Atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits free essay sample

To ascertain the etiology of this amnesia or selective attention deficit we need to delve deeper into the details of this gory chapter of the so called Paradise of India. After the end of 1989, over four lakh Kashmiri Pandits, constituting 99% of the total population of Hindus, living in Muslim majority area of the Kashmir Valley, were grudgingly pushed out of the valley by Islamic terrorists, trained in Pakistan. They have been forced to live the life of exiles in their own country, outside their homeland, by unleashing an organized campaign of terror, murder, burgle and arson. Genocide of Kashmiri Pandits reached its zenith with Muslim terrorism succeeding in cleansing the valley of this ancient ethno-religious Kashmiri Pandits community. The exodus took place on January 19th of I989. On that day, the loudspeakers of mosques in Kashmir blasted out a message as a threat: Ae Kashmir ke Musalmaanon.. Bharat ko sabak sikhaane ka ek her tareeka. . Kashmir ko paane ka ek hee dhang.. Al-jihaad, al-jihaad, al-jihaad! Despite some organizations, the entire country then was like silent spectators of this event. The massacres of Pandits were brutal, barbaric and inhuman. Killing of Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists evidently portrays fanatical sadism. All victims have been subjected to extreme torture and terror. Torture deaths have been brought about by such inhuman practices as strangulation by using steel wires, hanging, branding with hot irons, burning alive, lynching, bleeding to death. Besides these, terrorists have frequently indulged in barbaric acts like performing death dances after killing their target. Many a time, dead bodies were not even allowed to be properly cremated. Analysis: Islamic Fundamentalism Terrorism in Kashmir is an ideological struggle with specified political commitments which are fundamentalist and communal in character. Terrorist violence is aimed at achieving the disengagement of the state of Jammu and Kashmir from India and its annexation to Pakistan. It is 23 years today since Jammu amp; Kashmir saw the beginning of the ethnic-cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits, from their homeland at the instigation of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by a group of Kashmiri jihadi elements trained, armed and motivated by the ISI. It is the continuation of Islamic fundamentalist struggle for the homeland of Pakistan which claims Jammu amp; Kashmir state on account of its Muslim majority character. The lead in this act of ethnic-cleansing was initially taken by the Jammu amp; Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Other jihadi organisations, which subsequently came into existence after having been trained and armed by the ISI, kept the ethnic-cleansing going till practically all the Kashmiri Pandits were driven out after having been subjected to numerous indignities. The major dimension of the terrorist violence in kashmir is the terrorists commitment to the extermination and subjugation of the Hindus in the state because Hindus do not subscribe to the idea of separation from India, nor do they expect to be governed by the authority of the state which derives its sanction from the law and precedent of islam. Kashmiri Pandits have always been in the forefront of the struggle against secessionism, communalism and fundamentalism. Thus, these victims of violence were targets of the following terrorist strategies: The extermination of Hindus †¢Subjecting Hindus to brutal torture to instill fear in the in order to achieve their submission †¢Engineer a forced mass exodus of Hindus from the land of their ancestors and birth by way of issuing threatening letters, kidnappings and torture deaths on non compliance of the terrorists dictates and ensure the destruction of the secular and pluralistic character of the socio political fabric of the Kash miri Society †¢Attacks, molestations, kidnappings, gang rapes of the women folk of the Hindus in to instill humiliation Destruction and burning of the residential houses of the houses of the Hindus who leave their homes in look out for safety. Looting of their properties and appropriation of their business establishments to ensure that they do not return †¢Destruction of the social base of the Hindus by the desecration and discussion of their places of worship †¢Appropriation of the property of the Hindu shrines and its attachment to muslim religious endowments Political Malfunctioning Pakistan worked hard in raising militants and giving birth to an era of terrorism. The Jamat-e-Islami worked strength to strength. All of this was a result of the direct extortions made up by the Pakistani media to influence the Kashmiri muslims including the speeches of the then Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto. 14th August, the independence day of Pakistan was celebrated with fervor whereas the valley saw a total blackout on 15th August where people were told to adjust their clocks to Pakistan Standard Time. No hindu female was allowed to wear the traditional vermillion on her forehead and if she did, acid was thrown on her face. Women were cut into pieces by saw machines and thrown into Jhelum. All this was happening under Farooq Abdullah, then CM who was busy playing golf and moving around. Ex-Governor Jagmohan made all efforts to send report after report but the government didnt bother to see what was happening under its very nose. Protests by Hindus to the Central Government failed to make an impact. Dr. Rubiya Saiyyad, daughter of then Home Minster was kidnapped by militants. V. P. Singh, who was the Prime Minister when the ethnic-cleansing was carried out nor any of his successors had the least idea of how to deal with the situation. The government promptly bowed releasing five hardcore terrorists who were also responsible for the cold blooded murder of many innocent lives in exchange of the precious life of the daughter of the Home Minister. People came out in the streets in procession to celebrate the release of terrorists. Hindus were forced to join processions and shout out anti India slogans so that if security forces fired, Hindus would face the bullets. It did happen. Criminals became heroes. Nahida Imtiaz, daughter of Saifuddin Sauz was kidnapped and militants were released once again. Sawrah Hospital became the den