In India, Kashmiri Pandits genocide is a topic that rarely gets anyone either angry or distressed, not at least in the Lutyens, which long back realized that this community is not big enough to be anyone’s vote bank. So why even bother to pay lip service?
That the lakhs of Indians, Kashmiri Pandits, were forced out of the valley because they didn’t agree to betray India even when the terrorists, in coordination with the local Muslim population, attacked and raped them, that they were targeted because of their religion in a nation that clings to secularism despite being divided in 1947 on the basis of religion, that the Kashmiri Pandits have not been heard because being ‘Pandit’ is enough of a mistake in a country that ironically wants to weed out casteism is something that no one wants to speak out on. It is politically incorrect to speak out on genocides done against the wrong minorities. Do Kashmiri Pandits even deserve the equal human rights?
The question is that do Kashmiri Pandits even deserve equal human rights?
Sanjay Suri, the Indian actor of Bas Ek Pal fame, today remembered his father in the following words:
“1st August ‘ 1990 . Virinder Suri, Son of Kashmiri Lal Suri, resident of Mandir Bagh , Srinagar shot dead at his home in Mandir Bagh , Srinagar, Kashmir – 190001. Not the kind of news one wishes for anyone. Remembering the brave man, my Father, who never ever thought they would do this to him. He never left !
26 years later i remember him fondly and miss him.”
26 yrs later remembering my Dad who was killed on 1st Aug' 1990 in Srinagar, Kashmir at home in Mandir Bagh.
— sanjay suri (@sanjaysuri) August 1, 2016
This is the story of countless of Kashmiri Pandits and the terrible atrocities they bore when they refused to abandon the idea of India, meaning that they refused to abandon the thought that secularism and Kashmiriyat are possible even when the times are dark.
But it seems that they were mistaken, they were lured into the falsehood of Kashmiriyat only to be preyed upon. Anupam Kher and Ashok Pandit have openly come out and have narrated what terrible communal mindsets the minuscule Kashmiri Pandits faces in Kashmir.
Here is pic of butchered bodies of Kashmiri Pandits killed by terrorists. No outrage or concern by Pseudo liberals! pic.twitter.com/JIp97aNOOz
— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) July 12, 2016
NIT Srinagar students were harassed with girls even given rape threats by the locals.
Everyone knows that many Kashmiri Muslims hold a grudge against the Kashmiri Pandits for ‘leaving like cowards’ at the behest of, in their terminology, the Indian agent ‘Jagmohan’ instead of fighting for azadi. Many of them mock the Kashmiri Pandits in lewd ways, like this:
Well! Those who did not leave had a bullet shot into them, all because they believed in the idea of India and the idea of Kashmiriyat. Kashmir is not the heaven anymore, it is a place where children are the shields and the Islamic State flags are flashed during Friday sermons. Do the people who show Islamic Flags know what it did with the minority Christian and Yazidis, yes they know, but that is all fine. The fact that they hope to have the Western world support them, while they support Al-Qaeda and ISIS, blatantly racist and terrorist groups, is perfectly fine with them:
And you know why it all happening? Because Kashmiri Pandits exodus led to a rise of a Shariah environment and this time to protect the famous ‘Kashmiriyat’ no one existed as all the voices who could protest were thrown our of the valley.
That the Temples have been made bathrooms, stoned by the locals, and desecrated by locals are never shown, they do not fit into the Kashmiri persecution that the world wants to hear.
But this, today, is not the Kashmir that Sanjay Suri’s father and countless of Kashmiri Pandits would have ever dreamt of. However, we must admit that this is the reality of our times and work towards eliminating radicalization.
The destroyed temple of Mata Maha Kali. Place has been desecrated,bathrooms built on the places where we worshipped pic.twitter.com/gBVOt0dwKb
— Vinod Pandit APMCC (@VinodAPMCC) June 2, 2016
Not a long time ago, an all-girl-Muslim band, Pragaash, was in the news because the locals kept threatening the girls with rape, murders, and acid attacks. Eventually, scared, the girls stopped singing.
This could be a one of a kind incident, but in 2012, a Shariah court threw 3 Christian Priests out of the valley after being sure that the pastor name MC Khanna of All Saints Church of Srinagar was luring the Muslims to become Christians. Dutch national named Jim Borst and one Gayoor Messah were also thrown out.
The reality of Kashmir today will stun and dishearten people but without knowing the ground reality, we cannot fight a war that is based on an ideology of hate.
Kashmir has become a place where fake secular stories of Muslims doing last rites of a Kashmiri Pandit are circulated to prove to the world that well, Kashmiri Pandits should have trusted the Kashmiri Muslims. That Kashmiri Pandits leaving the valley were wrong.
It was APMCC KP members that cremated fellow KP at Kulgam. The media is giving twist to the funeral. Muslims participated only as neighbors
— Vinod Pandit APMCC (@VinodAPMCC) February 3, 2016
Pictures from Kulgam showing that final rites of KP were done by KPs only. Media fabricating stories #Kashmir pic.twitter.com/9SXcYsihBC
— Vinod Pandit APMCC (@VinodAPMCC) February 3, 2016
The fact that Kashmir is radicalized like Pakistan’s Punjab is hidden, even in India, under fake concoction of ‘non-existent’ Kashmiriyat. In Pakistan (even Bangladesh is in this list now) non-existent the so-called Punjabiyat or Sindhiyat which may be loosely translated into brotherhood on the basis of region and language, did not stop the exodus and the genocide of the Hindus and Sikhs, just like on the basis of religion Pakistan has failed and will keep failing to keep Balochistan together.
Killing humans is a biggest crime against humanity but Balochistan's humans r openly being killed by Pakiforces @hrw pic.twitter.com/ILyusrpcNd
— Samreen Baloch (@Samreen_Baloch1) July 31, 2016
The world ignores what Pakistan is doing with the Baloch children. They are being killed, massacred #refugeeswelcome pic.twitter.com/djMDfIG6t0
— Banuk Zarina Baloch (@Zarina_Baloch) September 4, 2015
What Kashmir needs today is a leadership that is unafraid to take the challenges head on and speak the truth and acknowledge that the Kashmiri Pandits were wronged. It should acknowledge that hiding behind political correctness is not an option anymore. But do we have the political will?
