute
witness to all that was happening in Greater Kashmir. Perhaps they had no role
for anything other than disposing off surplus diesel and petrol all along the
National Highwayfrom Nandni (
Jammu
) to Barsoo, Anantnag (
Kashmir
).
In
free democratic, socialistic and secular
Indiatoo, the KPs were direct and easy targets for humiliation and vandalism at the
hands of the Kashmiri Muslims. The Jews desecrated the Aqsa Mosque in distant
Israelbut the poor KP had to pay for it through his nose. For what fault? He was a
Hindu and belonged to the minority community. Passing through the Hindu
localities of the city of
Srinagar
the angry demonstrators protesting against the Jewish high handedness shouted
'Yeh tamasha nahi hai, yeh matam dari hai,' if a Hindu dared to look from
a window above or if one passing by the roadside stopped to look on. An anecdote
of those days comes to my mind and is worth mentioning here. Two ladies, one
European and the other a national leader, Mrs. Krishna Hathi Singh, on a tour of
the valley, were staying at Nedous Hotel. They came out on the verandah to have
a look at the passing protestors. The fanatics, crazy with religious frenzy and
fervor rushed through the lawns and caught hold of the two ladies. Without being
severe to them they only thrashed their pelvic regions and loins with fresh
nettle that produced red spots all over the skin affected by the nettle-sting.
The ladies moaned and groaned with pain and mental agony. The European lady had
to get hospitalized for a couple of days and on recovery she said she had
traveled widely and she had widely read but never encountered such brutality as
she was made victim of. The first target incidentally of the vandalism was the
Mission School
at Fateh Kadal, followed by two Churches in
Srinagar
City.
Who
are these fanatics and the fundamentalists? They are not the descendents of the
alien rulers like the Chaks, the Afghans and the Mughals, etc. They are none
other than our foster brothers, born and brought up in the Muslim culture and
tradition. Gen. Zia-ul-Haq would call them Brahman Zadas. But I fail to
understand their psychological standard, which is still poor, deficient, crude
and coarse. Professing to be more loyal than the King, they typify the proverbial
convert's zeal. When Z.A. Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, gave up
his ghost at the gallows, following the Machiavellian machinations of his
patronized Gen. Ziaul-Haq, they burnt effigies of Zia and his stooges in the
Jamat-e-Islami.. They blocked roads with uprooted trees and smashed electric
and telegraph posts. The KPs, the ever frightened pigeons, remained imprisoned
within their houses for many a day without water, vegetables and essential
commodities because the entire Muslim community was in mourning since their
liberator had been mercilessly killed by his own creation.
Now
see the other side of the picture. When on17th August 1988
Pak President Zia-ul-Haq was killed and torn into shreds in a plane crash, the
Brahman Zadas repeated the mourning cry "Yeh matam hai koi tamasha nahin"
as they moved in procession through lanes and by lanes and Hindu localities in
particular. They coerced the KPs to switch off the lights and virtually imposed
civil curfew on the bewildered and dazed KPs, the Muslim women pounded their
chests and beat their breasts with closed fists and the Muslims on the whole
behaved as if some dearest members of their families had died.
In
his "Op Topac" aiming at the liberation of the
KashmirValley, Zia-ul-Haq had clearly hinted at adopting a coordinated use of moral and
physical means, other than military operations, as methods of combat. It was
just a political operation, it had tacit religious, cultural, communal
aspects. The means evidently signaled an uncivilized, undemocratic, unlawful and
irreligious line of action. It was a clarion call for Jehad, a holy war enjoined
upon Muslims as a religious duty in the service of Islam. Which could be the
best form of that service? The cut and dry method was elimination of the
microscopic KPs who had ever and all along been branded as symbolic presence of India
in Kashmir. There being only a handful of them, their liquidation was a simple and easy
goal to be achieved and thus bring to fruition an insignificant item on the
Jehad agenda, that of complete ethnic cleansing.
The
path to 'azadi' began to be paved with the blood of the KPs. All Kashmiri
Muslims of all shades and hues, of all denominations and nomenclatures,
converged and united, rising above their divergent conflicting beliefs and
convictions, in the unholy mission of raising the edifice of 'azadi' with the
bricks and mortar of the bodies and blood of KPs. The names of KPs, young and
old, wanted to be sacrificed in the service of Islam came to be pasted, as
public posters, at the entrances of mosques in the localities where. the innocents
doomed to death had been living for generations in peace and amity. The lists
appeared at regular intervals and were there for anyone to see. The names of the
condemned stood in a sort of rank and merit or order of priority. They were
dubbed as 'mukhbirs', spies working for interests of
India, and hence meriting no mercy. The war against the arch enemy
India
was inaugurated with blowing the bugle against KPs for whom
Indiahad done no favor out of the way.
There
was a mushroom growth of militant and terrorist outfits. Trained in the use of
deadly sophisticated weapons and armed to teeth by Pakistan, they multiplied in
scores, all moving ahead concertedly with the plan of striking terror, all
pervasive terror, before embarking on a spree of preplanned murders.
