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| Muslims decorate temples beseech Hindus to return to home for good | | Separatists join Kashmiri Pandits in Khirbhawani celebrations | | Early Times Report
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Jun 9: Dreaded JKLF terrorist Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, who once admitted on Doordarshan to have gunned down over two dozen members of the minority community over directions of his “commander” in 1990, was among pioneers of the separatist guerrilla movement, who hugged and kissed the displaced Pandit pilgrims on occasion of the annual festival at the revered Khirbhawani Temple at Tulmulla in Ganderbal district today. Yasin Malik and Javed Mir, who were among the top four JKLF “commanders” in 1989-90, were enthusiastically in attendance, 21 years after their armed cadres spread a wave of terror and caused mass migration of the 200,000-strong minority.
With the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s “Truth & Reconciliation Commission” failing to take birth, quite a number of Kashmiri separatists were conspicuous by their presence at Tulmulla---Omar’s Assembly constituency. This is the place where a Kashmiri Muslim resident maintained pouring tumblers and buckets of fresh milk into the holy spring all through the terror decade of 1990s when Pandits had deserted the village and a CRPF company stayed in guard. The middle-aged villager, in typical Pandit outfits, showed no semblance of fear even when militants Hameed Gada alias Bombar Khan and Bula Hajam stood more dreaded than Sholay’s Gabbar Khan in entire Tulmulla belt.
As thousands of the devotees poured in from Jammu, Udhampur, Nagrota and also from outside J&K, Khirbhawani looked no different from what it was in the pre-militancy halcyon days---a colourful mixture of young and the old, male and the female, Hindus and the Muslims. Today’s festivity was indeed an improvement over the last 10-12 years as members of diverse religious affiliation hugged each other. Many of them were in tears on meeting their estranged childhood friends and neighbours after years of separation.
Separatists like Malik, Javed Mir, Karate and their decade-old senior, Shabir Shah, lagged behind none in embracing and beseeching Pandits to return to their home. They seemed to be doing their best to reassure that nothing, nobody would harm them. Hordes of the displaced population agreed on spot to visit their residential hamlets they had left behind in 1989-90. It appeared that few recent incidents of firing and encounters were in nobody’s mind. “Such incidents do happen everywhere today. There’s nothing communal in them. We are not scared at all”, said 70-year-old Bhushan Lal Bhat of Kulgam. “I remember the last massacre of Pandits---at Nadimarg village of Bhat’s area---happened in 2003”.
Today’s re-union in Ganderbal happened four days after the authorities claimed in separate statements that the number of militants in Kashmir had dropped to the lowest ever of 200-something. Notwithstanding the other day’s broad daylight killing near Press Enclave in the Civil Lines here, residents believe the number could be even less than a hundred. Seventy to ninety percent participant in current Panchayat elections stands testimony to the fact that the militant can kill but can not terrorise now.
“I am hopeful that all those who had been appointed in the special recruitment drive last year but had not shown up for fear, could join their services in the Valley soon”, an official posted in General Administration Department said after witnessing today’s enthusiasm, communal harmony and what the IAS babus from outside call “Kashmiriyat”.
CONTD…..
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