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Showing posts with label Kashmiriyat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kashmiriyat. Show all posts

Sep 15, 2014

25 years in Exile - Why?

Today - 14th September 2014 is the 25th anniversary of Martyrdom of Pt Tika Lal Taploo - aka Lalaji, killed solely for his religion, to send a message to the KP minority in the state. His death began a long string of targeted killings of pandits in the valley...

In past 25 years in exile - scores of times, we KP's have been asked scores of time (sometimes rather innocently) - by clueless folks...

  • "oh...we visited Srinagar. Its so great there. We enjoyed. Why did you leave at all?"
  • "My muslim friend says - KPs are welcome back. you can go back and live in peace..."
  • "you should have stayed and fought back...!"
  • ... and such inanities...


Personally - I think I am tired of explaining...

So I recommend a simple four step guide...

  • Google for condition of Hindu & other minorities in Islamic Republic of Pakistan
  • Google for condition of Yazidi's and other minorities in Islamic State of Iraq and Syris (ISIS)
  • Watch SAS Geelani summarize the Kashmiri Muslim ideology in 2 minutes here
     
  • Would you still recommend a mere 3% minority go back there without applying due caution.
That due caution is "Panun Kashmir" - a union territory where Indian Constitution rules supreme (minus Article 370) - not some religious ideology.

Sep 14, 2014

#FloodsInKashmir -- Army a Saviour - but no thanks!!

A flood that they say is the worst in 60 years - has kit the valley of Kashmir. Srinagar probably amongst the worst hit within valley - from the news emerging so far. There isn't even much news available from other parts of Kashmir as yet... In all the deluge of valley centric news, the crisis in Jammu division has been totally forgotten. Less forgotten, more ignored - as has been the historic fate of Jammu. 

From what emerges so far - the local Omar Abdullah govt has abandoned Kashmir and left it to its own fate. 

Abandoned once gain, I should say - by the Abdullah family. 
25 years ago - in 1990's, Papa Abdullah did the same in face of terrorist onslaught in the valley. Abandoned & flew off... !!
Omar is doing shade better. Abandoned and missing from action, but emerges for exclusive interviews and sound bytes for preferred news channels...

At this time, yet again - the state is left to Central govt and Armed forces... 
And as always, Army & IAF has been doing a fabulous job... but getting more stones in return for their helping hand. 

At scores of places now - over last 2-3 days, army rescue boats and helicopters have been pelted with stones - when the approached with relief material or rescue operations. 

Thanklessness of the highest order...!!!


But Army and GoI needs to do what they are doing - not because its Kashmir... but because that's what Army has always done and would do - in any other calamity across India.
That's being true to a principle and its culture, its nature...

As regards - the stone-pelters on streets of Srinagar and wisdom-pelters on social media - they are doing the same too.. Being true to their nature - biting the hand that helps.
If you observe the folks on social media who are making most noise about "army is not there... doing nothing... rescuing only VIPs and tourists... Army wants Kashmiri's to die..." - All of them entirely are folks sitting comfortably miles away from Kashmir. Folks in Dubai, Saudi, Canada, UK, US, etc - Kashmiri Muslim who have no real eye witness account of the happenings in valley nor much contact. Of course, no one from Srinagar was adding to this noise on Social media - since they didn't even have that connectivity...



Why are they doing it?

Because a sudden paranoia has struck them - what if people saved start appreciating the saviours. Damn! "The movement" will weaken. OMG...what about Azadi then? Shucks...its better more people die in floods. Let anger flare up... Anger will help "the movement", rescue will kill it. "the movement" is bigger than anything else... let more folks suffer on ground".
That's the line of thought...!!

A banner propagating the same thought has been seen in some non-inundated areas of the valley today...  So brave of the rebels to dare go put it up in area's still inundated, where army is still working actively on rescue. 

As regards VIPs/Tourists only being rescued - the Army, which has rescued more than a lakh people in last 4 days has also released lists of several thousand names rescued so far. Would request the wisdom-pelters on social media to provide the designations of these VIP people now...
Kashmir must indeed be the world's capital for VIPs...

In the first place, I am baffled as to why are people on TV complaining of "Delhi not sending enough boats!"... "need to airlift more rafts!"... "not sufficient army boats". Of any city in India - Srinagar, the famed erstwhile "Venice of the East" must have tens of thousands of boats locally available - shikara, dunga, bahatcchs or house boats - boats of all capacities... and a huge hanji community of boatmen.
Even the smallest shikara can save 5-8 people in one time... !!!

I even observed a lot of Delhi based TV channels patting their own backs for their 'exclusive' and brave coverage of J&K Floods... (more K... less J of course! But that's beyond the point here...) 

Unfortunately -Delhi media is doing more harm than good today. 
Dozens of TV channels have their reporters going around areas with barely knee deep water looking for news sound bytes... and gather angry bytes like "no relief here... Army doing nothing...No one came... no boats... no rescue" - with reporters nodding in agreement... 

Duh!!!
Didn't see one channel... one reporter share common sense that - "hey dude.. u are standing here on road talking to me... You are in luxury! You don't deserve army to come to your rescue - because Army is busy where there is 20-30ft of water..."
But...that's a bad sound byte... Bad TRP...   
Of course, the journalists themselves wouldn't go into those areas - unless joyriding on IAF sorties...

Never the less - as I said in beginning - GoI, Indian Army must do what we are doing - because that's what we would do for any Indian state. So its no "ehsaan" or "favor" or "appeasement"...


But to expect that it will result in a change of heart would be foolhardy. None of that happened due to rescue, relief and rehab work of Army post 2005 Earthquakes....!! 
None will happen now. 
We will see the usual scenes on streets of Kashmir soon... once the water drains out...
Hurriyat and co needn't worry about the risk of loosing their constituency to sincere efforts of the Indian Army... 

The foundations of their indoctrination is much deeper than what sweat of Armed forces or 20ft of Jhelum water can even soak...!!!

Aug 2, 2014

Say no to Gulmarg, Say no to Dal Lake, Say no to Pahalgam - till..

Dear Tourists of India

A group of 40 yatri's wanted to do a pilgrimage to KausarNag - located at level of 12000ft in Himalayas. A pilgrimage that has been part of Kashmiri Pandit history for thousands of years, from much before the Islamic invaders came to Kashmir, much before their religion even came into existence...

A trekking destination frequented for decades by trekkers, pilgrims and even school kids...My alma mater - Tyndale Biscoe School, used to have an annual trek to the lake for class 9thA. A three day trek/camping in summer - via Aharbal and Kongwattan.
JKTDC is still running a series of sponsored treks across Kashmir - including Kausarnag in collabration with http://www.indiahikes.in/
You are welcome as a trekker, as a tourist... But not as a Kashmiri Pandit or a Hindu.

But today - we are not allowed our own roots. Because, its a group going as Hindu's - as Kashmiri Pandits...

Suddenly - only Kashmiri Pandits are a threat to ecology.

Not surprisingly just days after Amarnath Yatra camp was looted and then burnt down by rioters...
Just days after attack on Mata Khirbhawani Shrine in Tulamula
Not surprisingly after there were protests that the 40 yatri's are an attempt to change "Muslim character of Kashmir"
Not surprisingly just days after ISIS flags appears in Srinagar during Eid celebrations...


And if I react to this - I will be branded communal by those mouthing inanities like Kashmiriyat...

Kashmiriyat - has for long been the worst hoax perpetrated by the money mongers of Kashmir to keep their funds flowing. It was never anything more than a brokered bliss - paid for with the painful silence & subjugation of the minorities..'

Its time to save ecology of Kashmir totally.
If your go to Kashmir - you must shun your identity, your dignity, your soul. Just bring your wallet.

Think Again...!!!

Shun those tourist package tours to Kashmir.
Say no to Gulmarg
Say no to Pahalgam
Say no to Sonamarg
Say no to Dal Lake...

Yes, My Kashmir is beautiful, heavenly! But its cursed too...

As I said many years ago - Must you visit at cost of your dignity and pride... ?
There are tons of places in rest of India that you haven't visited.
Change your holiday plans.

- A Soul in Exile...!

PS: And this applies most to fellow Kashmiri Pandits... alas!!

Jan 18, 2012

KP Holocaust Day!!! 19th January...

...the KP Holocaust Day!!!


Even 22 years from that catastrophic night of 19th January 1990, I can not forget the weird eerie soul churning howl and chill of that night in Kashmir. And yet, even 19 years later Kashmir is as close and ingrained in our souls – as it was that day.
This will be one long post… much like the 20 long dark years my community has spent in a forced exile. As I sit here thinking of that night - a chill still runs down my spine.

The Past…
Kashmiriyat – if anything like that existed had been eroded and molested by the majority in the valley leading to total subjugation of the minority Pandits. Pandits were held to blame for everything – be it excess snowfall or failed crops – because centre/India was to be blamed for it and Pandits were Indians at heart. Everything was a ‘center ki chaal’ and what could be easier than hapless Pandits to blame… Pandits had just borne in 1986 the brunt of the muslim ire – when Dogra’s in Jammu resisted their attempt at installing a mosque inside the government secretariat in Jammu. The wounds of wrath and rampage unleashed on innocent Pandits in Anantnag, Wuyan, Wanpoh, Pulwama, Sopore, Badgam, Baramula in Feb 1986 were still fresh in 1989. The list of temples destroyed in that carnage against the Pandits will never be completely known…just a partial list can be found here. The deaths, rapes and forced conversion in that government supported wave of madness was intolerable for many Kashmiri Pandits.
Scarred by decades of abuse by the majority – Pandits witnessed a mini exodus from Anantnag district in 1986 – when scores of Pandit families left the valley – totally disgusted with their life as a Hindu minority in what was supposedly a Hindu India. Living as a minority in an Islamic shadow is not easy. This was the sixth recorded exodus of Hindus from in recent past – the 12th overall.