All
news papers published from
Srinagar
carried no news worth the name other than declarations like 'Mein Mukhbir nahin
hoon' (I am not a spy) 'Ailane la taaluqui' (confession of parting links with
political parties and severing of such affiliations) and open unmistakable
threats to the KPs of dire consequences for their past and present anti-movement
(anti-azadi) and traitorous behavior. Thus the message of the terrorists that
Muslims of Kashmir should gear themselves up and be in readiness to pounce and
swoop upon the soft target, the defenseless KPs, reached every home. The developments
in
Romaniaand Chekoslovakia became models for the insurgents who believed that following
these models for their goal of azadi was almost a foregone conclusion. The
religious frenzy and Islamic euphoria was on a spiral surge.
The
terrorists were emboldened beyond their expectations when almost half a dozen
hardcore terrorist were released in exchange for kidnapped Rubia, daughter of
the Union Home Minister Mufti Mohd. Syed. By abjectly surrendering to the demand
of the terrorists the Central and State Governments licked the dust and
acquiesced in the wide spread belief that the terrorists were a power to reckon
with. The follies galore of the two Governments boosted up the morale of the
militants and terrorists tremendously.
They
marched on making one inroad after another. Suddenly mosques boomed and zoomed
day in and day out with pro-jehad and anti-India and anti-Kaffir (anti-Hindu)
slogans, speeches, sermons and discourses. No relevant superlative can
convey the degree of venomous and provocative propaganda blared at maximum
pitch from the mosques. At night they beat empty tin cans and tin roofs to
inject terror into the mind of KPs. Several shocks had already been given to
them including a sizeable warning and threats in black and white through some
dailies that the KPs must quit the Valley within 48 hours or overstay on pain of
death. The ‘Alsafa’ edited by Mohd. Shaban Vakil was in the vanguard
publishing these gory threats. This paper virtually became the mouthpiece of the
terrorists and played a capital role in fanning its flames and carrying them to
remote corners of the Valley. Ironically Mohd. Shaban Vakil was gunned down in
his office in April 1991 for having criticized a militant group. But by then he
had been instrumental more than anybody else in inflicting maximum damage to the
KPs in his vocal advocacy of the terrorist cause. 'Aftab' and 'Azaan' joined in
the choice songs in praise of the mujahids. And incidentally now 'Ahadnama
Kashmir'
witten
by Sonaullah Bhat tracing the history of the state from the Buddhist period
to the recent times stands banned by AL-Fateh force and the AI-Faran.
The
night ofJanuary 19, 1990
will remain the most unforgettable one in the memory of every Kashmiri Pandit
child who had attained age of consciousness of surroundings and grownup men and
women. That night stands singled out as the harbinger of the terrible
catastrophe which before long engulfed the panic-stricken unfortunate community.
That night flood gates broke open and the world resounded with war cries
inciting the Muslims that it was time they came out into the streets breaking
the chains of slumber, to welcome the ringing of the dawn of a new and Islamic
order. That night seemed to be fated to ring out the life of every Kashmiri
Pandit child, man and woman. That night signaled that all was over with them.
That night tolled the knell of what Kashmir
and oft-quoted Kashmiriat symbolized. No male Muslim man or child stayed back
in doors but streamed out to swell the crowds whose shouts of 'death to
India', death to Kafirs rent the skies from Qazigund to Karnah. That night in the
pall of darkness the land of rishis would get saturated with the warm blood of
Kafirs. That night demons masquerading as neighbors, friends, co-workers came
out in true colors, for a sea change had swept over the so-called peace loving
Kashmiri Muslims. Gone with the wind was their facade of secular, tolerant,
cultured, educated outlook, which was replaced by intolerant Islamic
fundamentalist stance. The urbane and the rustic, the high and the low, all
rubbed shoulders in wild frenzy in their common war against the KPs, huddled up
together indoors while their fate hung in balance. They read the clear writing
on the wall, their days in their native land were numbered and they must catch
time by the forelock to escape the impending doom. The seventh exodus was surely
in the offing. The pusillanimous Central and State Governments had neither the
will nor wherewithal to crush the monster of Islamic fundamentalism that had
entrenched itself in the Islamic Republic of Kashmir. The terrorist living and
acting in absolute fidelity to bear creed of intolerance emanating from Muslim
fundamentalism set in motion the juggernaut of physical liquidation of KPs on
selective basis. The terrorist outfit
Jammu and KashmirLiberation Front stole the march over other groups. The terrorists who were
never tired of styling themselves as followers of Islam, as their camp followers
still do, adopted the evil policy 'kill one and frighten one thousand'. It was
in pursuance of this policy that 1000 KPs were butchered in 1990. The terrorist
outfits vied with one another in out Heroding Herod and devised so barbarous and
horrendous methods of torture and murder that would make Sikandar the
iconoclast, the Hamadani rulers, the Chaks and the Afghans turn in their graves
and salute their present progeny for improving upon and breaking all their
records in savagery and inhumanity. Have you ever before heard of or read of
such cruel acts of violence as stitching the lips of the victim before killing
him and nailing the chest and feet of the poor man till he bled to death? Those
who crucified Christ were kinder.
