Early Times Report
Jammu, May 18: The miniscule minority of Kashmiri Hindus quit their homes and hearths on January 19, 1990. That time, CM of J&K was Farooq Abdullah and Home Minister of India late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The Prime Minister was none other than VP Singh, who divided the Hindu society by pitting Hindus against Hindus.
In December 1991, the premier organization of internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, Panun Kashmir (PK), adopted what was called "Margdarshan Resolution". Headed by Agnishekhar and Ajay Chrungoo, the PK demanded separate homeland for the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus within the Kashmir Valley invested with UT status. The PK made it loud and clear that it will not accept anything short of a separate homeland within the Valley and that the "internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus couldn't co-exist with those who threw them out of the Valley on the ground that they didn't subscribe to their hate and break-India ideology".
Ever since then, the PK has been struggling to achieve their goal with Kashmiri leaders of all hues in Kashmir feeling the heat as the PK has been able to create an impression across the world that the "Hindus were thrown out of their own Kashmir; that theirs' was not an "ethnic cleansing but religious cleansing"; and that "what was done to them was nothing but their genocide". The fact is that the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus have punctured the separatists' balloon and established that the ongoing movement in Kashmir is patently communal and sectarian.
The other day, another Kashmiri Hindu organization, Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD), came out with some facts and figures and said that the Hindus of Kashmir suffered huge losses in the late 80s. The GKPD claims that it is "worldwide movement of Kashmiri Hindus" and "it has been in existence for the last 10 years".
Giving details on what was done to them, the GKPD, inter-alia, said: "When one looks at ethnic cleansing data, the genocide conclusion is inescapable. The Kashmiri Pandits were given 48 hours' notice to leave the Valley. The community was completely cleansed, 450,000 had to flee under enormous duress with loss of life, limb and assets. As many as 1,397 Kashmiri Pandits and other non-Muslims who were killed have been identified to the individual level and more names are being added, a painstaking and painful exercise".
"Srinagar was the number one locality but Varahamulla and Anantnag and Kupwara followed in their count. What is shocking is that the number of locations they were killed in which is in the hundreds, demonstrating the reach and spread of the theofascist command and control system that is in place. There were 1,403 Hindu religious places, 975 temples and 428 cremation grounds. Out of these, 347 have been desecrated or destroyed, and 217 dharmshalas destroyed. Others have been taken over or the land encroached. All revenue records have been suppressed or falsified".
Indeed, what the PK has been saying since 1991 and what the GKPD said the other day should leave none in any doubt that the Hindu exodus from Kashmir was the utter failure of the Indian state. It would be only in the fitness of things if their demand seeking separate homeland within the Valley is appreciated and conceded by the powers-that-be at the Centre. |
