Abid Gowhar
Srinagar /Oct.2003
The recently developed friendly atmosphere between India and Pakistan with ceasefire at the borders and several steps of good-relation gesture has raised hopes that the issues related to the disturbed State might get resolved eventually. One big infront issue among is to decide the fate of migrated Kashmiri Pandits. When will the day come, when the Kashmiri Pandits will return to the valley? Infact Kashmiri Muslims are more anxiously waiting for, than the displaced Pandits. When this big issue will come across the table, there will be certain things for hot debate and it will always work that Pandits have to reshuffle to their motherland. However, it will be very hard and difficult to win the confidence of migrated families because the intra-conceptions among the people beyond the valley are not clear.
It will be crucial to examine why the community as a whole migrated. Yes of course, the overall environment of fear and terror made them insecure and consequently they decided to flee the Valley in the dark of night leaving behind their homes and hearths. Muslims of the valley feel like their body-parts gets detached from them. It was like Kashmiri Pandiths feel themselves on the Muslim-land particularly when the slogans shout like “yahan kiya chalega nizam-e- Mustafa” OH! Was not there every right for every human being to live under the shadow of Nizam-e- Mustafa? Pertinent to mention that the Teachings of Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.) have no space for any communal war or religious hatredness. If it was the slogan of freedom, was not it everybody’s game to struggle for? If it was to decide the fate of disputed land on earth, then every State-subject holder should have been the part of struggle or if for that matter it was to mix this part with Pakistan then, are not minorities or non-muslims residing in Muslim majority Pakistan? These are the questions, which might have certain answers from different point of view, but still having a big question mark in front of the reality that persists there.
Truly said that “when going gets wrong, wrong gets going” During the last forteen years, J&K State had a tough passage through several changes which put havocfull effects on every resident of it. Hardly any corner remained uneffected during the termiol period. Why not so when the Incriminated State remained without any public government for atleast eight years and every public utility remained paralysed. All the three regions of the state suffered heavily nevertheless the smoke flew from the valley as the old undiganosed cyst of 1947 start pouring badly in 1989. A big calamity in the bloodshed battle was the migration of Kashmiri Pandiths. It was really a "tragic painful event". 14 years ago,
It was the most unfortunate part the turmoil period when Pandiths started to leave their homes and patriotic homeland by which valley went frozen and tears went bundled.
Kashmiri Pandits claim that more than 300,000 people left the Valley in the late 80's and early 90's.
The valley lost dedicated teachers and professors, a big vacuum arise in government hospitals. Several engineers, Specialist doctors, lawyers left their motherland, thousands of houses got empty and some remained to watch their affectionate neighbors tagging their holdings to leave.
“ We just became orphans after our sincere and affectionate brothers departed from our locality. Amarnathji was the lone Gazetted officer in the entire locality and we were proud of him”, said Gh. Hassan resident of Wakura village. In fact, government High School Dab-Wakura had nine Pandith teachers out of 14. The school is suffering and never regroups after their departure, he added. I lost one of my best friends to whom I had an hours-long chat every evening. Same is the story of all those, who were having mixed Pandith-Muslim culture in their localities.
Now that All party Hurriyat Conference leaders have issued a joint appeal to "welcome" the return of all migrated Kashmiri Pandits. "It is our sincere desire that the Kashmiri Pandits return to their homes and hearths with dignity and respect," said Hurriyat Chairman Moulvi Abbas Ansari, his colleagues Abdul Ghani Bhat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Democratic Freedom Party leader Shabbir Shah.
The leaders said "Our hearts bleed at their plight in which they are leading a homeless life in Jammu, Delhi and other cities, deprived of even the basic facilities." The appeal said Kashmiri Pandits were "a part of ourselves and we are incomplete without them" and "they deserve our sympathy in every way. Not only our houses, but also our hearts are open for them always. "Our compatriots and appeal to them to welcome the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley."
No doubt that there occurred the instances when Pandiths were torchered and threatned, but like that other Kashmiri Muslims and non-Muslims became the victim also. A government conspiracy was involved and definitely the bad rumor spread among Pundits due to which they were forced to flew from their homeland .The situation worsen due to discourage and bad intelligence from government agencies. If anybody was held responsible for massacres, It was government machinery that put security forces forward in the battlefield with the conception that their duty is over. It is still perceived as part of an engineered campaign to displace the Pandits out of the valley.
One must not forget that The Jammu and Kashmir Human Right Commission, while submitting its report to state government on the Wandhama massacre, hold Government and serious security lapse responsible for the incident and in this perspective Hurriat from the beginning was also recommending security cover for the Kashmiri Pandits, who live in the Valley.