The
implementation of the policy began with extinguishing the beacon lights among
the KPs comprising intelligentsia, the political workers, professors, lawyers,
teachers, engineers, well placed officers in the State and Central Governments
and others. The stale and hackneyed accusation or charge in every act of murder
was that they had indulged in anti-azadi activities. There was not to reason
why? There was not to ask why? The terrorists had their own interrogation
centers and courts awarding penalties and death sentences. Very few KPs were
afforded opportunity to explain their position or prove their innocence. There
was the Jamate-Islami injunction and commandment: "Bahas mubahasa se perhez
karen" (shun argumentation). So the allegedly unwanted and undesirable
persons were killed summarily and point blank in lanes and by lanes, streets,
thoroughfares, in offices, at homes, anywhere the choice was that of the killer,
who more often than not made a show of his chivalry in the Islamic tradition by
gunning down a poor KP in full public view so as to earn the appellation and
applause for being a mujahid. Kill an unarmed, defenseless person caught
unawares and become a mujahid. JKLF drew first blood with the pre-planned murder
of Shri Tika Lal Taploo, an advocate and prominent and vocal member of the
provincial wing of BJP. He fell to terrorists bullets quite near his house. He
had always helped and served the Muslims of his locality without any
compensation and was very popular with them. The Muslims of his locality mourned
his death and joined the mammoth funeral procession. His death sent a powerful
tremor down the spine of the KP community and caused real tangible concern. The
ground had been broken for the vicious process to gather momentum. As days
passed the heads of prominent KPs rolled down. No day passed without registering
the murder of an innocent KP here and there. Shri N.K. Ganjoo, a retired Judge
was gunned down at an arms length in broad day light in
Hari Singh High Street,Srinagar
. The dead body lay in a pool of blood with no police anywhere and no Hindu
daring to touch it, lift it or cover even with a sheet of paper. The Muslim
passers by and shopkeepers watched the scene with jubilant faces and hilarious
hearts. Much later Muslim policemen removed the dead body dragging it in the
manner of a dead dog. The scene was televised a number of times.
It
became a common place to hear Kashmiri Muslims greeting one another with the
gleeful news of the fall of a KP. The day augered well if the day dawned with
fresh warm blood of a KP. A medieval tribal trait still alive in Kashmiri Muslim
mind despite the gloss of advancement in its modern sense.
Those
who know Shri P.N. Bhat, a front rank advocate practicing at Anantnag, will
vouchsafe how much popular he was with Muslims in his town. His skull was
shattered with a volley of bullets. No Muslim uttered a word of condolence for
him; why should they? It had brought glory to Muslim zealots.
Shri
Lassa Koul, Director, Doordarshan Kendra,
Srinagar
, was gunned down just outside his house at Bemina. He was returning home at
night after doing his duty. Even a layman could suspect the foul play of DD
employees in his dastardly murder.
Shri
R.N. Handoo, P.A. to Governor, was killed outside the gate of his house at
Narsinghgarh, just as he was entering the official vehicle to take him to his
office. The next day, in its early hours, witnessed the merciless and brutal
killing of Shri B.K. Ganju, a young budding and extraordinarily intelligent
and efficient Telecom Engineer, within his home at Chotta Bazar,
Srinagar
. He hid in a charcoal drum and the assailants failing to find him were about to
leave when his neighbors whom he trusted too much redirected the blood thirsty
savages to conduct a research. A dozen bullets were pumped into the drum killing
the helpless trapped weak man. When his young widow appealed to the jubilant
killers to shoot her down along with her two baby daughters, they marched out
chuckling "who would mourn over his dead body?"
The
following day heralded the murder of Shri A.K. Raina, Deputy Director, Food
& Supplies,
Srinagar
by terrorists in his office. It was literally dying in harness. His subordinates
stood aloof and watched the proceeding joyfully.
Prof.
Nila Kanth Lala, MA (Political Science, History and Education), extensively read
and informed person, with a gift of gab, in fact an institution in himself, was
done to death by his own Muslim taught of his own area. After his retirement
from Government service he had been serving in Islamic Higher Secondary
School; What a reward?
Prof.
K.L. Ganjoo, an agricultural scientist at Sheri Kashmir University of
Agriculture Science & Technology at Wodhura, Sopore (his home town), was
kidnapped and tortured by his own Muslim students and friends before he was shot
dead while wading the Jehlum under dictation from the terrorists. His wife
Prana Ganjoo was kidnapped and gang raped and then dismembered. Her body was
not returned to her relatives.
The
followers of Nizam-e-Mustafa revived the medieval barbaric age when Shri Brij
Nath Kaul, a driver in SKUAST, Shalimar campus,
Srinagar
was tied by his feet to a jeep driven by the terrorists. Muslims praying five
times a day witnessed the ghastly manner of dealing out death and enjoyed his
defacement. This belittles the brutalities of the Afghan rulers of Kashmir.
Shri
D.N. Mujoo had done a lot for educating the Muslim youth of his area, Fateh
Kadal,
Srinagar
before he moved to Rawalpora. Besides being a Theosophist, an unassuming
Scholar, an educationist who took pains to experiment with J. Krishnamurti's
dynamic thoughts on education, Shri Mujoo was all his life a real teacher. An
old man of over 70 years, tall and healthy, he passed his time in philosophical
contemplation. He did not dabble in any politics and was least dangerous. Yet
the terrorists intruded into his house, seized him and stabbed ruthlessly at the
dead of night. His wife was also assaulted and injured but left as 'dead'. The
poor old man bled pale and cold.
