सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः।

येनाक्रमन्त्यृषयो ह्याप्तकामा यत्र तत्‌ सत्यस्य परमं निधानम्‌ ॥

 

It is Truth that conquers and not falsehood; by Truth was stretched out the path of the journey of the gods, by which the sages winning their desire ascend there where Truth has its supreme abode. मुण्डकोपनिषद् (Mundakopanishad 3.1.6)

The Kashmir Files, a film by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri based on true events that happened in Jammu and Kashmir from 1989 has split the Nation into those believing the truth and those denying.  The former is mostly the case across the country though.  For those who are in a state of denial, the truth is on their faces only to be denied but they cannot claim its nonexistence.  Ever since its release the film has lit fire to the secular castle built on the hollow moth-eaten foundation of religious tolerance, co-existence and equality. 

The truth about the genocide and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits was always simmering be it through discourses/seminars/talks hosted by non-leftist organisations, through books by esteemed individuals with impeccable integrity, through personal accounts/testimonies by victims themselves or in various other media platforms.  However, it required a three hour cinema for the truth to explode.  It proved that cinema is the most powerful mass media, especially when truth needs dissemination.  The success of the film has had a tremendous impact and must be the first step to be taken by us to traverse towards meting out justice to the Kashmiri Hindu Pandit community.

The film has brought focus the suffering the Pandit community had to endure, their cleansing and the exodus en-masse leaving their Paradise behind.  The film’s success provides a wonderful opportunity to understand some of the reasons that led to the 1990 Pandit genocide and exodus.  The objective of this essay is to get a perspective on the events, the people behind the events, the machinery which created a hostile and a suffocating atmosphere for the Hindu community in Kashmir, the objectives behind the genocide and the exodus of the Hindus as well as the blueprint which was getting implemented on the ground.  A critical look at the role played by various institutions of governance and administration, the people at the helm of affairs is a must. This essay shall also look at the aftermath of the exodus and what stares us as a Nation.

The genocide and the exodus during 1989-1990 was not a spur of the moment incident.  It was a very well calibrated and controlled sequence of events that led to the genocide and the exodus.

The Jammu and Kashmir issue has always been a religious one first and the boundary dispute the next.  It has been Islam versus the Hindus.  The objective has always been to Islamise the state of Jammu and Kashmir.  Francois Gautier in his book “A History of India as it happened” has this to say – “because, nobody cares to remember today that Kashmiris were almost entirely Hindus or Buddhists, before they were converted by the invading Muslims six centuries ago.  True, today these Muslims in Kashmir have not only accepted as their own a religion which their ancestors had rejected, but they have also often taken up the strident cry of Islam”. 

It is this ‘strident cry of Islam’ that engulfed Kashmir again in 1980s.  Towards achieving the objective of Jihad the state was pulverised by Islamic terrorists.  Hindus (Kaafirs according to the jihadis), minority by the late 1980s, bore the brunt.  The result was the shrill cries of Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or perish).

Jihad, jihadi terrorists and the military is a deadlier force to reckon with.  It was during the late 1980s that General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan gave the go-ahead for ‘Operation TOPAC’.  The main objective of this operation, entrusted to the Field Intelligence Unit (FIU) – Pakistan Army, to be carried out in three phases, was to annex Jammu and Kashmir.

Phase-1

• Whip up anti-Indian feelings amongst students and peasants, preferably on religious issues so that their support can be enlisted for rioting and anti-government demonstrations.
• Organise and train subversive elements with the capability to deal with the para-military
• A low level insurgency against the regime so that it is under siege but does not collapse.  To avoid Central Government rule.
• Infiltrate all key positions – to subvert the police forces, financial institutions, communication network and other important organisations.