The Build up…
Pakistan’s General Zia has been sulking and hurting after his failure in getting quick success with the Khalistan movement – and had been working on opening additional fronts against India – to keep alive the Pakistani national philosophy of a 1000-year war with India; a theory openly propounded ironically by his predecessor whom he got overthrown and killed. Irrespective of their political or social leanings, the Pakistani government and ISI have always had the same agenda against India – so change of rulers never really changed a policy. The 1000 year war Pakistan was waging was still on and General Zia only added another dimension to it with his Operation Topac – a covert Jihadi invasion of Kashmir.
And even the victims of this war admire the cunning perfection with which Pakistan managed to achieve it – while the Indian intelligence and political class was caught napping. Grapevine had it that Rajiv Gandhi, dogged by the Bofors controversy, had deployed IB to determine his chances of victory in a poll – rather than bother about what the cross border terror groups were planning.
ISI couldn’t have got it easier – they already had numerous terrorist training camps running for Khalistan insurgency and for the Afghan operations – they had little to do to get Kashmiri’s trained in handling Kalashnikovs, AK47s, grenades, IEDs, rocket launchers- words which sprang up in the Kashmiri lexicon suddenly in 1989 and became better known than “A for apple” to even the kids on the street. They got easy recruits – snaring the loosing MUF candidates (a political front for the Pakistan aided Jamat-e-Islami) and workers of the 1987 election. Even today it’s a hilarious reading when a Syed Salahudin – who was one of the loser’s in that election says that the rigging of those elections by National Conference (Farooq Abdullah’s party) in coalition with Congress(I) (led by Rajiv Gandhi) was the reason they got disillusioned and took to the gun. Was this the first election in the valley? No. Was this the first election which got (if it) rigged in the sub-continent? No. Was this the first time NC came to power? No. Was this the first time Farooq Abdullah became the Chief Minister? No. Was this the first time Sheikh Abdullah’s family – the same Sheikh whom Kashmiri Muslims were hailing as “Sher-i-Kashmir” just a few months ago – was ruling the state? No. Was this the first time a Jamat-e-Islami backed political formation was defeated? No. Then why the lame excuse…
If a failed or rigged election were to be the sole cause, then UP and Bihar would have been independent countries since 1947. This excuse is the just as lame as the other one – often used by Farooq Abdullah and other people when in power in the state, to get bigger and bigger doles from New Delhi; that Kashmiri’s are turning to terrorism because they are impoverished and unemployed – hence alienated. Dear – if Kashmiris are impoverished, then Kalahandi and Bastar don’t even exist on earth. If unemployment and economic backwardness is justification of a jehad – then the migrant Bihari and Oriya labourers – so omnipresent in all corners of India – should have been the most ferocious terrorists of the world.

Extremist Islamic wave…
A large mass of red-white chequered headscarf wearing mullah’s had invaded Kashmir in 1986-1988 already – Pandits only realized the plot later. These mullahs’ were non-Kashmiri’s and apparently came from a particular group of theological schools in UP – with a directive to ensure ingraining the extremist and intolerant version of Islam among Kashmiris…something alluded to by Salman Rushdie as well here.
And Oh boy!!! What a splendid job they did. Suddenly in 1988, the locals started speaking a different language altogether. Kafir, jihad, unIslamic – such terms became known prominently. I still remember the day at a century old premier Christian missionary run school in Srinagar – which had a green neck-tie as part of its uniform. A brigade of brainwashed senior students backed by some muslim teachers and armed with razors went around slashing these green tie’s from necks of students – just because ‘wearing a green tie was un-Islamic’ (Green being the colour of Islam). Students had started coming armed with special dresses on Friday – for Friday prayers and school practically didn’t run after lunch. The situation in offices was worse. Such weird flavour of Islam was showing up in the valley… growing in strength slowly in the mosques around the valley. The earlier rise and popularity of a fundamentalist political group “Muslim United Front” or MUF, was inline with this trend. Many of the loosing candidates from this group ended up in terror training camps in Pakistan later – becoming the early batch of terror proponents later like Syed Salaha-ud-Din, Javid Mir, Hamid Sheikh, Yasin Malik, Bitta Karate, Shabir Shah etc. Mercenary retirees from Afghan war and the Islamic insurgencies around Bosnia, Africa etc joined them later.

Aura of 1989
1989 – was the watershed year of sorts. For the valley and the world at large…
In China and in Europe, there was political upheaval marked by the end of Communism – and country after country the communist regimes were being overthrown. Anyone who saw television in that period was swamped with images of hundreds of thousands of people gathering in the streets and squares around Europe and winning a surprise victory over the regime… be it in Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria… The Berlin wall suddenly fell down in one huge massive push of sudden human revolt… the big and mighty USSR (deemed to be the strongest ally of India) was breaking into pieces, many of them becoming Islamic states. The other big entity in the game – China had been challenged by the might of the student movement as well – yet, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 apart – the regime in China managed to come out unshaken.
ISI and their honcho’s in Kashmir – JKLF, Hizbul Mujahidin et al, had whipped up a feeling all over Kashmir that these were just the right signs. It was just the right time for freedom and Islamic rule in Kashmir as well. Just one big push was all that was needed for a “Nizam E Mustafa” and the rule of Koran to arrive in Kashmir. And as a build up towards the big push, the infidels/kafirs were to be exterminated. Pandits were the clearest target – since they were unlikely to join a movement aiming for Islamic rule (thereby ask for their own relegation to second class citizen status) and being Indians at heart, they wouldn’t support a demand for merger with Pakistan either. Hence, a wave of ethnic cleansing began.
Pandits were carefully selected out and killed in the most cold blooded fashion by the JKLF terrorists – Bitta Karatey alone owning up to a couple of dozen Pandit killings. Scores of Kashmiri Pandits – prominent or unknown – were killed all over the valley – just merely by branding them informers or traitors. And no one questioned them – not even those who today swear by Kashmiriyat; because this was all part of the operation towards the goal of Nizam-e-Mustafa. Teachers, poets, scholars, leaders, lawyers, nurses, peons, officers, shopkeepers – irrespective of logic were gunned down from close range – just because they were Hindus.
Terror groups resorted to publishing lists of people they intended to kill – called “hit-lists” in local Urdu dailies. A scan through the 1989-90 archives of ‘Aftab’, “Al Safa” and other local dailies would give an idea of how dogmatic the environment was. Posters erupted around the downtown asking Pandits to “raliv, chaliv ya galiv” – (join the movement, leave Kashmir or get killed). A minority which counts up to less than 5% share of the population had little hope of a fight. Honour and self-respect of the Pandits wouldn’t let us join the so-called movement – unless one was willing to convert to Islam. Otherwise why would a Pandit ask for Islamic rule – which in itself meant a wretched life Hindus faced in Pakistan or under Taliban. Slowly now, they were getting killed – and yet, there was no sign of any government intervention in 1989.
Ending 1989: At the end of 1989, an interesting turn of political events was also unfolding in the rest of India. Congress and Rajiv Gandhi lost elections – and a fragile coalition came to power. And this group wanted to prove its pseudo secular credentials to the Muslims of India…so a Kashmiri Muslim who till then had never held any position of authority in his own state was given the most important position in the central cabinet – Mufti Sayed became the Home Minister of India. His real cunning Islamic fundamentalist leanings were already known to the Kashmiri’s… he had been an active leader of the carnage against Pandits in 1986. Kashmiri’s felt they had broken into the bastion – their man was even in the control room now. His anti-Pandit politics came to fore again when he returned as the CM.
And the drama that followed was the right culmination 1989 needed. Abduction of Home minister’s daughter Rubiya Syed was staged and a weak centre yielded by releasing dreaded terrorists like Hamid Sheikh and Yasin Malik amongst others…
A mass frenzy of celebrations followed in the valley – with the released terrorists being openly carried around in the downtown in processions. Law and order were like a polar bear in Sahara - dead. A victory of sorts was declared. This was just a small test push yet – and it turned out so easy – just the way ISI and their honcho’s had been telling them…
A battle was won. The war couldn’t be difficult. The tone and behaviour of the common man on street suddenly changed – my friends were suddenly talking of Azadi and Islamic rule, the language was full of technical terms around guns and war. They suddenly knew how many rounds a AK47 could fire, how many bullets a magazine had, what response times a Kalashnikov was like. By now, surprise guerilla attacks, cross fires, grenade or bomb attacks in city, shootouts at government offices or army camps were common place and daily happenings. By now the kids could tell the sound of a Kalashnikov fire from the AK47, and predict the distance at which IED or a grenade attack must have happened from just the sound of it. Black-outs and bandhs were common events. Schools and colleges stayed more closed than open. Daring to switch on a light during a blackout promptly invited a shower of stones. There were few Pandit homes without shattered glass panes by end of 1989. We stopped replacing the broken ones after sometime, and instead got wire mesh installed on the out side of the windows. Examinations were getting disrupted… normal life was in chaos. Yet, government was asleep.
Jihad was in the air… merger with the wider Pan-Islamic world was just a few steps away. Veils and burkha’s suddenly became predominant common sight– in an otherwise fashion aware society. Hindu’s were getting marked out and standing apart. The belief that Pakistan would launch an offensive at the LOC and invade was overwhelming them, as well.
All this had left Pandits totally confused, clueless of the nefarious activities happening in covert and scared. I still remember the fear and chill the re-broadcast of serials like “Tamas” or news of riots in Bhagalpur on television would send among the Pandits – feeling like hapless pigeons in a cage full of cats. Most had no clue what was to befall them – just because they were Hindu and Indians at heart. Somewhere there was a hope that this was just a passing frenzy and things would be calm soon.