Shri
Sarvanand Koul 'Premi' truly brimmed with love for all. A distinguished poet in
Kashmiri he contributed much to enrich the Kashmiri literature. He translated
the Bhagavad Geeta into Kashmiri verse. He had a copy of the Holy Quran besides
the Hindu scriptures in his library. Destroying the library was not enough. The
terrorist hounds led Premi and his son Virender some distance away from his
house. His forehead was nailed at the tilakmark, his eyes were carved out, his
limbs and bones were broken; his body was aced and then butchered in the same
manner. What impressive examples of Islamic tolerance!
Smt.
Sarla Bhat, a nurse in SKIMS,
Srinagar
was suspected of being an informer since the institute was a den of other
terrorists, which included members of the faculty as well. At the behest of Dr.
A. A. Guru she was gang raped by a number of Muslim bad characters of degraded
order before she was stripped naked, mauled and murdered in a shameless manner
that no human being born of woman can conceive. She was thrown on the road for
all to see what respect they had for womenfolk.
Smt.
Girja, a school teacher in Bandipora, had gone to school to collect her salary
and called on a friendly Muslim colleague. The architects of Nizama-e-Mustafa
kidnapped her from there with the Muslim lady restraining herself from interceding
and thwarting the evil designs of the Islamic zealots. The possession of her
body was “halal,” according to religious injection. They gang raped her,
ripped open her abdomen, placed her on band saw and sawed her into two halves.
Kumari
Babli and her mother Smt. Roopwati of Pulwama met a horrible end at the hands of
terrorist brutes.
Shri
Balkrishen Tutoo, an officer in agriculture department became the victim of
callous bloodthirsty militants who barged into his house to abduct and kill his
brother. Tutoo pleaded for mercy and resisted, he was fired and critically
wounded. He was rushed to the hospital where the doctors on duty allegedly
completed rest of the work.
Mustaq
Latram for whose release the AI-Faran outfit wants release of the four foreign
hostages was allegedly involved in the gruesome murder of four members of a
family at Mallapora, Habbakadal,
Srinagar
. The victims at the instance of some neighbors gunned down Jawahar Lal Ganjoo,
Mrs. Ganjoo, Badri Nath Koul and his wife Lalla, living under one roof, leaving
behind two unmarried daughters and two innocent teenaged boys and an old 85
years paralytic mother.
Asha
Koul was abducted from Achabal, Anantnag. She was taken to a KP migrant’s
abandoned house in
Srinagar
and gang raped for many days and tortured. Her body was found in a decomposed
state in the very house on 8th August in 1991.
Babli
Raina, resident of Sopore, a teacher, was gang raped in her house in presence of
her family members on13th August 1990, before she was killed, an act we have never heard or read in the recent
history of any civilized country. There are many more reported and unreported
cases of brutal and hair-raising treatment meted out to women as memorable examples
of Islamic gallantry.
No
religion
enjoins upon its followers such inhuman, cruel and unnatural acts. And
the Muslims more educated in number than the uneducated ones, hailing
from
well to do homes, indoctrinated and motivated by Pakistan Government
backed ISI,
prowled about like man eaters looking for KP victims. Killings were
carried on
unabated in ever new devised forms that beat all past records of cruelty
and
ferocity during the 500 years of Muslim rule in Kashmir. The KPs went or
receiving threatening letters, death warrants and highly
disturbing telephone calls not in-joke but in real meaningfulness. For
paucity
of space I cannot give in comprehensive details the brutal and ruthless
murders
of hundreds of Rainas, Ganjoos, Tikoos, Kouls, Mujus, Tutoos and so on.
Hundreds
of KP martyrs who fell at the altar of Indian secularism and the
splendid
heritage of
Indiahave remained unsung.
The
KPs remained at the receiving end, the terrorists were ruling the roost as the
gun had given them unfettered liberty and power to kill, where and when they
chose. Even teenagers and boys under ten could be seen openly carrying lethal
weapons slinging down their shoulders under their pherens. The unrestrained
hunting of the cream of the KPs became as much a pastime as it was a well
planned and calculated design to achieve ethnic cleansing with the ulterior
aim to establish Islamic way of life and governance and merge the Valley with
Pakistan, the so called defendant and guardian of Islam in the world. Each case of
murder sent waves of shock after shock and tremor after tremor in order to shed
and break the spine of the Pandits. There was no law and order worth the name as
it was under the control of the terrorists who counted the shots. The collusion
or nexus between the law enforcing agencies and the gun trotting terrorists was
conspicuous. In fact the Kashmir Police was there as it is still now infested
with anti-national elements and moles that provided protection and patronage to
vandals and criminals. It was a total Muslim revolts nay armed insurgency
against the KPs as a matter of first preference.
No
saner voice rose from among the enlightened literate Muslims of Kashmir. They
sealed their lips, curbed their conscience and smothered their soul in
astonishingly mysterious silence. Muslim ladies proved more ferocious and furious
than men. Humanity and humanism in Kashmir
vis-à-vis KPs were dead and cold and buried. Gods and Rishis seemed to have
fled the valley leaving the dumbfounded and bewildered KPs. Fanatics’ and
fundamentalists’ writ prevailed. There was in fact one exception: late
Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq, who did not toe the line of the terrorists. He had the
temerity to declare that all that was un-Islamic. His voice was a cry in the
wilderness and the Mujahids professing to be impassioned followers of Islam too
silenced it for its nonconformity. Did the Prophet preach intolerance towards
adherents of other faiths? Is this the path to peace? In his write up
'Tolerance is key to peace' the eminent Islamic scholar and authority on
Islamic scripture Maulana Wahid-ud-Din Khan writes: 'Tolerance is not an act of
compulsion. It is a positive principle of life expressing a noble side of a
man's character. The existence of tolerant human beings in a society is just
like blooming of flowers in a garden.'