of the militants. The blood of Hindus were removed from their bodies and stored to be used to treat injured militants. When Hindus were admitted to the hospital, leading doctors refused to treat them. Indian currency was rejected and Pakistani currency was being used. On the midnight of 20th January, 1989 a cassette broke out from the mosques of the valley announcing the message of al jihaad. Young girls committed suicide in fear of getting raped and then cut into pieces. Some poisoned themselves and some jumped from the first floor. In order to preserve their dignity more than 4 lakh families settled in refugee camps in a secular nation! All this while, the government remained an underdog submitting to all the unjustifiable action. There were various options available: †¢The first option was to direct the Army to re-establish Indian sovereignty over Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Gilgit-Baltistan as a punitive measure. Pakistan had by then acquired a military nuclear capability, but not a nuclear arsenal. It did not have a satisfactory delivery capability. We could have, therefore, easily re-taken the POK and Gilgit-Baltistan without fear of provoking a nuclear war. The V. P. Singh Government did not exercise this option. †¢The other option was to train and arm the Pandits and ask them to go back and re-occupy their property and fight against the ISI-trained jihadis. This option was carefully examined and given up as not advisable. There were legitimate fears that this option could polarise for ever the relations between the Muslims and the Hindus and play into the hands of the jihadis who wanted such polarisation. The option finally chosen was to look after the Pandits in the refugee camps and other areas where they had settled down with their relatives and wait for the restoration of normalcy in the Valley so that these refugees could be helped to go back, re-establish their ownership of their property and resume a life of dignity as the residents of their traditional homeland. Taking refuge in their own land, they werent given the basic care. In squalid camps, some died of snake bites, the elders died of sun stroke and the others died of infections and diseases. This is not how the worlds largest largest democracy boasts of its ethnicity and secularism. This is not how human rights are reckoned in a country known to respect all religions. This is how the media- the fourth pillar turned a blind eye by not extensively reporting on the issue. one could only find an article or two that too in the 14th or 15th page! Human Rights Organizations turn a blind eye Nation Human Rights Commission of Indias verdict on Kashmiri Pandits was a shocking one. Here is an excerpt from the promotional report of Kashmiri Pandits Organisation: After four years of prolonged discussions and hearings, arguments and counter arguments, NHRC of India has finally given its verdict on three hundred thousand internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits. It has dismissed both of their pleas, genocide and internal displacement. A cursory glance on the verdict reveals that the NHRC has very cleverly tried to play safe and avoid telling the bitter truth. It is a clear bid to please everybody and every party involved in the tragedy that overtook the Pandits. A close study of the verdict shows that political considerations have become a strong constraint for the Commission to call a spade by its name. The question is whether by trying to play safe, the Commission has really achieved its objective of being projected as impartial? Impartiality of a body that has been constituted on the premise that it will only take into account the human rights aspect of issues before it, stands eroded when it chooses to be friends to all, the oppressor and the aggrieved. By juxtaposing the numbers of people of two communities, Hindus and Muslims, killed in Kashmir, the Commission has tried to convey that the Muslims have suffered more than the Kashmiri Pandits have. The Pandits never made any plea that the number of the members of their community was more than that of the Muslims. The Pandits had made simply two cases (a) genocide was unleashed against them (b) they were internally displaced people, as they had not crossed the international border. Therefore, to bring in the number of the Muslims killed in Kashmir is an extraneous matter, which the NHRC has linked up with the case of the Kashmiri Pandits only to win the goodwill of the State government, the majority community of Kashmiri Muslims and their sympathizers like APHC. These were the flaws that could be rectified: †¢The NHRC has made an allusion to the communal harmony among the two communities in Kashmir in the past and has made it synonymous with ‘Kashmiriyat’. This assertion is certainly outside the legitimate jurisdiction of the NHRC. It is not the business of the NHRC to pronounce judgement on controversial issues of history, which even the recognized historians have not tried to adjudge to their finality. One would like to ask the NHRC which authentic works of Kashmir history did it consult by way of recorded evidence in support of their assertion. There are at least three histories authored by the Muslims and considered as the most dependable histories of medieval and modern Kashmir. These are (1) Baharitan-e-Shahi, AD 1622, written by an anonymous author (now identified as Sayyid Muhammad Mehdi by more recent researches), translated from original Persian MS into English with annotations by Dr KN Pandit and published by Mukhopadhiya, Calcutta 1991, (2) Tohfatu’l-Ahbab or the Biography of Shamsu’d-Din Araki, Persian MS written by Muhammad Ali Kashmiri in AD 1632 and translated and published by Muhammad Reza Akhund Zadeh, in Khaplu, Baltistan (Northern Areas of   Pakistan) in 1998. 