Today
is the Kashmiri Hindu Holocaust Day. The following article is perhaps
the most detailed and moving account of what lead to the forced mass
exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 from their motherland, Kashmir. This
article forms one of the chapters of the book,
Destruction and Injustice : The tribulations of Kashmiri Pandits,
published by Kashmiri Overseas Association, USA, in 2003. Please have
your children read it. Save it for future reference. - Maharaj Kaul
Note: You can enlarge the text in your internet provider's settings. Or you can open the Word attachment.
The Seventh Exodus
K.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its references are out of date, it nevertheless gives history of the ethnic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: Maharaj Kaul, Destruction and Injustice : The Tribulations of Kashmiri Pandits. Publisher : KOA, 2003).
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 India
to 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 Kashmir
Valley.
Then entered Gen. Zia-UI-Haq into the Kashmir
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 Kashmir
Valley. Our Muslim
Kashmiri brothers can't be allowed to stay with India for 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 Kashmir
Valley and 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 Kashmir
Valley and 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 India and
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 at Jammu,
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 Delhi
in 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 Highway
from Nandni (Jammu)
to Barsoo, Anantnag (Kashmir).
In free democratic, socialistic and secular India too, 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 Israel but 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 descendants 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 on 17th 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 Kashmir Valley, 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 India had 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 Romania and
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 of January
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 Kashmir Liberation 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 on 13th 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 India have 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 Jammu and 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