So
far as Islam is concerned it is an entirely tolerant religion. Islam desires
peace to prevail in the world. The Quran calls the way of Islam the path of
peace, the state of peace can never prevail in a society if a tolerant attitude
is "lacking in the people...." (Excelsior 2.9.95) What a sublime
ideal, theoretically! But what an agonizing gulf between the ideal and the
ground reality, between theory and practice of Islam as is expounded by the
Maulana.
Now,
when the entire Kashmiri Muslim populace was up in arms yelling out in bass and
treble disaster and death to the Kafirs, meaning thereby clearly and explicitly
the KPs whom they, without any valid justification, alleged to be a major
stumbling block and obstacle in their illusory dream of “azadi” and
integration with Pakistan; when the Muslim leaders like Ali Shah Geelani, Qazi
Nissar, Abdul Gani Lone, Prof. Saifu-Din Soz, and their ilk by their well
guarded muteness concurred with the acts of loot, plunder, vandalism, arson, murder
and desecration of temples and shrines; when acquaintances, neighbors,
friends, colleagues and co-workers bore daggers in their eyes and spat fire in
their speech; when none in the majority community deemed the KP minority as
God's trust with them and therefore imperative to be protected; when the KPs
encountered hostility and strangulating atmosphere of insecurity within and
without their homes and places of work; when their women folk were ridiculed,
humiliated, physically and sexually harassed and terrorized; when their
political and religious freedoms were snatched from them; when their basic
rights of life, property and freedom were trampled; when discussion, dissent and
disagreement become a crime and irrationality and obscurantism, fanaticism and
fascism became the order of the day; when the KPs were given a bad name and
all sorts of notorious accusations leveled against them adding up to their
being black sheep and traitors and above all when the barrels of Klashnikoves
and AK-47s were vomiting bullets freely at them and respect for age and dignity
of womanhood was no consideration; when in nutshell the Kashmiri Muslims, on
the whole, became brutalized and impervious to the fundamentals of Kashmiri
culture and heritage, the KPs pondered to retrieve themselves from the traumatic
and bleak situation.
What
could they do? How could they pull themselves out of morass of depression and
mounting tension eating into their entrails and sapping their vitality? How
could they manage to pull on when life became intolerable and they became
prisoners feeling choked in foul contaminated air? How could this essentially
peace loving, non-violent, non-aggressive, liberal, secular community of 4%,
completely unarmed, choose to go on warpath against the majority of 96%, armed
to the teeth and financed by a hostile neighboring power? How could they bear
with the indignity and insult, which their womenfolk were subjected to? Could
they forget their racial memories of their faith and honor during the repressive
rule of the Sultans, the Chaks and the Afghans? History was repeating itself and
they had to rise to the occasion which was clearly on the cards of the
terrorists who had sold their souls to Satan. The seventh exodus was forced on
the KPs and the most regrettable thing about is that it happened in secular
India that claims J&K to be an integral and inalienable part of the
Republic, the most precious jewel in the crown of India, whose President and the
Prime Minister are both Hindus.
The
insurrection of the Kashmiri Muslims could, for the sake of argument, be
defended were it directed against injustices and lapses, omissions and
commissions of the Central and the State Governments from time to time or that
it was the outcome of economic and educational neglect of the Kashmiri Muslim
alone. They are more affluent than the other segments of population in the
whole J&K state and many other states in
India. They are more than enough pampered lot. their advancement in every aspect of
life during the last about fifty years has been phenomenal; they have come a
long way while as their counterparts in the other two provinces of Jammu and
Ladakh are leagues behind. This is not an overstatement as facts and figures
speak for themselves.
The
insurgency in Kashmir by the Kashmiri Muslims erupted at the behest and
incitement of
Pakistan, essentially in the name of their religion, Islam. Several other strides like
Pan-Islamism, world Muslim brotherhood, conquest of the World by Islam in the
Hitlerian fashion, flow of petrodollars, regional ambitions, etc. were twisted
to it to form a formidable force envisaging the Islamisation of the whole of
India. We who are the sons of the soil and have lived among them have our
fingers on their pulse and know their chemistry better than those sitting in the
ivory towers in New Delhi
and gazing on the storm raging in Kashmir. The reigns of political power have all along been in the hands of their
elected representatives and bureaucracy, who are predominantly Kashmiri Muslim.
Policies and plans were formulated and shaped not in Jammu
or in Leh but in Srinagar
, which has B1 status, while as
Jammuand Leh have no status at all. Political masters they were; they wanted
religious, i.e. Islamic supremacy. Hence Jehad and Nizame-Mustafa. The explicit
character of slogans raised and popularized drives home the irrefutable point,
"Zalimo, O Kafiro, Kashmir hamara chod do", “Kashmir main rehna hai,
Allah-ho-Akbar kahna hoga', "Musalmano jago, Kafiro bhago",
"Islam hamara maqsad ha, Kuran hamara dastur hai, jehad hamara rasta
hai", "Kashmir banega Pakistan" and a host of other highly
provocative communal, pro-Islamic, sectarian and anti-secular slogans and
martial songs. As an immediate reaction there could be no other alternative for
the KP than have the recourse of the flight from his homeland. The seventh and
may be the last exodus was forced upon the KPs to get them scattered an battered
in unfriendly circumstances like fish out of water and easily achieve an ethnic
cleansing. The Islamic jehad had its eye on the genocide of the KPs. There is no
mistake about it notwithstanding the observation of pseudo secular, shallow and
hypocritical guardians of human rights. The Muslim fundamentalists at least did
succeed in their avowed and cherished goal of ethnic cleansing and Islamisation, if not in getting rid of Indian presence in
Kashmir.
