K B Jandial
Political ruckus notwithstanding, Vivek Agnihotri’s blockbuster “The Kashmir Files” (TKF) has revived the horrific memories of the brutal incidents of selective killing of Kashmir valley’s miniscule minority of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) that made the unending rush of cine-goers to wail and sob; many of them are the first timers. The movie has re-enacted those despicable and savage acts that brought shame to humanity.
TKF is based on real-life happenings to the KPs in those dreadful days that shook the conscience of every human being. These ghastly acts of the Islamic terrorists against KPs in Kashmir, many call these as genocide, were enough for any minority, much less the miniscule ones like KPs, anywhere to flee to save their honour and life. The film that broke all Box-office records of Indian films has rightly portrayed the miserable collapse of all systems in Kashmir in 1990 and the negative role played by every institution or individual, be it the administration, the police, the neighbours, the doctors and even the media.
The narrative put forth by the film has reignited a serious social & political debate heaping blame on late Jagmohan for “state-managed” migration of KPs and deprivation of justice to these ‘martyrs’ in particular and the community as a whole. The awakening created by TKF after three decades of the holocaust, as the community prefers to call it, should take the issue to the logical end at least now without getting embroiled into the hateful and acrimonious KP-Muslim debate as both of them have common moorings in social and cultural ethos proudly called ” Kashmiriyat”.
While the movie faced very emotional and vociferous political rejoinder of the rulers of that time to the underlying sentiment of TKF, they are trying to rebut the fast growing narrative by putting out the figures of more Muslims killed than the KPs and accused the then Governor of facilitating migration of KPs to teach Muslims a lesson. Intriguingly, this charge is made by those leaders who themselves fled from their ‘karambhoomi’ (Kashmir) and took shelter at London and others, to Jammu. Was their temporary “migration’ too a part of late Jagmohan’s ‘relocation’ plan? They forget that politics cannot erase the indelible imprints of terrorism in Kashmir that is what TKF attempted to unveil. Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s longtime friend, A S Dulat too has given a clean chit to alleged Jagmohan’s complicity in PKs’ migration, in his recent interview with the Print when he said that Jagmohan was “relieved” at their migration as it was impossible to protect the KPs in that terribly out-of-control situation in Kashmir.
The KPs were selectively targeted because they were Hindus and a known symbol of India. Muslims were not killed because they were Muslims but only those who were suspected to be pro-establishment, “anti-movement” or “informers” of the Security Forces. Moreover, the KPs were targeted in the early days of terrorism to create a genuine scare in the community to push their exodus in their quest to establish ‘Nizam-e-Mustafa’ which is substantiated by the chants of ‘raliv chaliv galiv’ (convert, leave or perish) from the mosques. This along with the selective killing was enough for the KPs to go for yet another exodus from their motherland. So, comparing the number of killed KPs with Muslims is misplaced and the more they talk about it the greater the disservice they would be doing to Muslims.
While Kashmiri Pandits’ pain and regret of no-justice on their atrocities is well documented and now emotionally portrayed in ‘The Kashmir Files’ which reverberates across India and world over, what about the equal pain of similar merciless killing of Hindus in Jammu region by the Islamic terrorists? Unlike KPs, these cruel and selective killings in Jammu hills are literally forgotten and conveniently buried in official records. Like Jammu’s cause and identity, these horror-filled killings too found no mention anywhere, even though the migration that caused by these killings too was handled very casually, perhaps the blood shed by their kins has no political value. But the victim’s families and their friends haven’t forgotten and still live with the pain that has compounded over the years.
The kins of 16 Hindu bus passengers, killed by the Islamic terrorists near Kishtwar on 14th August, 1993 still feel the chill in their spine remembering that massacre. The armed terrorists had stopped the bus and brought down 16 of them, identified as Hindus, and gunned down. Their only crime was that they were Hindus. Only two months earlier, the terrorists had killed 15 Hindus; eight of them were women in Doda district. The gruesome memories of Prankote massacre of 17th April 1998 can never fade. Twenty six Hindus of Prankote and Dakikote of Udhampur district, now parts of Reasi district, were beheaded in full public view by the terrorists. Instead of spraying bullets for instant death, the terrorists slaughtered them with axe for no fault of their. Their religion was their only fault. The news of dastardly killing took ten hours to reach the authorities and the security forces reached the spot after a day. Like KPs in Kashmir, the scare of inhuman incidents led to the exodus of the villagers to Reasi, Pouni Thanpal, Chasana and other areas of the district.