Phase-2

• Exert pressure on the Siachen, Kargil and Rajouri-Poonch sectors so as to divert the Indian Army outside Kashmir Valley.
• Attack and destroy base depots and Head-Quarters
• Use Afghan Mujahideen to destroy airfields, radio stations and block highways

Phase-3

• Plans for liberation of Kashmir Valley
• Establishing an Independent Islamic State

‘Operation TOPAC’ unleashed in the late 1980s is still the guiding force for all terror and jihadi activities in the Kashmir Valley.

 

Jihad – “Fight them until persecution is no more and religion is all for Allah” – 8/39 and 2/193 - Quran

Jagmohan Malhotra, the iron man who should be credited for having salvaged the Valley from the diabolical plans of the jihadis, explains that Pakistani authorities couldn’t achieve success as far as the Phases-2 and 3 of ‘Operation TOPAC’ were concerned.  However, he accepts that Phase-1 was a success much against the interests of the Indian State.  He goes on to assert that the success was even beyond the imagination of the formulators of ‘Operation TOPAC’.

The subversion and infiltration was total and complete.  According to Jagmohan as many as 44 terrorist outfits were operating in the Valley creating havoc.  Police, General Services like Electricity department, Hospital and Protocol department, Hospitals, Bar Association, Press and almost all other organs of the state power structure were infiltrated by jihadi supporters and subversive elements.

Mosques were used extensively for rearing, nursing and fanning subversive activities.  As Jagmohan points out, one of the instructions issued through pamphlets, posters, wallpapers and weeklies by various subversive organisations was that they should make mosques centres of revolution and ensure that their management and control were with the mujahids.  This was evident especially on the day of 19^th January 1990 when the fear of death gripped the Valley amidst macabre series of killings by terrorists.  The targeted killings of Hindus marked the success of the first phase of ‘Operation TOPAC’.  The killings only increased by the day.  Hindu leaders and prominent individuals were killed by terrorists. 

As Jagmohan opines, every Hindu killing frightened a thousand more and the fear only multiplied exponentially.  Vandalised temples, destroyed educational institutions, bomb blasts, blaring calls for jihad over the loudspeakers atop the mosques and the ruthless volley of bullets from the Kalashnikovs of the terrorists all reached a crescendo on 19^th January 1990 leading to the mass exodus of the Pandits from the Valley.  But by then enough lives were lost to the bullets of terrorists.  The Tikkoos, the Ganjus, the Kauls, the Premis, the Naths were all killed in countless numbers.  Genocide was underway while the Indian administration chose to see the other way and Indians were quiet because they were not allowed a grasp of the situation which was unfolding in Kashmir.  The Paradise called Kashmir, one of the cradles of Hindu civilisation, turned hell for the Hindus.

This was the seventh exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits.  The exodus commenced during 1389 AD – 1420 AD and recurred during 1505 AD – 1514 AD, during the Mughal rule of Jehangir and Aurangzeb, during 1753 AD till the rule of Sikhs, during 1931 AD (Bhatta loot) till post-independence, during 1986 and the seventh one from 1989-1990 till date.  The main reason for all the seven exoduses was Islamic tyranny with the call for ‘Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or perish)’.

After the seventh exodus during 1989-1990 a very miniscule number of Kashmiri Pandits held their ground in the Valley.  The cleansing was near complete.  To quote Francois Gautier – “does anyone remember too, that at the beginning of the century (1900s), there still were 25% Hindus in the Kashmir Valley and that today the last 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits are refugees in their own land, they who originally inhabited the Valley at least 5,000 years ago, a much bigger ethnic cleansing than the one of the Bosnian Muslims or the Albanians in Yugoslavia”?

All in the name of Kashmiriyat

Lakhs of Pandits left the Valley, left their ancestral abode with whatever they could manage, leaving behind their heritage only to be occupied by the jihadi supporters who were once their next door neighbours.  Humanity for once went into a deep slumber.  Many of the Pandits were killed based on the information provided by Muslim neighbours, once close to each other.  In many cases the killings were cheered by onlookers gathered in several hundred numbers. Most of the rapes and killings happened with the complete support and connivance of the neighbours of Kashmiri Pandit families.  Muslim neighbours ratted out many Hindus to the jihadi terrorists.