Had their been close tie ups with the local police and every Kashmiri Muslim not being treated a militant or gunman the situation would have been different. “We were taught to gun down security forces, create harass and kill those who will not support the Mujahideens. Nothing was like that we were taught or asked to pressurise non-muslims or force Pandiths to vacate or kill their religious emotions”, Said an ex-militant who had had left gun and his entire thought about militancy in 1996 and is now running has business.
What will be answer to Panun Kashmir (PK), a Kashmir Pandit organisation that has a separate homeland for Kashmiri Pandits in their demand. They also recommend statehood for Jammu and Union Territory status for Ladhakh. Hence it is time when All Party Hurriyat Conference and the Kashmiri Pandit community should sit together to have one more agenda to discuss the issue seriously in the next round of talks with the central government.
“Whenever there are communally motivated acts here, they are sponsored by outside elements” Says Prof C. L. Vishen, head of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Education and Technology (CASET), Srinagar. ‘‘In 1990,it was a sponsored wave; Pakistan’s games culminated in the migration of Pandits. The migration was not an outcome of a communal frenzy originating from Kashmiri Muslims. In the past 10 years of mayhem, Kashmiris have come to comprehend the dynamics; they know if there is communal violence, its players will never be indigenous.’’
Is Muslim-dominated Kashmir free of a communal backlash because there aren’t many Hindus left in the Valley? Vishen disagrees. ‘‘Communal violence is nothing but madness and when man turns mad, he manages to get targets. There are still more than 10,000 Hindus living in the Valley. There are hundreds of Hindu properties and places of worship. There is also a substantial Sikh population’’, he says. ‘‘Communal winds have always come from outside and then were restricted to the surface. The core of Kashmiri society has always been secular’’.
Like many others, well-known Kashmiri Pandit social activist Kumar Wanchoo believes there has been always vested interests behind communal violence. Incidentally, Wanchoo’s father H N Wanchoo, noted trade union leader and human rights activist, was murdered by militants during the turmoil period. Despite that, his son still lives in Srinagar. ‘‘In 1986, when Kashmir saw one of its few communal riots, there was a clear political motivation behind it. A few killings of Hindus, fear psychosis, communal slogans and then a chain reaction created the situation in which a majority of Kashmiri Hindus left the Valley in the early 1990s’’, he says.
Alas! It went wrong not only for Kashmiri Pandith who flew from Kashmir Valley but also for the Muslim residents. Can dishearted cumminity realise that their Kashmir is calling them back.
**************************************************************************************************
The recently developed friendly atmosphere between India and Pakistan with ceasefire at the borders and several steps of good-relation gesture has raised hopes that the issues related to the disturbed State might get resolved eventually. One big infront issue among is to decide the fate of migrated Kashmiri Pandits. When will the day come, when the Kashmiri Pandits will return to the valley? Infact Kashmiri Muslims are more anxiously waiting for, than the displaced Pandits. When this big issue will come across the table, there will be certain things for hot debate and it will always work that Pandits have to reshuffle to their motherland. However, it will be very hard and difficult to win the confidence of migrated families because the intra-conceptions among the people beyond the valley are not clear.
It will be crucial to examine why the community as a whole migrated. Yes of course, the overall environment of fear and terror made them insecure and consequently they decided to flee the Valley in the dark of night leaving behind their homes and hearths. Muslims of the valley feel like their body-parts gets detached from them. It was like Kashmiri Pandiths feel themselves on the Muslim-land particularly when the slogans shout like “yahan kiya chalega nizam-e- Mustafa” OH! Was not there every right for every human being to live under the shadow of Nizam-e- Mustafa? Pertinent to mention that the Teachings of Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.) have no space for any communal war or religious hatredness. If it was the slogan of freedom, was not it everybody’s game to struggle for? If it was to decide the fate of disputed land on earth, then every State-subject holder should have been the part of struggle or if for that matter it was to mix this part with Pakistan then, are not minorities or non-muslims residing in Muslim majority Pakistan? These are the questions, which might have certain answers from different point of view, but still having a big question mark in front of the reality that persists there.
Truly said that “when going gets wrong, wrong gets going” During the last forteen years, J&K State had a tough passage through several changes which put havocfull effects on every resident of it. Hardly any corner remained uneffected during the termiol period. Why not so when the Incriminated State remained without any public government for atleast eight years and every public utility remained paralysed. All the three regions of the state suffered heavily nevertheless the smoke flew from the valley as the old undiganosed cyst of 1947 start pouring badly in 1989. A big calamity in the bloodshed battle was the migration of Kashmiri Pandiths. It was really a "tragic painful event". 14 years ago,
It was the most unfortunate part the turmoil period when Pandiths started to leave their homes and patriotic homeland by which valley went frozen and tears went bundled.
Kashmiri Pandits claim that more than 300,000 people left the Valley in the late 80's and early 90's.