Events leading to that night…
January 1990… the political chaos all over Europe was still in its motions. After Rubiya Syed debacle, the government in New Delhi had proved how weak kneed it was to terrorism – giving birth to an image of India as a soft state – an weakness which Pakistan exploited right through IC814 hijack, Kargil war or attack on Parliament. At the state level, Farooq Abdullah was loosing control – he barely had any, given that he was away in UK taking care of his business and in-laws 3/4th of his time. His political ally - Congress had been routed in the elections and Rajiv Gandhi was at his weakest ever. Farooq was seeing his chair rock each day – and knew he would be one of the recipients of the push – given that ISI and their honcho’s had whipped enough hatred against Sheikh Abdullah and his kith already – holding them to blame for the accession that they wanted to reverse.
Rumour mills were churning out weird stories each day. One night, it was a mass hysteria in Srinagar – when some mosques blared out warnings that they must immediately collect and horde as much drinking water as possible – because Indian government had ordered annihilation of all Kashmiri’s by poisoning of the water supply system. Preposterous and illogical that this may sound – the whole city was busy filling up water in even in the smallest cup and bowl in the house. Yeah!!! Pandits included… after all it was the same tap water everywhere. But did anyone question who caused this frenzy and spread this insane rumour – one dare not question.
Broadcasts from Radio-POK (what they call Azad Kashmir Radio) were interesting – there used to be more religious fervour and war-songs than news. And locals were hooked. Even Pandits regularly tuned in to know how worse it could get…
“Jago jago subaho hui, Khoon-e-shaheeda rang layaa, fateh ka parcham lehraya, jaago jaago subah hui…”
- a war song sung by non-Kashmiri singers of Muzaffarabad was one of the many war songs on air all the time. Soon these were also being played in mosques in the valley over mega-phones to incite passion for jihad. News reports from POK radio were the most hilarious though – one day you would be told that a 1000 Indian soldiers were buried alive by the valiant Islamic mujahideen, or that Srinagar was being readied for a JKLF to take the oath of power, or that Pakistani backed terrorists had captured the radio and TV centers (something seen in European revolutions through 1989) or that JKLF and Hizb were just about to march onto Delhi. Rhetoric like, people of Pakistan will offer next Friday prayer in Id Gah in Srinagar and the week after that in Jama Masjid in Delhi was common speech on those waves. And the masses were lapping it up in Kashmir… stepping deeper into a mass hysteria.
The presence of security forces was still far and few. One could see only 2-3 pickets yet – around Residency road and Lal Chowk areas, and guarding Secretariat and few other important government landmarks. Otherwise, the security presence in downtown or the civil lines was absent. Few sensitive areas like Maisuma, Gawkadal and areas in downtown had witnessed clashes and guerilla attacks on the pickets CRPF tried to set up.
The lack of law and order was getting questioned and there was clear evidence that Farooq was not interested or capable of controlling the situation. How could he anyway, given that he barely was present in the country. New Delhi wanted to soothe the emotions of the people of valley – and decided to recall Jagmohan Malhotra as the governor of J&K.
Despite what Kashmiri Muslims today say about Jagmohan – anyone true to his soul who lived in Kashmir during his earlier tenure would not be able to deny that his period of Governor’s rule in the state was the best time ever people had seen – from an administrative point of view. Jagmohan had run the state till just sometime back when the GM Shah government died after the 1986 carnages. People, Kashmiri muslims worth their pinch of salt would vouch for this – locals regarded it the best run government they had ever seen. There was amazing infrastructural development in such quick time, government machinery ran like clockwork, officials were on their toes, he himself would meet public every day and address issues directly, he had reached out to more people than all other politicians earlier. And he wasn’t even a politician then. He was a governor – an able administrator. When he got the state back to a time for elections – people were openly asking if there could be a way for Jagmohan to become the Chief Minister. Those Kashmiri’s who disbelieve this today, go and ask your father to tell you what it was like. (Of course, he couldn’t contest election or become Chief Minister – because of Article 370). Even Farooq Abdullah famously requested him for his guidance, rebuke and direction if he were to go wrong, admiring the way he had run the state – and cashing in on the admiration people had for him.
The central government probably thought that Jagmohan’s popularity with the masses and his reputation would help soothe the hysteria in the valley and things would settle down. But Farooq got alarmed – he knew his inefficiency would get exposed now. In Delhi, Rajiv was playing the usual sick minded opposition – he had to oppose appointment. Farooq and Rajiv – allies in politics at this time –were hoping that VP Singh would invoke Article 365 and dismiss his government. But they didn’t dismiss the Farooq government, only sent in a new Governor. Farooq decided to use this as an honorable exit. Farooq raised a hue and cry over why Jagmohan was being sent back to the state as a Governor without his permission and sent in his resignation and dissolution of the assembly as a protest. Hands washed off!!! He announced his decision to quit the afternoon of January 19th 1990 – when Jagmohan was still in Delhi and yet to take charge of his gubernatorial duties. The state was headless for a while…till Jagmohan arrived later on 20th-21st and took charge. But in between – the night of 19th January was a night of horror…and a night which changed a lot of things in the valley.

That night…19th January 1990
Farooq’s decision to quit had left the state in confusion… His party cadre’s were restless and chaotic. The ISI’ honchos were alarmed. They feared Jagmohan’s return would send the people back many steps – he being the efficient administrator people had already known him to be and his goodwill with the masses. The mosques all over the valley became hyper active that night. Suddenly there were slogans and frenzied songs blaring from all mosques in the valley. Rumours of an Arab political delegation being in Srinagar to take a look at the situation was around. It was made believe that if the voice of dissent was made known to the Arab delegation – they would do wonders (don’t know how). But no one knew what/where this so-called delegation was. So simultaneous religious propaganda, sloganeering and anti-India chants ranted through the valley all night – blaring aloud from the loud-speakers of mosque; loud-speakers which are meant otherwise for getting the call prayers heard. Slogans like
“Islam khatre’ mein hai” (Islam is in danger),
“Aes gacche’ Pakistan, Batav ros’ te’ batnev saan” (we want Kashmir – without Pandit men, but with their womenfolk)
“Mujahid’on aage bhado” (Warriors of allah – move ahead)
“Yahan kya chalega – Nizam E Mustafa” (What will rule Kashmir – Rule of Allah)
"Kashmir mein agar rehna hai, Allah-o-Akbar kehna hai" (Only those who believe in Allah -(only Muslims) can live in Kashmir)
“Hum kya chahte, Azadi” (we want freedom)
“La ilah Illalah – Pakistan banega Insalaah” (Praise to God! Kashmir will be Pakistan)
“Indian dogs – get out”
“Battav ya raliv, chaliv nate’ galiv” (O Pandits – either join us, flee or die)
…and many more.
It was a night of chaos and madness. The scary environment those eerie slogans echoing from frentic mobs created throughout the night can not be explained - one had to live that trauma to know it. Pandits were taken by shock by this sudden event – given that they had no clue on why and what was happening and neither did they know what rumours and discussions were on inside the mosques – till much later. Pandits, particularly those in the Jamat-e-Islami stronghold areas of downtown were shrunken by fear, like the animals sunken in their holes when a pack of tigers is on prowl. The sound of loudspeaker sloganeering was the most scary one – each household too scared to even switch on their lights.
Around before mid-night, groups of people started streaming through the lanes and bylanes, streets and nooks of the city – marching towards the Lal Chowk area – shouting usual slogans. At several places, the mosques ordered Hindu’s to move out of their homes and join the march as well. They were planning to assemble in Lal Chowk in large numbers – maybe a crowd of 200,000 to 300,000 people and then attack and capture the AIR Radio station and Doordarshan – much like the revolutions in Europe they had been watching over TV through 1989…and thus declare independence. They believed Pakistan would be launching an offensive immediately and permanence of the situation would be sealed. The crowds in such large numbers – reportedly more than 50,000 people gathered in the city centre and attacked the few police pickets and CRPF booths erected there. There were armed terrorists in the crowds firing celebration shots in the air. A shootout was launched on security personnel in Lal chowk and Gawkadal – and no wonder when there is a crowd of thousands; quite a few lives were lost. Thankfully the crowds got dispersed sometime in the night.