3) Tarikh-e-Kashmir by Prized Ghulam Hassan Khuihami in Persian in 1891 and published by   JK Academy of Art, Language and Literature in Srinagar in 1971. All the three histories are most important source material for Kashmir history of mediaeval (Sultanate) times. Had the Honorable Commission cared to go through this fund of source material compiled by the local Muslim historians, it would have never passed the verdict of prevalence of communal harmony among the two co mmunities in Kashmir. Nor would they have landed in the totally misleading concept of ‘Kashmiriyat’. After reading the above mentioned three sources of mediaeval Kashmir, the   Honorable Commission would have no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that ‘Kashmiriyat’ is synonymous with ‘Islamization’ in Kashmiri parlance. Had the Honorable Commission studied these works with patience and in detail, it would have certainly found a new dimension of genocide. †¢Showing all the cleverness of circumventing the core issue, NHRC says what happened in Kashmir were genocide-like activities but not genocide. Where is the dividing line between genocide-like activities and actual genocide’ In regard to the question of numbers among the Hindus and the Muslims killed in Kashmir, we have to be very clear in what it means. Where the Muslims killed with the avowed objective of bringing about ethno-religious cleansing of the Muslims in the valley? No not at all. Most of it was personal vendetta, old feuds and rivalries, disputes over property and women etc. How can the motives of these killings be equated with the motives behind the killing of the Pandits or handing out threats to them from mosque tops and through paid ads in the print media. The militant leadership made repeated statements that the Pandits can come back but only on condition that they will join the movement against India and fight side by side with the insurgents. No such condition has even been imposed on Muslims of the Valley who leave the Valley and have bought property (houses and land) in different parts of the country. The Commission should have taken note of the fact that no residential house of a Muslim migrant was either looted or set on fire or destroyed and vandalized. On the contrary, nearly 25 thousand houses of the Pandits were looted, vandalized and then set on fire. Not a single house or property of the migrated Muslim has been illegally or forcibly occupied in his absence. In comparison to this, all the Pandit houses have been forcibly and illegally oc cupied along with their property and immovable household effects. How sad that the Honorable NHRC should have surrendered to olitical expediency while it was expected to be impartial, just and forthright. What does it mean that the Pandits demand for an inquiry into the entire rise of militancy and the exodus of the community is understandable? Why this understatement? †¢NHRC, if convinced of violation of human rights of the Pandits, as it appears to be, should have issued instructions to the central and the state governments to constitute a commission of inquiry with clearly defined terms of reference and a time frame within which it should submit its report. By making a casual and half-hearted reference to the issue, it has only tried to play safe with the government. The recommendation that living conditions of the internally displaced people be improved, is what every ordinary visitor to the refugee camps has been saying. That is what foreign pressmen or human rights organizations visiting the camps have very often told the government. †¢NHRC has just completed the formality by writing down a soothing sentence in the verdict. In spite of being fully aware of the living conditions in this country and the state, should have specified the amount of relief, the specific improvements in living conditions like the specifications of the one-room tenement, sanitary requirements, protection against heat and rain, repairing of the hutment, healthcare facilities, education, environmental security etc. What is shocking is that the Honorable Commission has not even made the slightest reference to the enormous air pollution caused by the brick kilns which influential local businessmen have established within the refugee camps. It has failed to realize the health hazard. Instead of taking up these serious issues of human beings, the Honorable Commission has sought to travel safe and secure along the political road indicator Further on: †¢International human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Asia Watch and others have yet to take proper cognizance of the genocide perpetrated on Kashmiri Pandits. Even the representatives of the United nations or other organizations have so far failed to visit the camps in Jammu, Delhi and other parts of India, where thousands of families are utting up for several years. Conclusion: It is sad that a politically motivated report instead of one squarely based on human rights considerations has emanated from the NHRC of India. But the most unrealistic of all the assertions is the pious wish of the   Honorable Commission that a day in God’s eternal calendar will ultimately dawn when the Pandits will go back to their respective places and live in harmon y with their Muslim neighbors who will manage flow of streams of milk and honey for them. Nothing can be more amusing. This clearly shows how superficially   the Commission has been treating and understanding the entire Kashmir issue. It betrays its lack of vision that demands linking the return of Pandits to national security and the security of India’s northern frontier. It shows deliberate attempt of understating the massive Islamization of Kashmir brought about by the so-called secular as well as non-secular forces in Kashmir. This is an unadulterated wish of ransoming the three hundred thousand member of a religious minority to the diktat and arbitration of a majority whose loyalties do not at all synchronize with the ransomed group. The international community views the violence in Kashmir as a Freedom Struggle. But remember, terrorist violence in the valley is not a Freedom Struggle at all. Terrorist violence cannot be justified on the ground of its political and ideological motivations or value basis. Cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir is a clear testimony of this fact. There is no freedom, which impinges upon freedom. There can be no equality, which leads to inequality. Killing of Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists clearly depicts extreme sadism. But the great tragedy is that the Government of India and the Jammu Kashmir State Government have utterly failed to protect the Kashmiri Pandits against Islamic terrorism. Ethnic cleansing of Pandits from Kashmir valley is the crucial failure of Indian state to uphold its commitments to people of India as enshrined in Indian constitution which provides right to live with dignity and honour to every citizen irrespective of caste, creed, religion or colour.