While
the Islamic zealots and mujahids fired cannon shots at secularism and
coexistence and Indian nationalism and buried them alive hundred fathoms deep,
the
IndianStatewatched and, waited effeminately. No amount of pressure could arouse it to
action. The very corner stones of the Constitution of India were being not only
questioned and challenged but also knocked out so that the entire structure of
the Nation was crumbling. All cries and appeals for constitutional guarantees
and safeguards and protective remedies were falling on deaf ears of the rulers
smug in their vice regal mansions. Even in these circumstances the KPs sought
advice and protection from their Muslim brethren, who cared least to have any
communication with them. The intentions and the motives of the adversary were
clear in their slogan "Asi gache Pakistan, Batav ros Batnev san” (we want
Pakistan, inclusive of Kashmiri women and exclusive of Kashmiri Pandits). It needs no
elaboration.
In
this context what could the KPs do? To whom could they look up to for a healing
balm to their bruised hearts? Their leadership, if any, was in disarray. They
did not need any guide or leader to give them a green signal to pack up and
quit, highly literate sagacious and impregnated with sense of history as they
are now. Everyone unto himself. It is travesty of truth to put the former
governor Jaghmohan in the dock for having induced the KPs to flee because he had
some specific, drastic, line of action up his sleeve to deal with the Kashmiri
Muslims up in arms and teach them a lesson, leaving the KPs untouched and
unscathed. It is a myth, a farce, and a figment of prejudiced Muslim
imagination.
The
position and state of KPs in the post independent Kashmir was like that of the
sacrificial lamb bedecked with garlands of flowers, vermilion, bandanvar and
other tokens, and of having gone through the ritualistic operation and ready to
be led to the altar for the offering and in innocence licking the knife of the
butcher,
The
Muslim and Sikh taxi drivers and truck drivers came handy and with broken
bruised heart and tears streaming from his eyes a KP bade adieu to his home and
hearth. Up to the moment he took leave of his Muslim neighbors and actually
departed from his door, he waited and waited for Samaritans to come and assuage
his agony. But the security collapse was so total that no neighbor could come
forward with any degree of assurance of safety. In explicit terms they conveyed
their utter helplessness even against the gun wielding fundamentalists of their
mohallas, not to speak of any power and strength to prevail over the Muslim
bigots from other mohallas to spare the helpless KPs from becoming
their fair game. When all avenues and prospects of safety and security of life
over and above all things were tapped and found to be unreliable and treacherous
and no guarantee of life, the KPs could not be naive to take chances and meet
their doom wittingly. Embracing the lot of a refugee was the last and the only
resort and recourse for him to take.
When the air was resonant with shouts of Muslim bigots crying extermination of
the kafirs. The takeover of Kashmir
by the Muslim terrorists in the name of Jehad woke the KPs up to the fact that
they had very little time while the terrorist's mounting capacity to destroy was
keeping abreast.
Would
that we had a Khushwant Singh to document the aftermath of migration, nay
fleeing of the KPs from their paradise to the plains at the time of the year
when it is virtual hell on this side of Patnitop. It was falling from frying pan
into fire. Caravans of buses, trucks and taxies with puzzled and anguished men,
women and children huddled in them looked like sheep being taken to the
slaughter house. Searching questions seemed writ large all over the faces. What
had they done to deserve such severe inhuman punishment? Why this banishment?
Where was the protective umbrella of the State Authority? The Kashmiri Muslim
intelligentsia, the Muslim press dancing to the tune of the ISI commands,
terrorists belonging to numerous outfits and the Kashimiri Muslim political
leaders taking oaths of loyalty to the Indian Constitution but in the depth of
the heart owing allegiance to anti-India subversive force spread the canard that
the Kashmiri Pandits left Kashmir on their own in search for greener pastures
and that nobody compelled and coerced them to quit their homes and hearths.
Living in the most advanced epoch of the 20th century and thriving on the spoils
of Indian secularism and tolerance these philistines retain characteristic
traits of tribal culture of the middle age. How much truth and fact their
propaganda contains is for anybody to see and verify by himself. You can
scarcely imagine a more shameless, blunt and deliberately concocted white lie
than this. No doubt, the highly qualified and educated youth among the KPs
deprived of opportunities and jobs in the State did reluctantly migrate to
destinations outside the State in the search of pastures. But why would the
entire minority community migrate? Were they like lemmings that periodically
rush to the sea and drown themselves? The heard instinct along the KPs is not so
pronounced and dominant as it is among the Kashmiri Muslims. Who will be so
idiotic as to call Migrant camps at Nagrota, Muthi, Purkoo. Mishriwalla and
other localities at Udhampur, Kathua,
Delhiand elsewhere green pastures? Would that they too were driven to greener than
these green pastures!