There was no chance of recovery thereon.
The ISI honcho’s – disappointed with the failure of the human wave in achieving the ‘one push’ were left directionless. Jagmohan was in city next day and went on television appealing to the general masses to use common sense and restrain. I remember his words like “I have not come here to govern or rule, I have come here to work as a nursing orderly to serve you, to help heal the wounds you have and be your servant”… In the days that followed Jagmohan in his usual way went about meeting people in open darbars in the valley – even though the secretariat was in Jammu. Hundreds of muslims were turning up to meet him with petitions and requests for solving their issues – given that they knew this was one man who knew what a common man’s problem were and knew how to govern.

And the Exodus…
ISI and their honchos were in a panic – they went about increasing their attacks on Pandits and published more hit-lists, killing Pandits all over the valley everyday. Muslim neighbours came to us requesting us to leave the valley till was safe to come back, since they felt they would not be able to protect even close friends and neighbours –were an armed group of terrorists to show up at their neighbours doorstep. Posters threatening Pandits of dire consequences and directing them to leave the valley were showing up on doors and outside temples. Pandits were in a shocked state – frustrated that the government was unable to stop their massacre. Pandits had no option but to leave the valley – all believing temporarily – for safer areas. Most Pandits left their homes set, stocked and ready – expecting to return just a few weeks later once things were calmer – not knowing the return was not likely for decades. Pandits left in trucks, buses, tempo’s whatever means they could find…from villages and nooks of the valley – towards Jammu. Jammu started witnessing a sudden influx of Pandits which it was not ready for. Being winter, the city was already overburdened with the durbar-move population. A sudden influx of thousands of Kashmiri refugees was not something this much smaller city could stand up to. Thousands of Pandits lived in dharamsalaa’s, halls, abandoned buildings, temples, stadiums, retiring rooms of bus stands for weeks. It was turning into a humanitarian problem of another kind for Jagmohan now – given that resentment was brewing in Jammu as well. He set up tented refugee camps for Pandits outside the city of Jammu – to avoid this situation – refugee camps which were to become permanent homes for thousands even till today.

Pakdo padko - Jagmohan ko pakdo…
ISI and their honcho’s saw this as a good opportunity to discredit Jagmohan’s efforts in the valley. Had they not done it quickly enough, the mass connect Jagmohan was re-establishing with Muslims would have killed their efforts totally. Word was spread that Jagmohan had ordered the firing at the crowds in Lal Chowk and Gaw Kadal on 19th Jan night – little logic was used to understand that he was not the governor at that moment. It was officers of Farooq’s regime who were still officiating. Rumours were spread in the valley that Jagmohan has gone to Pandits and asked them to leave the valley – so that he could conduct massive military operations killing all muslims, and they could return once they operation was over. This canard was repeated daily over and over again… and as they say, repeat a lie a thousand times and many believe it’s a truth. That’s the truth a Kashmiri muslim believes today.
Few used their logic – there existed no Pandit leadership at that time (not even now) – where Jagmohan could have conveyed this message to. Did Jagmohan go around visiting Pandit homes – telling them this secret plan. Pandits were spread few and far in between all over the valley. Was it Jagmohan who was pasting those posters at our doorsteps in the night? Was it Jagmohan who killed poets, teachers, social workers, nurses selectively? Did he go around branding Pandits as traitors and informers, and writing up those hit-lists? Did he know Kashmiri language enough to coin and shout those slogans – “raliv chaliv ya galiv”, “Aes gacche’ Kasheer, Batav ros’ te’ batnev saan”. Did Jagmohan go around shooting down Tikka Lal Taploo, Pt. Sarwanand Premi or Lassa Koul or the hundreds of other Pandits… did he go around stoning Pandit homes…? Did he go around gouging the eyes from Premi's dead body and cutting body of other victims on a bandsaw mill? Was Bitta Karatey trained and sent by Jagmohan?
If he really told Pandits to leave – I have a big grudge against him for not coming to my home and telling this to my family.
Rumour mongering is a strong Kashmiri trait – and this is the longest and strongest one ever. Ask a kid in valley today who Pandits are – a kid born in late 80’s or early 90’s… someone who has not seen or known a Pandit or doesn’t know what happened then – and you are likely to hear an answer like “Pandits are kafirs/infidels – informers and enemy of muslims who were taken out of Kashmir by Jagmohan”. Yeah… and Islam is the longest living religion…in existence since pre-human era.
Another interesting fact of late January 1990. We lived in the civil lines area of Jawahar Nagar (now renamed to something like Islampur or so), and happened to have 4-5 sikh families in our close neighbourhood. When family was in dilemma about the exodus – they would come to consult and confer on what to do as well. We seldom talked this to other Pandits – as much as to them. Yet suddenly one day this stopped. Turns out that Simaranjit Singh Mann had arrived in the valley – and met with the Jamat-e-Islami leadership and other ISI backed groups. Khalistani terrorists were afterall of same parentage. Mann had clearly threatened to retaliate against Muslims in other parts of India – and choke their supply lines via Punjab if even one Sikh was touched. Luckily for them, they had not killed any Sikhs either so far - ISI wouldn’t have let them either. Sikh community controlled the trucking business as well in the valley – something which was the economic life line of the massive horticulture and handicraft industry in the valley. Mann was able to broke security for the Sikh’s in the valley – but Pandits were parentless refugee’s…
Sea of Souls in Exile
Without a God-father in the otherwise 80% hindu India – Pandits got condemned to a life in Exile, becoming refugee’s in their own country. Refugees whom the government too refuses to acknowledge and accept – and hence they labeled Pandits as “Kashmiri Migrants”. Migrants – what does that mean? Pandits were not habitual travelers nor nomads by custom, nor were we a specie of seasonal migratory birds.
In hindsight, Pandits did have a hope that the Hindu’s of India would raise a voice for them. A mistaken belief no doubt…
Pandits – were just one thing – 700,000 unwanted Hindu’s in a supposedly Hindu country…refugee’s in their own land. Exiles’ from their own homeland. Aboriginals evicted from their roots…

Ami pana so'dras nAvi ches lamAn
Kati bozi Day myon meyti diyi tAr
Ameyn tAkeyn poniy zan shemAn
Zuv chum bramAn gara gatshaha.
-Lal Ded (14th century Kashmiri Saint and Poetess)
With a rope of loose-spun thread am I towing
my boat upon the sea.
Would that God heard my prayer
and brought me safe across!
Like water in cups of unbaked clay
I run to waste.
Would God I were to reach my home!

Nov 8, 2010

It’s a Jihad – stupid!!!

About The Real Kashmir Issue, Geelani and Arundhati…

Enough has been said, written and tweeted about Arundhati Roy’s brain-dead comments on Kashmir, twisting of history of Kashmir and her right to free speech. I respect her right to free speech – after all right to stay stupid should be a right too. Though I strongly detest her attempt to dismiss the trauma of Kashmiri Pandit’s in exile by denying the ethnic cleansing and exodus ever happened, she has a right to stay in darkness. She is afterall a friend and comrade of people like Gautam Navlakha. She can go about repeating whatever she has been tutored on freely; hope it helps her sell one more novel and get more paid trips on lecture tours. Freedom of speech is paramount – so what those exercising their freedom of speech to question and critique her logic and opinion are being shouted down.

But this post isn’t about Arun-dirty… she would have probably moved on to another headline issue by now already… or some Page3 parties around her luxurious South Delhi home.

In Delhi and then in Srinagar, Arundhati was espousing the cause of one Syed Ali Shah Geelani – the grand old hawk of Kashmir… and pouting prose in support of his ideals and ideology that he espouses. Supporting the Azadi bridgade… on the notion of a separate identity and want of freedom from a colonizer.

Geelani on the contrary is some what more forthright and honest about the truth behind the trouble in Kashmir. One must atleast give some respect to this old man – for being the only man who dares put it the way it is – unlike all others in Kashmir, who go about speaking from many sides of their mouth about Kashmiriyat, identity, accession, plebiscite, promises of jobs etc…

Geelani says what we Kashmiri Pandits have been saying for decades already… we of course, said this earlier because we have lived in the midst and known the psyche that led to it.

Kashmir – is not a political problem. Kashmir problem is not about ethnic identity, not about right of self-determination, promises of plebiscite, not about rigged elections of 1987, not about failed accords or lack of those, not about article 370 or autonomy.

Kashmir is a religious problem. The issue is simple and straight – its religion. It’s about Islam and the urge to join the larger Ummah’… the greater Islamic brotherhood.

And Geelani minces no words when he says clearly that. And I respect him for being forth-right – compared to all others in the valley and Hurriyat, who continue to dodge around the truth.

Geelani wants Kashmir to become a true Islamic state. A model Islamic state. Minorities and so-called Kashmiriyat be damned. But don’t worry, he too would surely add a customary footnote of “we want our Pandit bretheren back” etc. No wonder – how can you apply Islamic laws like these, if there are no minorities to butcher.

Geelani abhors the concept of “Secularism” – and decries its imposition in Kashmir. No wonder Arundhati upholds his ideals.

“India has a secular system, which we can under no condition accept.”

He wants Kashmir to be run as per tenets of “the real Islam of the Quran and the Practice (Sunnah) of the Prophet.”

Wonder why Arundhati – the citizen of mobile republic – doesn’t take citizenship of Islamic State of Pakistan or the middle eastern world. She can enjoy real freedom right away.