Rahul Pandita in his compelling memoir ‘Our Moon has Blood Clots’ recollects that “in the name of Azaadi, the Pandits were hounded on the streets and killed brutally.  Killings of the Hindu minority had turned into an orgy, a kind of blood lust.  By April 1990, the mask was completely off.  It was not only the armed terrorists who took pride in such killings – the common man on the streets participated in some of these heinous murders as well”.

The act of letting down continued.  Twenty three Pandits were brutally massacred in the Wandhama massacre during January 1998.  Vinod Dhar, all of fourteen then, is the lone survivor.  Speaking to Rahul Pandita he says, ‘when the gun shots were being fired, the people of the village increased the volume of the loudspeaker in the mosque to muffle the sound of the gunfire.  Nobody came out of their homes the whole night.  They only came out later, after daylight had broken.  They wanted to shed crocodile tears’.

Ghazwah - Diabolical Plan of the Jihadis and the Role of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir

A diabolical plan of subversion was in place and the final blow was to be struck on Friday, 26^th January 1990, Indian Republic Day.  The plan envisaged:

1. Collection of about a million people at idgah in Srinagar
2. Use mosque’s loudspeakers to exhort people to march to the idgah
3. People from neighbouring villages to be ferried to the idgah by buses and private vehicles
4. Slogans of ‘Azaadi’ to be raised
5. Gunshots to be fired in the air by the jihadi terrorists
6. Indian National Flag to be burnt and Islamic Republic’s Flag to be hoisted
7. Enable foreign press and photographers to report the event

Islamisation in total and separation from India thereupon was the ulterior objective.  The State Government and administration was subverted and infiltrated totally as explained in the preceding paragraphs.  The enemies of the state were operating freely under the umbrella of the state.  With a deft administrator like Jagmohan in charge, the diabolical plan failed on many counts.  However, with the near total exodus of Pandits, Islamisation was achieved.

Mir Sadiqs galore

The events just days before the gruesome happenings of 19^th and 20^th January 1990 merits consideration and critical relook.

As soon as Jagmohan was appointed Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah resigned as Chief Minister on 18^th January 1990 in protest.  He was against the appointment of Jagmohan as Governor.  But it was the same Farooq Abdullah who, at the time of his swearing in as Chief Minister on 7^th November 1986, was all praise for Jagmohan who was serving as Governor in his first term.  Even Jagmohan expresses surprise at the decision of Farooq Abdullah to resign immediately after his appointment as Governor.  Immediately after resigning as Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah left for London.  Though Jagmohan was sworn in on 19^th January 1990 at Jammu, he assumed office in Srinagar only on 21^st January 1990 owing to the fact that he was not able to travel to Srinagar from Jammu.

The state had no Government and governance in place from the 18^th January to the 20^th January 1990.  This was the period when the mass exodus began.  ‘Operation TOPAC’ Phase-1 succeeded.  Who were the abettors?

To sum up Farooq Abdullah’s second term as Chief Minister, it was the hallmark of nepotism, corruption, lack of accountability and passive connivance with the enemies of state.  His resignation was a clear indication of his lack of interest to resolve the crisis and by resigning he abdicated his responsibilities as the head of a state.  The mess was too much.  The costliest blunder of all was the release of 70 hard-core terrorists, between July-December 1989.  These terrorists crossed over to the other side of the border, were trained by their handlers in Pakistan and were assigned targets when they would later infiltrate into the Valley.  These terrorists swelled the ranks of terrorist outfits like Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).  Every single terrorist act during the later period could be traced back to these dreaded terrorists.  Unpardonable!

It was Jagmohan’s iron hand which saved India from losing Kashmir to the diabolical plan of the Islamists.