The valley lost dedicated teachers and professors, a big vacuum arise in government hospitals. Several engineers, Specialist doctors, lawyers left their motherland, thousands of houses got empty and some remained to watch their affectionate neighbors tagging their holdings to leave.
“ We just became orphans after our sincere and affectionate brothers departed from our locality. Amarnathji was the lone Gazetted officer in the entire locality and we were proud of him”, said Gh. Hassan resident of Wakura village. In fact, government High School Dab-Wakura had nine Pandith teachers out of 14. The school is suffering and never regroups after their departure, he added. I lost one of my best friends to whom I had an hours-long chat every evening. Same is the story of all those, who were having mixed Pandith-Muslim culture in their localities.
Now that All party Hurriyat Conference leaders have issued a joint appeal to "welcome" the return of all migrated Kashmiri Pandits. "It is our sincere desire that the Kashmiri Pandits return to their homes and hearths with dignity and respect," said Hurriyat Chairman Moulvi Abbas Ansari, his colleagues Abdul Ghani Bhat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Democratic Freedom Party leader Shabbir Shah.
The leaders said "Our hearts bleed at their plight in which they are leading a homeless life in Jammu, Delhi and other cities, deprived of even the basic facilities." The appeal said Kashmiri Pandits were "a part of ourselves and we are incomplete without them" and "they deserve our sympathy in every way. Not only our houses, but also our hearts are open for them always. "Our compatriots and appeal to them to welcome the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley."
No doubt that there occurred the instances when Pandiths were torchered and threatned, but like that other Kashmiri Muslims and non-Muslims became the victim also. A government conspiracy was involved and definitely the bad rumor spread among Pundits due to which they were forced to flew from their homeland .The situation worsen due to discourage and bad intelligence from government agencies. If anybody was held responsible for massacres, It was government machinery that put security forces forward in the battlefield with the conception that their duty is over. It is still perceived as part of an engineered campaign to displace the Pandits out of the valley.
One must not forget that The Jammu and Kashmir Human Right Commission, while submitting its report to state government on the Wandhama massacre, hold Government and serious security lapse responsible for the incident and in this perspective Hurriat from the beginning was also recommending security cover for the Kashmiri Pandits, who live in the Valley.
Had their been close tie ups with the local police and every Kashmiri Muslim not being treated a militant or gunman the situation would have been different. “We were taught to gun down security forces, create harass and kill those who will not support the Mujahideens. Nothing was like that we were taught or asked to pressurise non-muslims or force Pandiths to vacate or kill their religious emotions”, Said an ex-militant who had had left gun and his entire thought about militancy in 1996 and is now running has business.
What will be answer to Panun Kashmir (PK), a Kashmir Pandit organisation that has a separate homeland for Kashmiri Pandits in their demand. They also recommend statehood for Jammu and Union Territory status for Ladhakh. Hence it is time when All Party Hurriyat Conference and the Kashmiri Pandit community should sit together to have one more agenda to discuss the issue seriously in the next round of talks with the central government.
“Whenever there are communally motivated acts here, they are sponsored by outside elements” Says Prof C. L. Vishen, head of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Education and Technology (CASET), Srinagar. ‘‘In 1990,it was a sponsored wave; Pakistan’s games culminated in the migration of Pandits. The migration was not an outcome of a communal frenzy originating from Kashmiri Muslims. In the past 10 years of mayhem, Kashmiris have come to comprehend the dynamics; they know if there is communal violence, its players will never be indigenous.’’
Is Muslim-dominated Kashmir free of a communal backlash because there aren’t many Hindus left in the Valley? Vishen disagrees. ‘‘Communal violence is nothing but madness and when man turns mad, he manages to get targets. There are still more than 10,000 Hindus living in the Valley. There are hundreds of Hindu properties and places of worship. There is also a substantial Sikh population’’, he says. ‘‘Communal winds have always come from outside and then were restricted to the surface. The core of Kashmiri society has always been secular’’.
Like many others, well-known Kashmiri Pandit social activist Kumar Wanchoo believes there has been always vested interests behind communal violence. Incidentally, Wanchoo’s father H N Wanchoo, noted trade union leader and human rights activist, was murdered by militants during the turmoil period. Despite that, his son still lives in Srinagar. ‘‘In 1986, when Kashmir saw one of its few communal riots, there was a clear political motivation behind it. A few killings of Hindus, fear psychosis, communal slogans and then a chain reaction created the situation in which a majority of Kashmiri Hindus left the Valley in the early 1990s’’, he says.
Alas! It went wrong not only for Kashmiri Pandith who flew from Kashmir Valley but also for the Muslim residents. Can dishearted cumminity realise that their Kashmir is calling them back.
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