We
have no count how many KPs young and old men and women, gave up their ghosts in
the refugee camps because of sun strokes, snake bites, cardiac breakdown and
other unnatural causes of death unknown in the Valley. What a plight the KPs
braved through, my countrymen, in unfriendly, hostile climate! It left one
dazed, stupefied and infuriated to see the "Kings" of yesterday turned
into "Paupers" of today looking up for succor, accepting charity that
they dispensed so freely in their own homes. Thousands of KPs are even today in
the ninth year of the exodus languishing and decaying in the pigeon holes,
stables and cells that the built up quarters are, as they are counting their
days in the torn tattered tents that fall with stormy winds and are swept away
by heavy rains and rise again with fair weather.
Consider
the fall out of the forced migration of the KPs from their paradise. Families
have become disjointed and fallen apart. Father has parted from his sons,
brother from brother. For a pretty good time people did not know where their
kith and kin had taken refuge, in what city or town or village. They lost all
track and there is a shocking communication gap particularly on occasions of
sadness and sorrow in a family. Wedded partners have got dispersed with
distances of a thousand kilometers separating the two. They have a reunion
once in a blue moon. This has adversely affected their children.
The
growth rate of widows and widowers has amazingly increased. Those in the evening
of life rendered lonely feel terribly deprived and alienated not having their
children around them to depend on in their distress.
The
one notable segment of KP refugees is that of the school and college going
youth, the latter particularly. Their normal process and plans of education have
been totally unhinged and ruptured. Suddenly they found that neither the present
nor the future held any hope or promise for them. Their admission to local
centers of learning was and is still vehemently opposed. Against their will
they are knotted to the
KashmirUniversitywhich bothers two hoots about their educational career and future prospects.
Examinations are time and again postponed or delayed and there is absolutely no
schedule of any sort to follow. What though it takes six years for a student to
qualify as a graduate? Most of the graduates have overage and thus been
deprived of employment I opportunities in Central Services, they belong neither
to Kashmir nor to
Jammu. They have no cake either to eat or to have it. Bypassing the appointed rules
and regulations for recruitment the Central Government holds no examination for
the Kashmiri Muslims in their vain efforts to appease them. Central teams visit
the Valley and order appointments on the spot. No such extraordinary concession
is extended to candidates from the
Jammuregion or the refugee KP aspirants to various posts. There is no HRD Program
for the educated unemployed KP youth whose potential gets dissipated in
unproductive activities. There will be no denial of the fact that 23000 Kashmiri
Muslim young men have been appointed by the Central Government in various
Departments, particularly the Railways, B.S.F and C.R.P.F., Banks
without any test or criteria simply to appease them. There was a duel between the Railway Minister Jaffer Sherief and the BJP M.Ps on the floor of the house during question hours in the Indian parliament in Monsoon Session 1995.
The
civic amenities at the refugee camps are conspicuously non-existent. The
inhabitants of these camps and their spokesmen and leaders frequently complain
through the press of the lack of hygienic conditions. It is a cry in the
wilderness. Nobody is interested in heeding to them. It does not pay to do so,
for the helpless KPs have no mischief value. They are a spent force left to
their lot to rot in sun and shower.
Meanwhile,
the Islamic fundamentalists have consolidated the gain accruing from pushing and
hunting out the KPs. They have seen to it that no chance and scope is left for
the return of the native KPs. They have left no stone unturned for making a
frontal and all out assault to destroy all symbols, tokens and traces of their
culture, their practices, traditions and heritage. Uprooting the KPs is not
enough, their existence in the valley in the past and in the present must be
wiped out root and branch so as to make it appear that KPs never belonged to the
valley. They would rewrite the history of Kashmir
in the Islamic way.
With
an eye on this the fundamentalists went on a free for all spree of loot,
plunder, spoil and arson. Village after village comprising of KP settlements
have been razed to ashes; KP localities in towns and cities have been torched
and gutted either completely or partially in such a manner that the vagaries of
weather in a couple of winters will complete the unfinished agenda of the Muslim
bigots who aim at ground and leaving no evidence of their having lived there.
The looted booty ornamented their houses and halls and what was unwanted was
disposed off in Sunday markets. Following the Islamic traditions private
libraries of the KPs containing priceless manuscripts and rare books on
philosophy, world religions, Hindu scriptures, literature, art, law, humanities
etc. were plundered, torn to bits, burnt or sold to street hawkers what they
were worth as radii or junk, good for a retailer to sell groceries in. Islam
enjoins upon its followers to venture going to far away China
in pursuit of knowledge and here in Kashmir
you get a fine specimen of reverence for knowledge. The ineradicable, the
incurable, intolerance towards followers of the other faiths. Knowledge too is
Muslim and non-Muslim. What a perversion and decadence of mind and spirit. It
does not matter in the least that pages of the religious books and Holy
scripture of the KPs litter the lanes and bylanes. float in the gutter and are
trampled upon because they sing hymns of God who is not Muslim. What hullabaloo
would have followed if a page from any other religious book had been shown
scanty respect in this manner? The progeny of those who burnt the legendary
library at
Alexandriaa rich and peerless repository of knowledge and learning in its day, find a
mean and petty pleasure to destroy Kafirs’ treasures of learning.
But
racial traits die hard or seldom.
Confirming
the ethnic cleansing of KPs by the Muslim fundamentalists in Kashmir Mr.