[However the Indian Flag never fluttered in the Valley for a long time.  To hoist the National Flag, it required a pan-India movement/yatra.  It shall be remembered that Murali Manohar Joshi of the Bharatiya Janata Party successfully hoisted the Tri-colour at Lal Chowk in 1992 amidst the tightest security cover ever by the military/para-military forces.  Such was the atmosphere in the Valley.  Situation is different post the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.]

Police – A Saga of Sacrifice and Courage

It has already been highlighted that the entire state administration machinery including police were infiltrated and subverted.  With the police force subverted and infiltrated, what could have the Pandits expected then?  They turned blind to the deteriorating law and order.  Many officers were hand in glove with the terrorists.  Almost all acts of terrorism from mid-1989 to April-1990 went without getting investigated.  As Jagmohan points out, “not a single assailant has either been identified or apprehended.  Even in the case of the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, there was only a one-line investigation – accused are not known and no witness is forthcoming”. 

“The government was knocked out by a single night of defiance and revolt and the next morning not a single policeman was visible anywhere in the city. They had withdrawn to their barracks or hid in their homes as the administrative machinery had collapsed and law and order crumbled” notes the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) in its paper titled ‘The Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits’ published in the year 2017.  

Media – The Press – Sleeping with the enemy

Terrorism needed propaganda and vernacular press in Jammu and Kashmir obliged.  Many dailies/weeklies acted as mouthpieces of terrorist organisations like JKLF and Hizbul Mujahideen.  These dailies/weeklies glorified the terrorists and terrorism.  They whipped up jihadi sentiments and were indirectly responsible for the gruesome murders of innocent Hindus.  The press was effectively used by the Islamists for their disinformation campaign which was very effectively orchestrated.

Kalashnikov wielding terrorists were portrayed as victims of highhandedness of Indian security forces.  Kashmiri Hindus were portrayed as villains and spies.  The disinformation campaign trained its guns on then Governor Jagmohan.  Joining hands with Human Rights groups a nefarious falsehood was spread that it was Jagmohan who had asked the Pandits to leave the Valley!  This falsehood stands even today.  In an interview to India Today on 22^nd March 2022, Farooq Abdullah tells ‘then Governor Jagmohan Malhotra had put Kashmiri Hindus in buses and told them they would be brought back in two months.  However, 32 years have passed and his promises remains unfulfilled’.  This coming from a man who abdicated his responsibility on the 18^th January 1990 and dashed to London, to serve his own vested interest and selfish agenda!

Hospitals – वैद्यो नारायणो हरिः

When institutions which are meant to save lives, takes it away, it is the evidence of human behaviour at its cruellest.  Doctors collided with terrorists to mercilessly kill injured Hindus admitted to hospitals.  In his book ‘Kashmir – Its Aborigines and their Exodus’, Colonel Tej K Tikoo narrates thus: “Injured Kashmiri Pandits, when brought to the hospitals for treatment were either allowed to die without treatment or were deliberately killed by doctors in collusion with the militants.  Several cases of injured Kashmiri Pandits bleeding to death unattended were reported throughout the Valley”.

Farooq Abdullah, Rajiv Gandhi and V P Singh – Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru

The unholy triumvirate of Farooq Abdullah, Rajiv Gandhi and V P Singh caused irreparable damage to Jammu and Kashmir in general and to the Hindu Pandit community of Jammu and Kashmir in particular.  Farooq Abdullah’s role has already been dealt with.

What was the role of Rajiv Gandhi?  It included both acts of omission and commission.  Late Rajiv Gandhi held the office of the Prime Minister of India from 31^st October 1984 to 2^nd December 1989.  It was during this period that much blood was shed in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation deteriorated dramatically.

Late Jagmohan, the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir for two terms, is very critical of the former Prime Minister. 

First point of examination is the warning bell sounded by Jagmohan in his two personal letters to Rajiv Gandhi on 8^th April 1989 and 14^th May 1989.  In his letter dated 8^th April 1989, the Governor pleads for effective intervention by the PM on the fast deteriorating situation in Jammu and Kashmir.  He warns “today may be timely, tomorrow may be too late”.

