Rajan Gandhi
Recent spurt in violence in Kashmir has left a gloom across the nation. The barbarism and the impunity with which terrorists are striking has left everyone shocked. Photograph of two kids of martyred Kulwant Singh, wailing mothers, widows are self explanatory what kind of Jehad terrorists are waging across the valley on the instructions of Pakistan. But this trend has not started overnight , if we have a peek into history this has been going on since eighties. The signs of anti-India atmosphere were clearly visible in 1983 when in a cricket match in Srinagar, Indian team which had just won the World Cup of Cricket in England, was heckled and shown black flags. The Government of India, however, decided to play the ostrich in the sand. Consequently what followed was, Anantnag riots in 1986. In fact every now and then protests triggered over issues unrelated to India, like the death of President Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan or the protest over Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses and all these invariably resulted in targeting Kashmiri Pandits who lost lives and property during the course of such protests. For years, Pakistan kept training and indoctrinating young boys to wage a jihad against India in Kashmir. Armed with Kalashnikovs and the ideology of only hate these terrorists came back to Kashmir to kill in the name of freedom of Kashmir from India. It was not that the state government or the central government did not know that all this was happening, but it did nothing to tackle the surge of terrorism. On the contrary, the NC government kept releasing dreaded terrorists – almost 70 of them between July to November 1989. The writ of the terrorists went unchallenged. The National Conference government had abdicated all its responsibilities. There was no administration at all.
The worst fears of pundits came true as on September 14th 1989 when BJP leader and prominent social activist Tika Lal Taploo was killed in broad day light in down town Srinagar, on 4th November Justice Nilakanth Ganjoo was gunned down and it took hours to pick up his body from the road, December 27th 1989 Advocate Prem Nath Bhat was brutally killed in Anantnag area of South Kashmir, in February 1990 militants killed Lassa Kaul, Director of Doordarshan Kendra, outside his house in Bemina, on April 15th Sarla Bhat, working as a resident nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Soura, Srinagar was abducted from her hostel. After four days, her mutilated body was found in an area in downtown. Most brutal forms of torture from gouging out of eyes, to cutting genitals, to burning bodies with cigarette butts and even chopping off body parts were used to kill Pandits. Sarwanand Kaul Premi, a noted scholar had his nails hammered in place of his tilak , BK Ganjoo was killed in his home and his wife was asked to eat the rice soaked in his blood, the killers of Ravinder Pandita of Mattan danced over his body, the bodies of Brijlal and his wife Choti from village Harman, Shopian were tied to a jeep ,dragged for 10 km and then shot dead, Girja Tikoo, a school teacher in Bandipora, was gang raped before being killed and the list of horrifying killings goes on and on. The message was loud and clear. Kashmiri Pandits were targets and no one could save them as it seemed nobody cared about whether they live, die or perish. It still wasn’t January, 1990. But Kashmiri Pandits hoped against hope that the powerful Indian nation would come to their rescue and with this hope they stayed back in the only place they knew as their home.
Subsequently, on January 4th 1990, a daily published a press release of Hizbul Mujahideen asking all Hindus to leave. Soon notices to leave valley were pasted on the doors of Pandits. Yet all that happened so far was insignificant compared to what was to happen on the fateful night of January 19th , 1990. It wasn’t as if one lane or one mohalla or one road was to erupt in a forceful nightmare to scare and drive away Pandits. Songs rhapsodizing the Mujahideens were played over and over. Jago Jago Subah Huyee; Russ ne Baazi Haari Hain, Hind par larzaan tare hain, Ab Kashmir ki baaree hain(Wake up, Russia has fallen and India eyes defeat, it is the turn of Kashmir to be freed).As soon as it ended, it gave way to sloganeering of a different kind, the kind that did not just target the establishment of India, but one which targeted the Pandits directly. Special mention of one slogan, that we want Kashmir to become Pakistan without KP men but with their women. It was this last slogan that terrified Kashmiri Pandits more than the fear of imminent death. Most families hid their womenfolk in attics or store rooms and gave them clear instructions to kill themselves just in case the worst happen. That was the night of doom and glooms one that just seemed never ending. The darkness had made faces of people who were friends and neighbors, classmates and teammates, ones who had grown up with invisible. The message was loud and clear. Raliv Galiv ya Chaliv – Join us, Die or Flee. What followed was migration of majority of Kashmiri pandits with whatever belongings they can carry in the shortest interval of time. In April 1990, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen , through the columns of an Urdu daily again issued another ultimatum to Pandits to leave Kashmir in 36 hours. Kashmir’s Shaiva-Sufi-Rishi syncretism came to an end, in fact Kashmiriat died that very day. Kashmiri Pandits, betrayed by leaders, were compelled to leave their land. More than three lakhs became refugees in their own country. The educated and affluent community was reduced to destitute. What everybody perceived at that time was a temporary migration but ultimately it became permanent. The property that they had left behind was either burnt down or occupied. The jobs which they had been compelled to leave were filled in by appointments of locals.
But as they say if you remain mute spectator to fire in your neighboring house it is bound to engulf your house as well, it’s just a question of time as any war waged on basis of religion is just a hoax as terrorists don’t have any religion, they are there to kill which they are doing . With almost no minority living in the valley and frustrated, terrorists have now started kidnapping, torturing and brutally killing their own people. It happened with Ayub Pandit and other policemen, be it personnel from SOG or SHO of JKP or Armymen, they have spared no one, even from their own religion. But the point is where our intelligence agencies are? What feedback they are sending to GoI as despite clinching evidences no major crackdown has been initiated against Hurriyat top leadership and they are roaming freely to incite public with full fledged security cover. Why is our government hesitant to take decisive action? How come our CID is failing in gathering the requisite information to pre-empt their nefarious intentions and most alarming part is the precise intelligence network of the terrorists, they are well informed, who has come on leave, who all are moving out of the secured zone or for that matter choosing their targets and timing at their will. Election notifications are out as with dates announced, dance of democracy is in full swing but so is dance of death and destruction. Burning earlier schools and now ‘Panchayat Ghars’, kidnapping, torturing and subsequently murdering policemen , scribes , government officials, army men and civilians are the stories of today. Most tragic part is two main stream parties, NC and PDP of Kashmir seem to be in sync with separatists, no condemnation on these killings but instead like Hurriyat these parties have also announced boycott of the polls. No one is bothered about common man right now, for them one side is death and on other side hell.
Looming question is, are candidates in Kashmir going to be safe as terrorists on directive from Pakistan will try tooth and nail to sabotage the elections though administration is going to insure each candidate for ten lakhs and surety of proper police protection to all, but it remains to be seen how this is implemented in present scenario. Central Government has no option but to flush out terrorist, moles in departments of security and administration and their informers so that rule of law prevails. Appeasement, go soft and slow policy has failed, it’s time for full fledged action be it Hurriyat leaders or terrorists. Last four decades have not in any way reduced the lust of bloodshed of terrorists, they have already issued warning to police officials to leave their jobs, to what level these terrorists can stoop further and right now the chilling question is what next?
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