Kashmir has been invaded by Wahabi Sunnism – Kashmir problem will remain till there is a pan-Islamic trauma world over. There can never be a solution to Kashmir till there is a failed Islamic state next door or rogue petro-funded jihad mongers in the region.

Kashmiri Pandits have known this for decades. Told you so – when we kept saying that “Kashmiriyat is a hoax”. It was only reiterated to us - when we were hounded out to religious frenzy in 1990. It was evident when hell broke loose in Kashmir over mere use of transit facilities for a Hindu Pilgrimage . Its been evident in the rapid Talibanisation of Kashmir over last few decades… And that’s one reason why its only the Kashmiri Sunni Muslims’ who believe in this Jihad in Kashmir. All others know what fate lies ahead for them in an Islamic state of Kashmir… if the state of minorities, Shia’s, Ahmadiyyas etc in Pakistan is taken as an example.

But of course, Arundhati is a writer/speaker. Which means she only writes and speaks. Never reads or listens – what her co-speakers like Geelani really think and say.

I still uphold her right of not reading the truth. Her right of staying stupid.



(photo source: mid-day.com)

Sep 20, 2009

Unwise Mirwaiz...


The Mirwaiz in his address once again urged the migrant Kashmiri Pandits to return to their homeland and join the “freedom struggle”, as it was a fight for the rights of the people of all three regions of the state. He reiterated that the Kashmir issue was a political issue and needed to be resolved politically.

Kashmiri Politicians have fooled the mainstream Indian media for over a decade - making them believe that the problem in Kashmir is a political one...
But it seems the wolves are in a delusional state now - expecting the victims to believe their peace calls...

Mirwaiz's call to the Kashmiri Pandits to return to Kashmir and join the "freedom struggle"...
What? Mirwaiz' did you go to the Jamma Masjid after gulping a few hard drinks...

  • What "freedom struggle" are you talking about? Which "three regions" of the state are you claiming to fight for? No body outside the valley supports you and your other Pakistan funded cronies and the agenda of 'Islamization' you have propagated under the garb of freedom struggle. Your Jihad is only for Muslims of Kashmir - so dont even try to create an impression that the people of Ladakh or Jammu have any sympathies for your Jihad.
  • Why is "Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC)" your nanny if you represent all three regions of the state...?
  • Get a different tune now - enough of singing the "Kashmir is a Political Issue" song for last two decades. Political issues dont need ethinic cleansing of religious minorities. Your dear friends and Hurriyat colleagues including Yasin Malik have blood of Kashmiri Pandits on their hands. Movements run by criminals and terrorists are nothing but an orgy of barbarianism. Kashmiri pandits have lived this barbarianism of your peers and are not interested in being the sacrificial lambs for your Jihad anymore.
  • You talk of Kashmir issue being "resolving politically" - but Kashmiri Pandits can not but see that as hipocritical double-speak till you stop taking political directives from ISI and Pakistani establishment. An appeal of this kind must have required you to get approval from your God-fathers in Lahore and Islamabad. But Mr Umer Farooq - is it too difficult to understand that Kashmiri Pandits or any other Hindu can not trust any sugar coated words - when these come from a theocratic country where their own Hindus are subject to extreme torture and harshness. Kashmiri Pandits dont want to be part of a 'jihad' in Kashmir which works towards relegating them to second class citizen status, forced conversions and torture under Nizam-e-Adal.
Mr Mirwaiz Umar Farooq - please wake up...


Jul 8, 2009

MASSACRE OF KASHMIRI PANDITS



The Muslim terrorists operating under multiple forms of incarnations like Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muslim Janbaz Force, Ul Umur, Al Burq, Hizbul Mujahideen, Al Jehad, Ikhwan-ul-Muslim et al sharing visceral hatred against Kashmiri Pandits subjected them to intimidation, panic, rape, murder and sexual assault with a view to exterminating them from the soil of Kashmir. In sheer violation of universally accepted charter of rights and law as couched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants the terrorists debased, dehumanised and brutalised the cultured and moderate community of Kashmiri Pandits by destructing and killing them in a punitive war. In heaping death and destruction on them, the terrorists pursue the objective of dismemberment of the state from the Indian liberal democratic order for a new political alignment based on religion. Terror was created and violence propagated to obliterate dissent and
opposition to the formulated goals of the terrorists. The elements that were deemed inimical to the terrorist campaign have been liquidated with impunity and subjected to an untold orgy of Nazi-type torture and persecution. Waves of communalism have been fanned and fuelled thereby polarising the Kashmiri society for furtherance of political ends. The Kashmiri Pandits as a distinct ethno-religious group have been under a conspiracy targetted, maimed and butchered in groups and put to detestable forms of violence and brutality to destruct the Indian support planks to materialist the secessionist goal thus flagrantly violating and transgressing their inherent political rights and freedoms.
As an indoctrinated breed churned out from the Muslim seminaries of hate, fanaticism and religious bigotry the Muslim terrorists launched an all-out religious crusade against the non-Muslim ethnic groups directed to the end product of establishing an Islamic state placed on the foot stool of Shariat (Islamic Law) which reduces the ethnic and religious minorities to the exiles of a gulag deprived of human rights and human dignity. They through the dynamics of a religious war are in the quest of pan-Islamic theme and vision of ascendancy of Islam and the sociopolitical system bearing its seal and sanction at the expense of religion and faith espoused by minority groups and subgroups. The militarized Islam is not chasing political goals alone but is rivetting its sights on religious objectives too. The forcible imposition of a particular religion along with its socio-political order on an ethnic minority harbouring its own set of beliefs and forms of
worship is violative of human rights and essential freedoms that flow from them.
With the shared ideology and agenda of thrusting a second partition on India and transforming the state of Jammu and Kashmir into an Islamic state, the Muslim terrorists have lost no time in spotting their political and religious enemies in the Hindu minorities especially the Kashmiri Pandits. Politically the Kashmiri Pandits repose full faith in and are unflinching supporters of the secular polity of India and as such do not subscribe to any trend of thought and wave of movement aiming at snapping the historical, cultural and political ties of the state with indict. It is pertinent to put that they have made no mean contributions to the dynamics of growth, development and consolidation of democratic and secular order and political and economic humanism allied with it and as a patriotic force have bitterly opposed the constitutional barriers which have generated the vicious and baneful forces of separatism and fundamentalism in Kashmir. In matters of
religion the Pandits with the chequered history of torture and persecution at the hands of Muslims have rejected the antediluvian tendencies breeding religious perversion and paranoia and are wedded to the Indian discourse of allowance for tolerance and non-conformity and stand for full flow of freedom for every individual to preach and practice his religion. They have not only mocked at but held in utter contempt the Islamic police enforcing codes and fatwas (religious decrees).
The Kashmiri Pandits have vigorously fought the secessionist forces seeking the placement of Jammu and Kashmir outside the political and constitutional umbrella of India. They fought the Plebiscite Front which as an organisaistion strove for and was pledged to the secession of the state for its emergence as the personal fiefdom of the Sheikh dynasty. After the Plebiscite Front as a result of political developments was deemed to have lost its political relevance and was disbanded, the condemnation of Pandits and hateful thrust against them did not come to end and as always they were maligned and projected as the enemies of the Muslim secessionist goals and ambitions. They were abhorred and projected as the "sworn enemies" and concerted efforts were set afoot to marginalise them for the fact that they stood for the fuller merger and integration of the state with the Union of India. The Muslim identity of Kashmir to the exclusion of diverse ethno-religious
minorities as an essential cog in the processes of total Islamisation pursued at state level was exposed to the shreds by the Pandit minority. That is why they have been branded as the inveterate enemies of Muslim identity which is being perceived under constant threat from India harbouring a Muslim population equivalent to that of Pakistan.
With their well-known positions on politics and religion the Kashmiri Pandits as such have been opposed to any movement for Kashmir's annexation with Pakistan and are equally inimical to the retrograde Muslim programme of pushing the state into the lap of rabid fundamentalism and they, therefore, as a resisting force were mercilessly massacred and eliminated in hundreds. Some of the killed were engineers while some held positions in administrative setup. Some victims of genocide were teachers with remarkable achievements in the domain of learning and creative thinking while some pursued legal profession. A Hindu scientist who was brutalised to death had a number of research papers to his credit while another was a highbrow intellectual with enormous studies in the realms of philosophy. Some of the killed ran groceries while others held ordinary jobs hardly making two ends meet. Even a mad person was not spared. Most of the victims to the Muslim massacre
were innocent and peace-loving people who had lived in penury and had been denied opportunities under the policy of discrimination which was institutionalised by a system dominated by the Muslims.
As a weak and unarmed religio-ethnic group the Muslim terrorists put them to a mass massacre and had their not been prompted by their "race-memory", a repertoire of past history of their persecution, to buzz off their natural habitat, the terrorists, wildly frenzied and bent upon their destruction and decimation, would have finished them off as a species.
Terror was created through threats, bomb-blasts, rumours and apochryphal allegations and the terror machine was so endemic that every man, woman and child became vulnerable. No Pandit felt safe from the penumbra of violence and terror. Kashmir for the hapless Hindus was reduced to a killing field which was prowled about by communal and terrorist hyenas.
It was not only in violation of the canons of ethics and morality that Kashmiri Pandits as a miniscule minority were cruelly killed and tortured but also in utter disregard of decent and civilised political deporment recognised by the Charter of Human Rights Declaration and several other international agreements. The killings were monstrous and barbaric paling the killings of Jews by the Nazis into a triviality. The Pandits were abducted front homes, work-places or streets and tortured and killed to the brutal ecstasy of their tormentors. The terrorists butchered them even in their homes in the presence of their defenceless and hapless inmates. Labelling them as "informers" and "agents of India", they were killed in large numbers without any considerations of age, vocation and political commitments. It is a genocide of Hindus for the political commitments that they harboured and the religion that they espoused. As members of a community with a tremendous
history in time they have been bodily and mentally harmed and injured and conditions have been created to bring about their death and destruction. The terrorists have not concealed their first resolve to destroy the Kashmiri Pandits not only as political opponents but also as religious enemies. They have generated tremendous mass support for the genocide of Pandits through the Mosque Committees, plethora of Islamic organizations and Quranic Schools run by the Jamaat-i-lslami.
The horrendous torture deaths brought about by a resort to barbaric methods will cause a shiver down the spine of the worst Hitlerites. Burning cigarettes were applied to the naked bodies of Kashmiri Pandits. Boiling wax was poured on highly sensitive parts of their bodies. Nails were driven into their foreheads. Their eye-balls were gouged out and tongues chopped off. Male genitals were cut off. Private parts and breasts of women were hewn open. Women were ripped into two equal parts on a wood-slicing machine. Gangrapes were resorted to. Bellies were ripped open for entrails to spill out. Hairs from the heads were plucked out. They were hanged and bullets pumped into their bodies. Kidneys were extracted from the victims and offered to their parents to chew them at pain of death. Brains were hammered. All barbaric.
Torture deaths have been brought about by the following cruel and savage practices:

1. Hanging

2. Burning alive
3. Strangulation by steel wires
4. Draining of blood in hospitals
5. Drowning alive
6. Beating to death
7. Dragging to death
8. Breaking of body parts
9. Dismemberment of body
10. Slicing
11. Fleecing
12. Gouging of eye balls
13. Branding with red-hot iron bars
14. Impaling
15. Slaughter

In absence of government computations about the killings of Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and other Hindus, private agencies and non-government organizations have put the number of Hindus of all shades who have been killed at 2,500 out of which Kashmiri Pandits stand out with a figure of eighteen hundred and odd. The Report submitted to the National Human Rights Commission by PKM has put the figures of killed Pandits at 319 till October, 1990. B.N. Nissar, editor of the Kashyapvani, has issued out a list of 765 Kashmiri Pandits who were brutally massacred. As per him twenty two ladies were raped and killed, sixty-six males were kidnapped and released which included Vijay Koul, director of the Regional Institute of Science and Technology and Dr. A.K. Dhar, director of the Regional Research Laboratory, eighteen were hanged to death, twenty-five ladies were raped and let off, eight were strangulated, hundred twenty- four were kidnapped and killed and sixty were
critically wounded and died for want of media laid. No fewer than fifty seven sikhs have been killed. It is said that many a mass massacre of Kashmiri Pandits of Sangrampora dimension was suppressed and not leaked to the press under the instuructions of the then Home Minister of India.
The following persons belonging to the minority community of Hindus especially the Kashmiri Pandits as infidels have been tortured and killed by the methods mentioned above :
Tika Lal Taploo

Name: Tika Lal Taploo
Fathers Name: Pandit Nand Lal Taphoo
Date of Birth: 6th Oct, 1927
Date of Assassination: 14th September,1989
Residence: Chinkral Mohalla, Habba Kadal, Srinagar
Survived by Wife (50), Sons (24, 21), Daughter (27)
Tika Lal Taploo was a lawyer by profession and had been in politics for long. He had fought electicons to the J&K Legislative Assembly a number of times but could not make it to the Assembly because of the jerrymandering of the Assembly segment he would usually tight elections from. He enjoyed immense popularity as a social and political activist. He was put to bullets by the armed killers of JKLF. His assassination came as a shock to large sections of Kashmiri population. His funeral procession was stoned by the Muslim rebids and was attended among others by Kedar Nath Sahni and L. K. Advani as he was the Vice President of the J&K Unit of Bhartiya Janata Party. The Muslims downed the shutters of their shops as a mark of respect to the martyr, but they had to re-open their shops when issued commands not to mourn the death of a Kafir.
Nila Kanth Ganjoo

Name: Nila Kanth Ganjoo
Father's Name: Mahadev Ganjoo
Date of Assassination: 4th October,1989
Residence: Karan Nagar, Srinagar
Survived by wife (70), sons (51,49), daughter (55)
Nila Kanth Ganjoo was an ax-Sessions Judge with lots of legal acumen. He had emerged as a detestable person for the Muslim secessionists as and when he heard the case of Maqbool Butt who was accused of murder of an intelligence officer, Amar Chand and on the basis of the evidence collected and deposed in the case had ordered the execution of the accused. The accused had gone in appeal against his judgment, but the death sentence was upheld even by the apex court. Ganjoo lived under constant threat of life. His house was raided and bombed umpteen times and the government had set up a police post at his house. With the rise of militarised Islam in Kashmir he was put to bullets on a busy road in Srinagar in broad daylight by the JKLF assassins. His body lying in a pool of blood was not even covered. Police prevaricated to arrive on the scene. Killers had left a note on his body warning anyone against picking it up. Ganjoo was killed in cold blood because he
was a Kashmiri Pandit. The twenty-two witnesses who had recorded their evidence in the case were all Muslims and they were not murdered or even hurt. Instead they were amnestyed. The Justice of the High court who had heard the appeal in the case was also a Muslim. He was not killed for upholding the decision of the Sessions Court. Abdul Gani Lone, said to be a corrupt stooge of some foreign powers, is believed to be behind all the raids and bombing attacks on his residence.
Sarwanand Koul "Premi", Virendra Koul

Sarwanand Koul "Premi"


Virendra Koul
Name: Sarwanand Koul "Premi" and Virendra Koul
Father's Name: Gopi Nath Koul
Date of Birth: 9.6.1926/4.5.1962
Date of Assassination: 30.4.1990
Residence: Sofshalli, Anantnag
Survived by wife (60), son (35), daughter (26)
"Premi" was a poet and scholar. He stuck to his hamlet despite the rise in terrorism. He had the psyche of a teacher in believing that he would withstand the Islamic hurricane as he had taught every dog in and around the belts of his village and hence could not be so ungrateful as to bite him to death. But things proved otherwise. The Muslim terrorists entered his house on 28th April, 1990 and ordered all the members of his family to get collected in one room alongwith the ornaments and moneys, shawls and precious clothes. Whatever precious they had in their home was offered to the killers-curn-looters. The ornaments that the ladies were putting on were also cruelly snatched. Stuffing their booties in one suitcase Premi was ordered to carry it and follow them for a word just a small distance away from his house. The members of his family wailed and moaned. The killers assured them that he would return safe and unharmed. His son insisted upon accompanying
his old father. "If you wish, you may also accompany him", said the killers. The treatment that was meted out to the father and his son can shame even the worst Muslim tyrants. The spot where Premi would put his tilak mark was nailed. He was tortured by burning bits of cigarettes. The limbs of his body were broken. His eyes were gouged out. He was hanged from a tree and bullets were fired on him. His son was put to the same orgy of torture and death.
Bansi Lal Sapru
Name: Bansi Lal Sapru
Father's Name: Keshav Nath Sapru
Date of Birth: 30.2.1945
Date of Assassination: 24.4.1990
Residence: Gulab Bagh, Srinagar
Survived by wife (37), Sons (16 and 13)
He was accosted at the gate of his house by some neighbours and was carried along into his own orchard for a word. Three shots were pumped into him from close range. One shot struck his head. He fell dead and was found wallowing in his own pool of blood. His family screamed in pain and agony but nobody came even to console them.
Radha Krishen Kaw

Name: Radha Krishen Kaw
Father's Name: Balbhadher Kaw
Date of Birth: 18.5.1931
Date of Assassination: 24.8.1990
Residence: Kralkhud, Srinagar
Survived by wife (54), mother (75), daughter (35), son (3)
He was a veteran teacher and had retired as a Tehsil Education Officer. He all through his career had taught thousands of Muslim scholars and was busy in the teaching processes even after his retirement. The Muslim assassins entered the school where he was teaching a class and forcibly took him out from the back door of the school and sprayed him over with bullets. He was said to be massacred by the JKLF murderers.
Ashwani Kumar Garyali

Name: Ashwani Kumar Garyali
Father's Name: Shamboo Nath Garyali
Date of Birth: 23.4.1965
Date of Assassination: 24.6.1990
Residence: Chattabal, Srinagar
Survived by father (70), mother (60), brother (26), sister (22)
He was a bright and budding boy and was doing chartered accountancy. Five masked menaffiliated with JKLF entered his room where he was studying and blamed him for being an informer. They carried him down to the first floor of his own residence and pumped five bullets into his head and abdomen. He was immediately rushed to SMHS Hospital, Srinagar for surgery. The doctors refused to admit him. He was carried to the Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura where doctors did not bother to attend on him and allowed him to die. He was sent to the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Hospital, Rainawari for post-mortem where his relatives allege that they had to wait for hours on end and were asked to pay money for the routine. His parents strongly believe that had he been operated upon in SMHS Hospital in time he would have survived the trauma. Garyali's father weeping and wailing had rushed to the local police station for a vehicle to carry him to hospital. The SHO, a
Muslim, avoided and the poor father went on begging him for a vehicle. He severely taunted the Pandit, who, perhaps, did not realise that he was relishing his distress to the last dregs of it.
Mrs. Sheela Koul (Tiku)