In the letter dated 14^th May 1989, the Governor appraises him on the violent incidents across Jammu and Kashmir and the ineffective administrative and political structure.  He again warns that every victory of subversive elements was swelling their ranks.

Jagmohan’s warnings were completely ignored by the Late Prime Minister and the Nation is paying a very heavy price.

The second important thing to be noted and contemplated is the content of the open letter to Rajiv Gandhi written by Jagmohan on 21^st April 1991.  It needs to be remembered that Jagmohan was in office in his second term from 19^th January 1990 to 26^th May 1990.  Rajiv Gandhi was the leader of opposition at the time this open letter was written.  This open letter was to counter the disinformation and distortion campaign against Jagmohan mounted by Rajiv Gandhi to score petty political gains ignoring the national cause.  Selected contents of the letter is reproduced below which clearly shows how Rajiv Gandhi as a leader of opposition too wasn’t doing anything good as far as Jammu and Kashmir was concerned.

“May be you do not consider truth and consistency as virtues.  May be you believe that the words inscribed on our National Emblem – Satyameva Jayate – are mere words without any meaning and significance……  Perhaps power is all that matters to you – power by whatever means and at whatever cost……  You and the like of you have made India a country which has lost capacity to be true and just.  Anyone trying to be fair is dubbed communal……

The Kashmiri Pandit community is suffering not under the fanatic zeal of medieval sultans or under the tyrannical regime of Afghan Governors, but under the supposedly secular rule of leaders like you, V P Singh and others whose unabashed search for personal and political power is symbolised by calculated disregard of the Kashmir migrants’ current miserable plight and the terrible future that states in their eyes”.

The less said about V P Singh as Prime Minister – from December 1989 to November 1990 - the better.  It was during this period that the exodus happened.  It was his Government which recalled Jagmohan as Governor during May 1990.  Jagmohan had almost single handedly wrested back control of Jammu and Kashmir from Islamic radicals.  ‘Removal of Jagmohan raised our hopes.  Thanks to V P Singh’s decision.  For the next 15 days we managed to reinforce and strengthen ourselves’ said Manzoor, a top terrorist of Anantnag in an interview to the magazine India Week (24^th August 1990).

We, the People - यथा राजा, तथा प्रजा

To set the record straight ‘We, the People of India’ failed the Hindu Pandits of Jammu and Kashmir.  Miserably so.  Various external forces and machinations might have prevented the general public of India to act but it was the perfect occasion for us to stand against the terrible happenings.  By sheer inaction we brought on ourselves the unwanted distinction of creating refugees out of our own citizens.

Negationism – A well-oiled machine

The Kashmir Hindu genocide and the exodus never really found its way to history books.  It went untold to the masses.  Event and happening of such a magnitude never featured in prominent public discourses (almost negligible) and certainly not in the Parliament debates.  History books do not teach the kids about the exodus and genocide.  This may look strange and too much to grasp.  But it is not.  It is a deliberate strategy, a part of the plan to Islamise Jammu and Kashmir and whitewash the genocide and exodus.  This is NEGATIONISM at play!    

In his path-breaking book titled ‘Negationism in India – Concealing the Record of Islam’, author Koenraad Elst defines Negationism as the ‘denial of historical crimes against humanity’.  He points out that India has its own full-fledged brand of negationism, a movement to deny the large-scale and long-term crimes against humanity committed by Islam.  This movement is led by the Marxists, Islamic apologists and followed by politicians, journalists and intellectuals calling themselves secularists.  An entire establishment supports Islam negationism in India having full control of media and educational institutions amongst other centres of power.

Techniques followed to deny Islam’s crimes against Hindus have been enumerated below.  For each of the techniques, the examples of certain acts of various individuals/institutions have been highlighted to get an understanding as to how negationism is in full play with respect to the Pandit exodus and genocide.

