[Reader-list] 19 years to the 19th day of 1990: Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

  19 years to the 19th day of 1990: Exodus of Kashmiri
Pandits<http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/2009/01/19-years-to-19th-day-of-1990-exodus-of.html>
by Aditya Raj Kaul
 I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day
What hours, O what black hours we have spent…
                                          - Gerard Manley Hopkins


19th January 1990. Kashmir was breathing still; Kashmiri Pandits lay hidden
like frightened pigeons in their own nest. Today on behalf of my fellow
brothers and sisters, I wish to revisit the pain of my separation from my
own home 19 years ago, when the cruel hands of Allah-Wallahs butchered
members of my community for being idol worshipers, for rejecting the call
for unholy Jihad and for siding with their own nation India. The Islamic
murderers played dire warnings from their Mosques which pierced each nerve
of anybody who held a Hindu name. As the sun turned pale, exhortations
became louder, and three taped slogans repeatedly played their terror:
'Kashmir mei agar rehna hai, Allah-O-Akbar kehna hai' (If you want to stay
in Kashmir, you have to say Allah is great); 'Yahan kya chalega,
Nizam-e-Mustafa' (What do we want here? Rule of Shariah); 'Asi gachchi
Pakistan, Batao roas te Batanev san' (We want Pakistan along with Hindu
women but without their men).

The roots of this unparalleled tragedy are immersed in 1986 with a
well-planned strategy to execute Hindus from the valley. By 1990, the
population saw their age old temples turned to ruins and lives at risk. As
Pakistan stepped up their campaign against India, new Islamic terror outfits
suddenly mushroomed in the state. As Jamait-e-Islami financed all madarsas
to poison them against the minority Hindus and India, Pakistan further
dictated youth to launch Jihad against India. A terror strike so
meticulously planned that its unprecedented display was terrifying. As camps
in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) began to provide training to innumerable
Muslim men, India witnessed the emergence of the bloodiest Kalashnikov
culture in the valley. The victims- innocent and non-violent minority- the
Kashmiri Pandits.

The Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, abandoned his responsibilities and the
administration, the state and people lay like cattle on an open road. The
hidden fact of rigged elections in 1987 had by then become a lucid
statement. Today 22 years later, Omar Abdullah takes position of the same
majestic throne, though I wonder how efficiently he would carry forward the
state of affairs. Will he like his father ruin the backbone of the state and
leave the minority Hindus helpless as always, or will he rise above
politics, religion to create space for Pandits in their valley? The
unanswered question lingers on.

read more on -
http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/2009/01/19-years-to-19th-day-of-1990-exodus-of.html

Comments on the blog are welcome!

Thanks

Aditya Raj Kaul