Hindus of Kashmir - A Genocide Forgotten

Book excerpt: The present-day Kashmir valley, according to Nilmat Purana, the sixth century Sanskrit Classic, was a large lake called Satisar surrounded by gigantic snow-peaked mountains. Geological findings confirm that the Valley was once submerged underwater. There is a tradition that the lake was drained by an ascetic, named Kashyapa Rishi (sage) by cutting the gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula). Hence the reclaimed land was called Kashyap Mar. In the people's language over a while, Kashyap Mar became 'Kashmir, ' the present name of the Valley.The Hindus of Kashmir Valley, popularly known as Kashmiri Pandits, are the aboriginal people of the Valley. Their ancestors (Saraswat Brahmins) settled in the Valley over five thousand years ago after the original lake was drained and the land became habitable. The Valley inhabitants were principally Hindus until the 14th century when Islamists entered the Valley and began converting Hindus to Islam. Seven mass exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley have occurred in the past 600 years. In the mid-1980s, the Islamist radicals, with the help of the local Muslim majority, began a militarized crusade to Islamize the Valley. Throughout the summer of 1989, armed radical Islamists intensified their jihad in Azadi's name (freedom) to Islamize the Valley. Explosive and inflammatory speeches broadcast from the loudspeakers installed on the mosques became frequent. Thousands of audio cassettes, carrying similar propaganda, were played all over the Valley to instill fear into the already frightened Kashmiri Pandit community. There were open calls for the establishment of an Islamic order. Various Islamist groups like Jamat-i-Islami and its militant wing Hizbul Mujahedeen, women's wing Dukhtaran-i-Millat, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Allah Tigers, Jamiatul-Ulemmi Islam, etc. proclaimed the objective of their struggle as Islamization of the Kashmir valley and its merger with Pakistan. The Islamic extremists launched a malicious campaign against the Kashmiri Pandits through sermons in mosques and via the local Urdu newspapers by publishing materials derogatory to Pandits and by denigrating their history, customs, and traditions, with an object of spreading hatred and disinformation about this ancient indigenous community amongst the ordinary Muslim masses in the Valley. On January 4, 1990, a local Urdu newspaper, Aftab, published a press release issued by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, asking all Pandits to leave the Valley immediately. Another ultimatum was given to the minority Pandit community through the local press on April 14, 1990, asking them to leave the Valley within two days or face death. This announcement was published in a popular local newspaper Alsafa, Srinagar, on April 14, 1990. These warnings were followed by Kalashnikov-wielding masked Jehadis carrying out military-type exercises openly. The elimination of the entire Pandit community was deemed necessary to rid the Valley of its un-Islamic elements. To achieve their goal, Islamists began a campaign of killing Hindus in cold blood. From late 1989 to mid-1990, over 1000 Hindus were massacred - a genocide forgotten. The Hindus' atrocities led to the exodus of the entire Hindu population from the Valley to Jammu and other cities in India. Over 350,000 Pandits became refugees in their own country and are still waiting to return to their homeland. The account given here is an abridged description of the ethnic cleansing and the subsequent exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in 1989-90, who became refugees in their own country. Not only has this human tragedy been forgotten by the world community, but a campaign of disinformation coupled with misguided and misinformed narrative has been perpetuated for years by Pakistan, Muslims, and the media. The author, whose family has been a victim of this human catastrophe, hopes that this text sets the record straight for future generations of the uprooted Pandits.