1. Head-on denial:  This is the simplest and most resorted method.  Just deny the happenings itself.  This strategy has been adopted since 1990.  Further post the release of the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ and the subsequent angst created against the actions of a particular community, various politicians and political parties have come out in the open to deny the genocide and the exodus.  The Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal, Sharad Pawar, the Congress Party, all denied the happenings in Kashmir.
2. Ignoring the facts:  According to Koenraad Elst, following this technique, media and textbook writers simply keep the vast corpus of history out of the reader’s view.  This is beyond doubt and the fact that it required a cinema to acquaint the general public on the Kashmir exodus and genocide proves that the events never found a place in history books and mainstream media.
3. Minimising the facts:  In this method, the absolute size of Islamic crime is minimised.  Facts are not recorded in totality.  In particular reference to the Kashmir genocide, the number of deaths announced by then Government is a classic example to prove that facts were minimised.  Indian Home Ministry data records 217 Hindus as dead during the four year period from 1988 to 1991! (Source: Wikipedia)
4. Whitewashing:  When denial of the crimes does not work, the crimes are whitewashed.  In the case of the Kashmir exodus, it is common to hear the phrase ‘migration’.  Kashmiri Pandits migrated is the narrative.  But the reality is different.  Pandits were forced at gun-point to move out from the Valley.  By resorting to such wordplay, the actual crime is whitewashed.
5. Playing up unrepresentative facts:  This is a popular tactic to highlight an unrepresentative fact, an uncharacteristic event to keep the broader picture out of the public’s view.

In 2004, a senior secular journalist highlighted in a video that Kashmiri Pandits were comparatively wealthy and had good jobs.The journalist further went on to add that the fact that the Pandits were wealthy. It created a feeling of oppression among the Kashmiri Muslims resulting in them taking up arms!Unrepresentative facts highlighted to keep the crimes of Islam under wraps.

6. Denying the motive:  According to Koenraad Elst, negationists sometimes accept the facts, but disclaim their leader’s responsibility for them.

It is a recorded fact that terrorists like Yasin Malik and Bitta Karate have accepted that they killed innocent civilians and men in uniform. Yet the establishment never brought them to book and never questioned their motive.In fact Yasin Malik was offered an audience by none other than Manmohan Singh, when he was the Prime Minister of India.Yasin Malik also shared dais with dignitaries, which included politicians and top corporate honchos, at an event organised by India Today Group, a popular media house.

7. Smokescreen:  Negationists create a smokescreen to blur the actual issue on hand and divert the focus elsewhere.

When former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah belligerently says ‘form a truth commission and hang me if I am guilty’, he is actually creating a smokescreen – the truth commission – to divert from a well-known fact.

8. Blaming fringe phenomena:  Koenraad Elst points out that when faced with hard facts of Islamic fanaticism, negationists often blame them on some fringe tendency, popularly known as ‘fundamentalism’.

It is often repeated in various quarters that local fundamentalism is the root cause of all issues in Kashmir obfuscating the fact that the issue is between two religions, fuelled by external forces with the objective of Islamisation.

9. Arguments ad hominem:  If denying the evidence becomes untenable, the negationists distort.

Accusing Jagmohan of asking the Pandits to leave the Valley is a classic example.While Jagmohan was fighting to wrest Jammu and Kashmir from the Islamic jihadis, he was wrongly accused of planning the exodus!

10. Slogans:  All the debates and discussion on truth can be sabotaged with a simple technique of sloganeering.

As pointed out by Jagmohan “Anyone trying to be true and fair is dubbed communal”.Secularists attacking the truth as communal is a classic example of sloganeering.Speaking and fighting for the Hindu cause is communal but shielding the crime of Islam is secular!

Genocide and Exodus – Aftermath

The Kashmiri Pandits were banished from their birth place.  They had to give up their homeland which was more than 5,000 years old.  The European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) in its paper titled ‘The Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits’ concludes that the ethnic cleansing in Kashmir Valley is complete and everlasting.  This may sound negative but as of now the fact is that Kashmir Valley is a 100% Muslim populated place. 