Yet another barbaric killing on 19th June, 1998 at village Chapnari in Doda district where 25 Hindus accompanying two marriage parties were massacred by the terrorists. Lal Krishna Advani, the then Union Home Minister who visited the area, was so moved by the bloodshed that he declared that he would resign if such ghastly incidents recur. It was “a clear attempt at ethnic cleansing of Hindus”.
In the same year, terrorists had massacred 35 Hindus, mostly labourers in two terror strikes in the Chamba district bordering Doda on early hours of 3rd August, 1998. Twenty-six people were killed in Kalaban area and five others in village Satrindi. News of this massacre became public only when two of the injured at Kalaban-Dhian Singh and Beli Ram-with blood oozing from their wounds, trudged eight kilometers through the dense forests to report the mayhem to the nearest Mansa police station.
On 2nd August, 2000, in yet another massacre at Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam, 21 Hindu pilgrims were gunned down while eight Hindus were killed at Kayar village of Doda district.
Seventeen Hindu residents of village Ladder near Kishtwar in Doda District were massacred by the terrorists on 3 August 2001. The terrorists dragged 20 identified Hindu males out of their houses and took them to the adjacent mountain and shot them dead. Seven Hindus were killed in two incidents by the terrorists at Sahar Badoli, Udhampur district. On 2nd December, 2001, seven Hindus of a marriage party were killed by the terrorists at Trinagal, Udhampur district.
Jammu’s historic temple of Shri Raghunath ji was attacked twice by the terrorists, first on 30th March, 2002 and secondly on 24th November 2002, killing 16 devotees and security guards. This was a direct attack on Hindus’ one of the most revered temples that housed 36 crore devi-devtas with the objective of not only hurting the religious sentiments of the majority, but also unleashing communal violence. Another attempt was made to outrage Hindu sentiments by triggering two explosions at Banganga, the take off point for holy Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage on July 21, 2002.
In the same month, the terrorists killed 29 Hindu labourers at Qasim Nagar, Jammu while 16 Hindus were killed at the congested market at Purani Mandi by causing explosions, and nine school students in another explosion in their matador near Gangyal. June 25/26, 2004, twelve civilians were killed and nine others were injured when terrorists opened indiscriminate fire at village Marah (Poonch). In yet another terror strike on 30th April, 2006, terrorists massacred 35 Hindus at two separate places in Thawa village in Kulhand area of Doda district and neighbouring village Lalon Galla in Basantgarh area of Udhampur district. The target was Hindu shepherds, who were lined up after ascertaining their religion and gunned down by terrorists in Thawa village. The condition of the dead bodies was so horrifying that the doctor who was sent to conduct the post mortem could not stand to the brutality and suffered a heart attack.
The list of terror incidents targeting Hindus is long. There were more major terror strikes in Jammu like three blasts at MAM Stadium on Republic Day on 1995 killing eight persons, including three employees of Information Deptt and injury to 45 persons and Jammu Railway Station in which seven persons were killed on 7th August, 2001, all of them were Hindus. It doesn’t mean that Muslims were spared by the Islamic terrorists. They too, especially the Gujjars, were targeted across the region, particularly in Rajouri & Poonch districts. The purpose of enumerating some of these ghastly incidents is to recall the sufferings and pain of terrorist victims and their fellow villagers in Jammu region which in any measure is no less than of the KPs. The major difference between two targeted communities by the Islamic terrorists was that Jammu Hindus didn’t migrate from their areas en-block except in some hilly pockets while the KPs exodus was almost complete. The second difference is that Jammu Hindu migrants didn’t get a fair deal despite Supreme Court orders.
Brazen neglect to the victims of terrorists’ atrocities and lack of help to their families is evident from hellish conditions of the Talwara migrant camp near Reasi. The terror victims of hilly areas and their migrant families living in miserable conditions in Talwara camp, Reasi, rued that no Govt had ever cared for their plight in the last over three decades of the brutal killing of their loved ones by the terrorists. Recently, Daily Excelsior did a story on their deplorable plight. About 2300 migrants living in this Camp, remember even today the horror of those brutal incidents that forced them to flee. The administration’s apathy and political leaders’ indifference towards them can be seen from the fact that roofs of their living rooms are leaking and no Minister, political leaders of any consequence or even senior officers had ever cared to visit their camp.
Jammu terror victims too need another Vivek Agnihotri to produce ‘The Jammu Files’ that could catch the attention of the Govt, the nation and the society. But they are not as resourceful and vocal as the KPs. Then who will bell the cat? And then there is another reality: Jammu doesn’t matter to any Govt.
( feedback:kbjandial@gmail.com).
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