Name: Sheela Koul (Tiku)
Husband's Name: Pran Nath Tiku
Date of Birth: December 1942,
Date of Assassination: 31.10.1989
Residence: Dalhasanyar, Srinagar
She was genial tempered house-wife looking after her family with love and affection. On the fateful day she had gone to see her brother at Shivapora, Srinagar. While returning home at dusk she was put to bullets at Habbakadal bridge. She was brought home on a hand-cart as three-wheelers suddenly stopped plying on the route. The taxi-wallahs on road refused to carry her to the hospital. Despite repeated phone calls to the SMHS Hospital, Srinagar, the ambulance failed to arrive. She was carried to the hospital on a folding bed where she was left unattended. She vas shot in the chest and had a head injury. The JKLF terrorists are said to be her killers.
Pushker Nath Razdan

Name: Pushker Nath Razdan
Father's Name: Tika Lal Razdan
Date of Birth: 18.3.1943
Date of Assassination: 12.10.1990
Residence: Khonmuha, Pulwama
Survived by wife (43), sons (23,20), daughter (16)
Some terrorists under masks barged into his house at 9 in the night and straightaway knocked him down and dragged him out. He was shot at the left side of his chest. His wife and others in the family wept and wailed, but nobody came to their rescue. Ultimately he was carried to the Army Hospital at Badami Bagh in Srinagar where he was operated upon. He failed to survive the fatal wounds even after surgery. The policemen from the Pantachauk Police-Station arrived on the scene after he was cremated. He was allegedly killed by the Hizbul Mujjahideen hounds.
Prem Nath Bhat

Name: Prem Nath Bhat
Father's Name: Laxman Ji Bhat
Date of Birth: 5.12.1932
Date of Assassination: 27.12.1989
Residence: Anantnag
Survived by wife (52), sons (42,38), daughter (31)
He was a prominent lawyer enjoying immense popularity and confidence of all communities. Having attended the court for the day he was returning to his home when the Muslim terrorists pumped bullets straight into his head. Muslims in the neighbourhood of the lane where he was murdered in cold blood sadistically chuckled and whispered, "Another is felled." Though popular with the Muslims nobody even offered condolences on his brutal killing. Instead it was hailed as a tremendous triumph of Islam and Nizam-e-Mustafa.
He was a superb writer, orator and above all a nationalist with visions of India resurrected and reconstructed on the cultural and spiritual heritage of India. As an ardent votary of unity in diversity he opposed all barriers of segregation built by communal, casteist and obscurantist forces. He unflinchingly stood for positive ideololgy of national integrity which he was pained to see wilting under the leadership of forces self-serving and with infirn1 commitments.
The religious rites required to be performed on the tenth day could not be performed. All Kashmiri Pandits were scared, frightened and terrorised and the administration deliberately posed to be in deep coma. Despite curfew the terrorists disrupted the last rites on tenth day and planted a bomb in the courtyard of the house during the period of mourning. The family was forced to migrate to Jammu in view of threats doled out to it.
A JKLF hound, Manzoor-ul-Islam, is facing trial for his murder.
Makhan Lal Raina
Name: Makhan Lal Raina
Father's Name: Gopi Nath Raina
Date of Birth: 23.3.1938
Date of Assassination: 22.6.1990
Residence: Kharyar, Srinagar
Survived by wife (42), daughter (22), son (20), father (80), mother (68)
He was a medical assistant posted at the dispensary at Khan Sahib in Badgam. He was quite popular with the local Muslims for the services he would be rendering them. He was picked up from the dispensary itself in presence of nine Muslims. Nobody came to his rescue. He was brutally tortured and finally shot dead. His dead body was said to have been chopped and hurled away and finally recovecred from Dardpora in Badgam. He is allegedly killed by the JKLF murderers.
Chand Ji Kher

Name: Chand Ji Kher
Father's Name: Dina Nath Kher
Date of Birth: 2.3.1972
Date of Assassination: 17.7.1990
Residence: Vessu, Anantnag
Survived by mother (55), sister (35)
He was a young boy in his teens. He was called out by his Muslim friends who shot at him and buzzed off the scene. He was poor and indigent and had returned to his native hamlet for sale of his bits of property. He had nothing to fall back upon except a stretch of land that had helped him to eke out his existence. Hard pressed by poverty he went back from Jammu to Vessu where the Muslim killers snatched his life.
Raj Nath Dhar

Name: Raj Nath Dhar
Father's Name: Dina Nath Dhar
Date of Birth: 7.8.1931
Date of Assassination: 30.6.1990
Residence: Qutub-ub-din pore, Alikadal, Srinagar
Survived by mother (70), sister (40), brother (32)
He was a retired person in his fifties. Some terrorists entered his house and fired at him. His old and ailing mother cried and screamed for assistance, but nobody turned up to comfort her in grief and depression. He was shifted to SMHS Hospital, Srinagar where he died for want of proper care and aid.
Zinda Lal Pandita
Name: Zinda Lal Pandita
Father's Name: Prakash Ram Pandita
Date of Birth: 4.4.1931
Date of Assassination: 6.10.1990
Residence: Bagatpora, Handwara
Survived by wife (50), son (30)
He was kidnapped from his residence and strangulated with steel wires in an orchard and was said to be the handiwork of JKLF murderers.
Jagar Nath Pandita

Name: Jagar Nath Pandita
Father's Name: Ganesh Das Pandita
Date of Birth: 17.11.1943
Date of Assassination: 7.10.1990
Residence: Bagatpora, Handwara
Survived by mother (62), sons (23 and 20)
He was a widower and was kidnapped from his house and taken to the thick grooves of his own orchard where he was strangulated with steel wires. His killing took place during the intervening night of 7th and 8th October, 199().
Omkar Nath Wali

Name: Omkar Nath Wali
Father's Name: Parmanand Wali
Date of Birth: 4.5.1935
Date of Assassination: 2.1.1991
Residence: Chak-i-Rajwati, Vessu, Anantnag
Survived by wife (50), son (28), daughters (24 and 22)
He was an assistant sub-inspector of police posted at District Police Lines, Anantnag. His family was in Jammu when he was kidnapped and shot dead. No last rites were performed. No FIR was filed. It is alleged that his own colleagues in the Police Lines were responsible for his murder by being hand in glove with the JKLF hounds. His killing needs an enquiry.
Kanya Lal Peshin

Name: Kanya Lal Peshin
Father's Name: Kanth Ram Peshin
Date of Birth: 4.10.1937
Date of Assassination: 18/19.10.1991
Residence: Pazalpora, Bandipora
Survived by wife (48), sons (24 and 18), daughter (16)
He was a poor farmer and was kidnapped from his house at 9 in the night. He was taken 3 kilometres away from his own village and was brutally tortured. It is said that pins were driven into his nails and more than one metre of cloth was stuffed into his mouth to stifle him to death. His dead body was found at Ajar, Bandipora. He was said to have been killed by the assassins of Hizbul Mujahideen.
Gopi Nath Raina
Name: Gopi Nath Raina
Father's Name: Govind Ram Raina
Date of Birth: 1.1.1941
Date of Assassination: 7.7.1990
Residence: Manigam, Ganderbal
Sunrived by wife (45), daughters (28,20,l7,l5,l2)
He was running a medical shop at Kangan and being a Pandit was suspected of having the credentials of an informer, an alibi to kill him. It was in his own shop that he was put to bullets. His brutal murder was owned by Hizbul Mujahideen through the Kashmir Times and the Aftab two dailies published from Jammu and Srinagar respectively.
Ashok Kumar Bazaz
Name: Ashok Kumar Bazaz
Father's Name: Ram Joo Bazaz
Date of Birth:
Date of Assassination:
Residence: Baghi Sunder Balla Chattabal
Survived by wife and seven daughters (19,16,13,11,7,5,3)
.He was in his thirties whenhe was shot dead by the Muslim terrorists. He was a petty shop-keeper dealing in groceries. He was accused of being an informer and an agent of India. As the father of seven daughters he should have been spared and shown compassion. But the terrorists emptied of such human empathies and values and thus reduced to the level of barbarity killed him in cold blood The poor and miserable wife of the deceased asked the Muslim killers to massacre the whole family as their breadearner had been snatched from them. She was told that they were spared to weep and wail and atone for the sins of having carried Kashmir to the fold of India.
Attar Singh
Name: Attar Singh
Father's Name: Fateh Singh
Date of Birth: 11.4.1929
Date of Assassination: 26.7.1990
Residence: Saimnoo, Kulagam
Survived by sons (36,30,20), daughters (28,26)
He was an ex-serviceman. He was suspected of being an informer. He was employed at the branch office of the Hindustan Petroleum in Pulwama. After his duty hours he was returning home and the armed Muslim gangsters shot him dead. No Sikh-Muslim terrorist pact could save him. When informed of the killing, Samranjit Singh Mann was said to have felt sorry for the failure of the unholy pact that he had forged with the Muslim killers.
Maheshwar Nath Bhat
Name: Maheshwar Nath Bhat
Father's Name: Zana Bhat
Date of Birth: 20.6.1921
Date of Assassination: 15.10.1990
Residence: Hazuri Bagh, Srinagar
Survived by wife (65), son (35), daughters (30,27,24)
It was exactly at 8 in the morning that the Muslim killers numbering three forcibly barged into his house and started making enquiries about his son-in-law, an officer in the Department of Forests. They were told that he had migrated to Jammu much earlier and the fact of the matter was that he had returned to join his office on promotion as ACF at the behest and on the assurances of his Muslim colleagues with whom he had maintained close contacts. During the period of enquiries his son-in-law hid himself in a bath-room which he had bolted. Frustrated at not getting the prize catch the Muslim killers opened a volley of fire killing Maheshwar Nath on the spot, injuring his old and ailing wife who in a state of unconsciousness was hospitalised at Badami Bagh where she was given treatment and shifted to Jammu under security cover. His relation was also admitted to the same hospital where he succumbed to his bullet wounds.
Shiban Kishen Koul
Name: Shiban Kishen Koul
Fathers Name: Radha Krishen Koul
Date of Birth: 13.5.1953
Date of Assassination: 15/16.7.1990
Residence: Ashmuji, Kulgam, Anantnag
Survived by wife (35), mother (55), son (15), daughter (13)
He was a primary school teacher teaching Muslim learners with all his dedication. But he was a threat to Islam and hence was slaughtered on the uneven and pot-holed paths of his native hamlet. His father was also slaughtered the next day. His assassins were his neighbours whom he might have taught the first alphabets. This was how he was recompensed by the Muslim ungratefuls.
Dilip Kumar