However, one needs to wait for the positive outcomes post abrogation of Article 370 during 2019.  After the abrogation Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised and bifurcated into two Union Territories namely Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

After the exodus the houses and shops of the Pandits remained either abandoned or were illegally occupied or in most of the cases looted and set on fire.  Large number of properties went on distress sale.

India has the rare, unwanted and infamous distinction of forcing its own people to be refugees in their homeland.  Pandits who were forced out of the Valley were mostly accommodated in tents in the harsh heat of Jammu. The elderly suffered from loneliness, depression and loss of dignity. Many casualties occurred due to sun strokes and snakes and scorpion bites.  Basic amenities were absent, inhuman and pathetic.  The impact of the exodus was felt in every sphere be it physical, economic, cultural, social, mental or emotional.  All this for a community which was the crown jewel of Hinduism not long ago.

The jihadi acts did not stop.  Many massacres followed the 1990 exodus.  Whatever miniscule Hindu population was left, they too were targeted.  The list is big.

Massacre	Year	Killed
Sangrampora	1997	Hindus
Wandhama	1998	Hindus
Prankote	1998	Hindus
Chapnan	1998	Hindus
Amarnath Pilgrims	2000	Hindus
Chittisinghpura	2000	Sikhs
Kishtwar	2001	Hindus
Qasim Nagar	2002	Hindus
Raghunath Temple	2002	Hindus
Nadimarg	2003	Hindus
Doda	2006	Hindus
Amarnath Yatra	2017	Hindus

While the abrogation of Article 370 was a much needed and historical step, there is still a long way to go.  Rehabilitation of the displaced Pandit community is still a mirage.

Retribution and Justice – Rise and Kill First

Israel and SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann:  Adolf Eichmann was the embodiment of Nazi horror.  He had personally directed the ‘final solution’, the systematic annihilation of Jews.  He was the one who devoted his life to the extermination of six million Jews, the Holocaust, perpetrated during the period of Second World War.

Adolf Eichmann disappeared after the Second World War.  After a lot of perseverance, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad tracked him in Argentina and was captured by Israeli agents in May 1960.  The Argentinian authorities had no clue about Mossad’s operation until the Israeli agents along with Eichmann landed in Israel.  Such is the capability, perseverance and reach of Mossad.  The commitment to retribution is unflinching, relentless, unwavering and eternal.  Eichmann was tried in Israel and was sentenced to death.  He was hanged to death in June 1962.

Retribution is swift and guaranteed by the Israelis.  We need to borrow a leaf or two from them.  There is no doubt on the capabilities but the lack of political will and vested interests makes us doubt our capabilities and strengths.

In sharp contrast what is that we have done?  Terrorists who led the genocide and exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits are given State patronage.  Two particular cases in point are Yasin Malik and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate.  These two terrorists confessed (boasted) to the killings of men in uniform and innocent Pandits.  While Yasin Malik, then chief of the JKLF boasted about his crimes on BBC television, Bitta Karate showed no remorse in an interview to an Indian news channel.

We have allowed terrorists responsible for the genocide to roam free and also extended State patronage.  A former Prime Minister meeting a terrorist speaks very low about our attitude towards terrorism in particular and crime in general.  No soul can expect justice and retribution in a system where even after 32 years, no one is brought to book.

The case of Bitta Karate is even worse.  While releasing him on bail the Judge remarked, “The court is aware of the fact that the allegations levelled against the accused are of serious nature and carry a punishment of death sentence or life imprisonment but the fact is that the prosecution has shown total disinterest in arguing the case”!

Bitta Karate was in custody for 16 years.  Wasn’t this time sufficient for the prosecution to build their case?  It is the intent, which unfortunately was absent.

On the one hand our Judiciary shows its flexibility by opening its doors at midnight to hear bail pleas and infructuous and frivolous Public Interest Litigations, and on the other it categorically rejects reopening cases related to Kashmir genocide and exodus quoting ‘too much time has elapsed’! 

