Aborigines of Kashmir, called Bhatta (otherwise known as Kashmiri Pandits the world over) have decided to observe this year’s Martyr’s day on 14 September 2018, globally. On this day in 1989, one of the community’s icons, Shri Tika Lal Taploo, was assassinated by Jihadi militants in Kashmir. This murder signaled the beginning of large-scale killings, rape and ruthless torture of this peaceful community, whose small numbers formed a microscopic minority in the sea of brutal Muslim majority of Kashmir.
Random as well as targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits throughout the length and breadth of Kashmir thereafter, become a regular feature of the turmoil that engulfed the Valley in the fire of Jihadi upsurge; sponsored, financed and conducted by Pakistan. Fresh from its ‘victory’ in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Islamist dictator, Gen Zia-ul-Haque, roped in Pakistan’s numerous radical Islamic parties to provide their cadres to launch jihad in Kashmir. Politically unstable conditions in India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in October 1984, provided an ideal environment for the hordes of Afghan veterans to now fight the Indian ‘infidel’ in Kashmir. Pakistan was neither short of weapons/equipment nor funds to conduct this proxy war against India in Kashmir. A large part of arms and ammunition stockpiled in Pakistan to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan was diverted by Pakistan to fight its own war in Kashmir.
In keeping with the fundamental principle of terror tactics, ‘Kill one and scare a thousand’, brutal torture, rape, killings of nearly 1,500 men, women and children by inhuman ways, scared the day lights out of this peaceful community. The Jihadis felt that an environment of fear had already frightened the community and it just needed a push to throw them out of Kashmir. This happened on 19 Jan 1990, when thousands upon thousands of Muslims poured on the roads of Kashmir during the coldest period of the year, when temperatures fall many degrees below the freezing point. This huge mass of people, fired by the concept of Jihad, were joined by armed cadres of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), baying for Kashmiri Pandit blood. The war cries of Jihadis rent the air, terrorizing the community no end. A host of highly provocative, communal and threatening slogans, interspersed with martial songs, incited the believers to throw out the kafirs in order to ring in true Islamic order. Pandits were given three choices; Relive, Tsalvieand Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place, or perish). These dreadful slogans broadcast from nearly 1,100 mosques, exhorted the hysterical mobs to embark on Jihad. Those who organized this frightening show of violent force in the middle of a cold winter night, had only one objective, to put the fear of death into the hearts of the already frightened Pandits.
For the first time after India’s independence from Britain, Kashmiri Pandits found themselves abandoned to their fate, stranded in their homes, surrounded by rampaging mobs. The pusillanimous Central Government was caught napping and its agencies in the state, particularly the Army and other Para-Militancy forces, did not consider it necessary to intervene in the absence of any orders. The State Government had been so extensively subverted that the skeleton staff of the administration at Srinagar (winter capital had shifted to Jammu in November 1989) decided not to confront the huge mobs. Delhi was too far away, anyway.
The Pandits could see the writing on the wall. If they were lucky enough to see the night through, they would have to vacate the place before they were ruthlessly killed; and that is what they did. It was the Pandit’s seventh exodus from Kashmir ever since the arrival of Islam there in the fourteenth century. Between January 1990 and the middle of 1991, nearly 4,00,000 Kashmiri Pandits, accounting for nearly 99% of their population in Kashmir, fled from the Valley to save themselves.
The apathy with which all sectors of the Indian society reacted, encouraged the radical elements and their armed gangs in Kashmir to increase the tempo of violence. At the same time, indifferent attitude of the government, the civil society and the media towards the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, laid bare the illusion of Indian secularism.
Leaving behind their land, their religious places, their properties and their way of life, Kashmiri Pandits, with an unbroken history of over 5,000 years in Kashmir, have been living as refugees in their own country, ever since. Recently, the Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition of Kashmiri Pandits seeking to investigate the community killings and fix responsibility for the same. The apex Court said that the killings had happened long ago and it would be difficult to gather any worthwhile evidence after 28 years. Having been abandoned by the Indian State, the Apex Court’s ruling was the last nail in the coffin of Kashmiri Pandits hopes of being rehabilitated in Kashmir.
Consequently, as a peaceful community, Kashmiri Pandit diaspora, spread all across the world, has decided to observe the Balidan Diwas (Martyr’s Day) at a global level. This will involve handing over a memorandum to our High Commission/Embassies in many countries, a public meeting at Delhi and other places in India, and candle marches, etc. The objective of this public observance of paying homage to our martyrs is to tell the entire world of our plight and neglect by powers that be.