Wimmer, a member of the German Parliament and Vice President OSCE asserted that
they are against ethnic and religious cleansing and the way the KPs were forced
to migrate from Kashmir, the land of their ancestors.
New Delhiis yet to adopt tough attitude towards the terrorists and put down its foot to
crush militancy with determination and courage. Even when it has a lot of
irrefutable and unquestionable evidence and proofs of Pakistani's complicity and
direct and open involvement in the present disturbances in the valley, New Delhi
has done nothing appreciable to counter Pakistani propaganda and expose
Pakistanand its patronized militant outfits before the world community. How long will
she wait? Is there no limit to the patience? Must the KPs then submit to their
genocide first at the hands of Muslim fundamentalists and now the pro-Muslim
ruling class?
What
is worst, lamentable and deplorable is the neglect of the ruling party of
Indiato take direct measures, which will help the KPs to return to their homeland.
Still more condemnable, unfair grossly undemocratic and authoritarian is the
Center's posture not to include them in any deliberations to solve the Kashmir
imbroglio. This has bred deep anguish, resentment and frustration in the
community that is being relegated to the background though they are the worst
sufferers and victims of militancy and terrorism in Kashmir.
That
the fear of the gun is entrenched in every mind and that there is resultant
sense of insecurity pervading all around is vindicated by the civil curfew and
total bandh with which the Election Commissioner of India Dr. M.S. Gill was
greeted in the valley on his three day visit to the state to assess the
situation for taking the decision on holding elections in the state. The outlaws
however, small their number be have to rued the Valley and Doda district into a
veritable hell. In spite of tall, but in reality hollow claims of the State
Administration to the contrary they count the shots and their writ prevails.
Four
KP families forty in all counted were forced to flee from their houses at Wanpoh
after abduction and murder of one of their family members, Piyare Lal Raina on
the night of September, 1995. The deceased was an ex-service man. His son
Vinod Kumar Raina claimed that the killing had been carried out to coerce the
remaining Kashmiri Pandits to flee the valley. But the government claims that
the situation is fast returning to normalcy in the valley. The prominent
militant outfits are unanimous on the stand that the war will continue, that
they are least bothered as to who gets killed in this war; that by carrying out
the attacks they aim to highlight their agenda of national freedom and nobody
will be allowed to reach an agreement on this issue. "So the gun will
continue to play its role not to allow the government to hold the elections and
keep the cauldron of Kashmir
as a disputed territory ever boiling and adding new ingredients of
subversion"..
While
the Islamization program in the KashmirValley
is being carried on unabated the KPs have a history of over 500 years of Muslim
rule in Kashmir
to draw lessons from; History has repeated itself too many times for them. To
obliterate the deep scars it has left on their life, work and vision. The
dreaded Khokhas and Bombas of the yore have reemerged with doubly redoubled
demoniac vengeance and wrath to exterminate the minority community of the KPs.
They seem to be kinder and less cruel as contrasted with their present day
descendents with all the sobering and civilizing and humanizing influences of
education and material prosperity and numerous advantages of science. That many
civilizations in the history of Europe were destroyed by onslaughts of barbaric
hordes of tribals has been proved true in Kashmir
in our own day. Slogans like " La Sharqiya' lagharbia, Islamia Islamis"
still ring in our ears and serve as index of the ethos of the Kashmiri Muslims
in the living present and the future to be. It is as plain as it is day that
this exclusive cry is unquestionably inimical to making any compromise with the
Eastern or the Western cultures that today rest on tolerance, compassion,
humanism, liberalism respect for basic human rights as recognized in the charter
of human rights, secularism and democratic temper. It entertains no scope for
modification and adjustment and believes in superimposing a particular outdated
fanatical view of religion and life on others whether they subscribe to it or
not. There is not to reason why.
Way
back in 1989 wall posters in fairly large letters proclaiming Kashmir as
"Islamic Republic of Kashmir" were a common sight in Srinagar. Since
then a lot of pioneering work has been done by every Kashmiri Muslim,
irrespective of his rank and standing, to make Kashmir
the land of 'Militant Islam'. The so called struggle for freedom began rallying
round the pivot of total Islamization of Kashmir and despite
India's efforts to re-impose secular outlook. Kashmiri Muslims have been
non-cooperative, Islam continues to be cultural unifying and cementing force
in their life and for them religion and politics are inseparable and
undistinguishable. The jaundiced local bureaucracy no less than the
administrative echelon overtly and covertly support and direct the militants.
There are instances galore to establish the involvement of senior as well as
junior government functionaries in the avowed goal of Islamization of Kashmir.
They have taken a vow not to let the grip of Islam get relaxed and sabotage
every move of the state government to curb militancy and restore normalcy and
democracy.
It
is for this reason that Kashmiri Muslims, including the so called leaders of any
political denomination have kept absolutely mum and dared not utter a word
against the Islamization campaign in Kashmir. No intellectuals among them have raised even any weak voice of protest to
religious intolerance. In fact the Kashmiri Muslims are loath to the return at
the entire displaced refugee Kashmiri Pandits who are looked upon as the enemies
of their movement. They are no longer needed there and are clearly told to
forget that they ever belonged to the Valley. The foundation stone of the Muslim
State
of Kashmir was laid right at the time of India
's partition and now the free Islamic
republic
of Kashmiris on the anvil.
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