Jammu and Kashmir – A dangerous template

The Islamisation of Kashmir is a dangerous template.  Cases of crimes against Hindus in West Bengal and Kerala follow the same template.  The Government inaction sadly replicates the inaction of the Government during the Kashmir exodus and genocide.  As an adage goes, those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. 

This template needs to be erased immediately.  Minority appeasement must stop.  In a fast changing world order, we need to be ever vigilant on disinformation and fake news that has the potential to erase our cultural roots.  States cannot be subjected to prolonged convulsions occurring due to religious hegemony, especially Islamic.

Jagmohan quotes an English translation of a poem written by German poet Erich Fried. 

It has happened and it goes on happening

and will happen again if nothing happens to stop it

 

The innocent know nothing because they are too innocent

 The poor do not notice because they are too poor

and the rich do not notice because they are too rich

 

The stupid shrug their shoulders because they are too stupid

and the clever shrug their shoulders because they are too clever

 

The young do not care because they are too young

 and the old do not care because they are too old

 

That is why nothing happens to stop it

and that is why it has happened

and goes on happening

and will happen again

We cannot afford to be mute spectators.  It is our responsibility to act, in whichever way we can, to protect our Dharma.  It is also our Dharma to script the true narrative. 

 

Sources and References

Books:

1. My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir - Authored by Jagmohan, Tenth Edition updated to July 2012, Published by Allied Publishers Private Limited 
2. Negationism in India – Concealing the Record of Islam – Authored by Koenraad Elst, Second Edition, Published by Voice of India
3. Our Moon has Blood Clots – The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits – Authored by Rahul Pandita, Third Impression – Published by Random House India
4. Jihad – The Islamic Doctrine of Permanent War – Authored by Suhas Majumdar, First Edition, Published by Voice of India
5. Kashmir – Its Aborigines and their Exodus – Authored by Colonel Tej K Tikoo, Published by Lancer Publishers LLC
6. Mossad – The Great Operations of Israel’s Secret Service – Authored by Michael Bar-Zohar & Nissim Mishal, Kindle Edition
7. History of India as it Happened – Not as it has been Written – Authored by Francois Gautier, Published by Har-Anand Publications Pvt Ltd, 2016 Reprint

Websites:

1. https://upanishads.org.in/upanishads/4/3/1/6
2. https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/india-today-insight/story/farooq-abdullah-form-a-truth-commission-and-hang-me-if-i-am-guilty-1930481-2022-03-28
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_of_Kashmiri_Hindus
4. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-kashmir-governor-jagmohan-kashmiri-pandits-farooq-abdullah-kashmir-files-1928035-2022-03-22
5. https://kashmirlife.net/media-in-1990-issue-14-vol-11-214179/
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsDhlCBCD7Q
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uif0fuaEX6o
8. https://myind.net/Home/viewArticle/exoduses-of-the-kashmir-pandits
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2-1HOGwORk
10. https://steinsaltz.org/daf/sanhedrin72/

Others:

1. The Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits – A Study Paper published by EFSAS – European Foundation for South Asian Studies. Can be accessed at: https://www.efsas.org/publications/study-papers/the-exodus-of-kashmiri-pandits/
2. The Kashmiri Pandit Exodus: An Obliterated Chronicle – Published by International Journal of Law Management & Humanities, Authored by Heta Thakar and Vaishnavi Mishra, [Vol. 3 Iss 5; 1023].  Can be accessed at: https://www.ijlmh.com/the-kashmiri-pandit-exodus-an-obliterated-chronicle/
3. https://www.thebetterindia.com/118459/history-of-various-state-police-of-india/
4. Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru: In Japanese these are the three wise monkeys.  Mizaru – who sees no evil, Kikazaru – who hears no evil and Iwazaru – who speaks no evil.

 

Image source: The Indian Express