Name: Dilip Kumar
Father's Name: Mohan Lal
Date of Birth: 8.7.1962
Date of Assassination: 19.5.1990
Residence: Mujamarag, Shopian Pulwama
Survived by mother (55), brothers (26,18,15)
He was un-employed and unmarried too. His father had died long back and the responsibility of the family and its management was on his green shoulders. He possessed a bit of ancestral land and looked after it to eke out an existence. But he was a Kafir and therefore could not be spared. The Muslim killers knocked at his door and as the atmosphere was surcharged with fear and panic his mother came out to tell the killers that Dilip was not home. But that would not break their bloody resolve. They waited outside the house for a while and ultimately broke open the door and dragged him out and carried him off as a prize catch. His mother beating her breast followed the killers who foul-mouthed the hapless lady. His brother rushed to the nearby police station for help, but no help came from that quarter. Dilip was extremely tortured. His dentures were hammered out and twelve bullets pumped into him and he was hung from a tree with a letter pinned on his
chest. The letter said that any person who dared lift the body would be paid one lakh. His body was cremated by police.
Manmohan Bachloo
Name: Manmohan Bachloo
Father's Name: Janki Nath Bachloo
Date of Birth: 5.12.1963
Date of Assassination: 18.5.1990
Residence: Qazihama, Baramulla
Survived by Father (67), mother (56), sisters (25,23,19)
He was in his twenties and was posted at Karnah as a Postal Assistant in the Postal Department. He came to his native town on a holiday. His having left for Baramulla was conveyed through their accomplices to the Muslim killers who were waiting for his arrival. In fact one of the killers was said to be following him from Karnah itself. When he reached home, a killer called at his house and carried him along for a cup of tea at a tea-shop in the heart of Baramulla town. Unsuspecting Manmohan accompanied his Muslim friend with whom he had frisked and frolicked in his boyhood days. When he entered the tea shop, other killers waiting for him hit him with bullets. He died then and there only. It is a classical case of treachery practiced by the Muslim.
Veer Ji Bhat

Name: Veer Ji Bhat
Father's Name: D.N.Bhat
Date of Birth: 31.1.59
Date of Assassination: 13.5.1990
Residence: Nagam, Badgam
Survived by wife (30), daughter (5), son (3), father (60), mother (58)
He was a young man of bubbling spirits with a bright career He was employed as a Junior Engineer in the State Irrigation Department and was posted at Shopian. He was a social activist helping everyone in distress and difficulty. On the fateful day he was out in the market of his locality. He talked to his friends in his usual aplomb. Suddenly a bunch of hounds arrived in a car and sprayed a shower of bullets over him. Despite profuse bleeding he did not give in and caught hold of one of the killers. But his armed accomplices put bullets into him felling him in his own pool of blood. The killers ran off. It happened in presence of everybody. The Pandits totally scared bolted their doors and windows and the Muslim majority flaunted V-signs in all hilarity. He was carried to SMHS Hospital where a doctor operated upon him and declared him out of danger. But after half an hour a man from the theatre declared him dead. Removing the white cloth from his face
his relatives found him snow white and that triggered the charge that the accomplices of the killers nestling the Hospital had drained out his blood.
Ashok Kumar
Name: Ashok Kumar
Father's Name: Basker Nath
Date of Birth: 2.5.1963
Date of Assassination: 13.5.1990
Residence: Pulwama
Survived by father (55), mother (54), sisters (30 and 24)
He was unemployed and unmarried too. He was kidnapped by the hounds of Hizbul Mujjahideen who were imparted first lessons in Muslim bigotry by the beard flaunting Ali Shah Gilani. His hands and feet were broken and was taken to the main crossing of the road. The hounds replicating Nadir Shah and Mohmmad Gori plucked out his eye-balls with iron rods in presence of hundreds of Muslims who here seen relishing the barbarity inflicted on a Kafir. Ultimately he was put to a barrage of bullets killing him in no time. Among the spectators there was a bard who sang "Islam is glorious and great."
Ajay Kapoor
Name: Ajay Kapoor
Father's Name: Shiva Nath Kapoor
Date of Birth: 16.7.1940
Date of Assassination: 1.12.1989
Residence: Old Postoffice, Sr. Gunj Srinagar
Survived by wife (47), son (25), daughter (15)
He was a God fearing businessman. His bright and genial looking countenance would be usually marked with a tilak. It was in his own locality where his family had been living from generations that he was showered a volley of bullets. Groaning and moaning he fell dead. It was a cold blooded murder. His dead body was not lifted for hours or end.
Surinder Kumar Raina
Name: Surinder Kumar Raina
Father's Name: Jia Lal Raina
Date of Birth: 19.3.1967
Date of Assassination: 2.5.1990
Residence: Tullamulla, Ganderbal
Survived by sisters (35,21), brothers (27,14)
He was in his twenties and an orphan. He was a lift-man in the Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura and was kidnapped while performing his duties. All Muslims present on the scene presented a spectacle of cheer and song. He was put to bullets on a road named after the legendary physician, Ali Jan, who despite his brilliance in the field of medicine allowed the Medical Institute, Soura to get transformed into a snake-pit of Muslim bigotry and fanaticism.
Surinder Kumar Koul

Name: Surinder Kumar Koul
Father's Name: Som Nath Koul
Date of Birth: 4.5.1971
Date of Assassination: 26.8.1991
Residence: Batagund, Handwara
Survived by father (50), mother (45), brother (30), sister (33)
The whole family had shifted to Jammu in the wake of Muslim terrorism. The young boy at the age of twenty, therefore, a green "horn, had received a call-letter for an interview for the post of a teacher for which he had applied when he was home. He is said to have been in contact with his Muslim friends who had encouraged him to return at least for the interview and assured him of full safety. Against the advice of his parents he left for Srinagar. When he de-boarded the bus at Srinagar, the same Muslim hounds who had assured him of safety kidnapped him. Putting him to detestable pains and agonies, he was finally put to bullets at Langet. What a treachery!
Ravinder Kumar Pandita

Name: Ravinder Kumar Pandita
Father's Name: Nanak Chand Pandita
Date of Birth: 4.10.1958
Date of Assassination: 25.4.1990
Residence: Mattan, Anantnag
Survived by wife (30), mother (60), daughters (4,6,6(twins))
He was working in the Telecommunication Department on daily wages. He was poor and bereft and lived in absolute indigence. But he was Ravinder Kumar, therefore a Kafir and agent of India. While returning home from his work place, the Muslim terrorists lying in wait for him shot him from close range. He fell dead then and there and in utter glee the killers danced over his dead body and the murderous scene was witnessed by hundreds of Muslims who could be seen emptied of human compassion though taught as a religious value.
Bushan Lal Koul

Name: Bushan Lal Koul
Father's Name: Shridhar Koul
Date of Birth: 14.6.1948
Date of Asassination: 16.5.1990
Residence: Amnoo, Kulagam, Anantnag
Survived by wife (37), son (19)
He was a government employee. He was kidnapped and strangulated with steel wires. He was allegedly killed by the Hizbul Mujahideen hounds.
D.P. Khazanchi

Name: D.P. Khazanchi
Father's Name: Damodar Khazmanchi
Date of Birth: 6.10.1939
Date of Assassination: 6.10.90
Residence: Kaniya Kadal, Srinagar
Survived by wife (48), son (22), daughter (18)
He was a professor of Physics, a good teacher, cool, calm and soft spoken. But as ill-luck would have it he was lost to sanity. As he would be raving and loitering about, the Muslim killers pumped bullets into him killing him instantaneously. The militarised Muslim bigotry did not spare even an insane for the fact of his being a kafir and threat to Islam.

(and many many more... Read On and On)