Some scholars have suggested a higher figure of approximately 150,000 for Kashmiri journalist Gowhar Geelani notes in his work, Insulting Facts With Fiction to Suit One's Narrative, that on the request of some Kashmiri Muslims, senior Indian administrator Wajahat Habibullah, posted in Anantnag in 1990 as Special Commissioner, had appealed to Jagmohan to dissuade the Pandits from leaving the Valley. For impactful stories you just cant miss, By subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy. The Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) stepped up its activities, and the hanging of the militant leader Maqbool Bhat in 1984 added to the sense of foreboding. A number of such errors mar Agnihotri's film, which has been called out for its communal bias. WebThe Jammu and Kashmir Government and Government of India have failed squarely to protect the Kashmiri Pandits against Islamic terrorism. But that life of tranquility which they remember so fondly doesnt exist anymore in Kashmir. As the numbers arriving in Jammu increased from thousands to tens of thousands over the first few months of 1990, a mostly middle-class community found itself living in tents in squalid, filthy camps far removed from the homes they had left behind. Enjoy an ad lite experience on TOI+. Socially and morally too the court and the country had sunk to the depths of degradations. Further, the film shows that Al-Safa carried a threat commanding Kashmiri Pandits to leave the Valley before the night of the exodus 'Al-Safa, Pandit dafa,' a child holding the newspaper recites in the movie. Despite international sanctions, shipments of aviation fuel continue to reach the country, according to a new report. The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards. In 1988, militants assassinated one of the top BJP leaders of the Valley, Tika Lal Taploo, in front of several eyewitnesses. In Jammus Jagti migrant camp, where at least 20,000 migrant Kashmiri Pandits live, the residents have been protesting for the past 146 days. (Or if they're ordered by the regime to create intentional tension/chaos. New Delhi has distanced itself from a controversial and unequal deal between Adani Power and the Bangladesh Power Development Board. Jammu and Kashmir Governor Jagmohan Malhotra, dictated by the Centre, orchestrated the replacement of Abdullah with his brother-in-law Ghulam Shah, who had rebelled against his family and pioneered another faction of the National Conference. WebThe Exodus It was 19 th of January, 1990 and days were cold and nights bitter, though there was no snow on the ground. 30 years after they were forced to flee, the return of Hindu Pandits to the Kashmir Valley remains a distant dream. Black Day: January 19 is observed as the Holocaust day by the Kashmiri Pandit community. "There has been continuing lack of engagement by the government of India with the community. By 2011, only an estimated 2,700-3,400 Pandits remained in the Kashmir Valley. Muslims argue that by arranging for buses to transport Pandits out of the Valley, Jagmohan facilitated their flight, paving the way for the Indian security forces to launch an all-out military offensive against Muslims. Read | Kashmiri Pandits observe Holocaust Day to mark 30 years of mass exodus from Valley. Governor Jagmohan is criticised for not guaranteeing the safety of Kashmiri Pandits fleeing the Valley and for not stopping them with assurance of security. "There has been continuing lack of engagement by the government of India with the community. Approximately 2,17,000 Pandits still live in abysmal conditions in Jammu with families of five to six people often huddled into a small room. [18], Zulju, who was probably a Mongol from Turkistan,[19] wreaked devastation in 1320, when he commanded a force that conquered many regions of the Kashmir Valley. No police commission, special investigation team (SIT), or judicial panel was constituted to probe the genocide-triggered exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. WebThe Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency.Of a total Pandit population of 120,000140,000 some 90,000100,000 left the valley or felt compelled to leave, and about 30 were killed. Jammu and Kashmir being the only Muslim majority state in whole of India, the protection of minorities and their living peacefully, in their homeland, is crucial for India to remain as a Secular Democratic State. A powerful anti-India militancy rattled the Indian state. A township of two-room tenements called Jagti was built in Jammu in the last decade to house 4,000-5,000 Pandit families who remained there. [38][39][40], In 2009 the Oregon Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to recognise 14 September 2007, as Martyrs Day to acknowledge ethnic cleansing and campaigns of terror inflicted on non-Muslim minorities of Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists seeking to establish an Islamic state. Asia, South (Or if they're ordered by the regime to create intentional tension/chaos. Citizens of Jammu took to the streets to protest the erection of the masjid on the secretariat premises. [42] The local organisation of pandits in Kashmir, Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti after carrying out a survey in 2008 and 2009, said that 399 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by insurgents from 1990 to 2011 with 75% of them being killed during the first year of the Kashmiri insurgency. Money, Tokyo Enjoying this article? During the period of The day marks the beginning of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits on a mass scale that ultimately culminated in the complete exodus of the aboriginal indigenous people that represented a civilisation that was more than 5,000 years old. Threats from Islamist militants in the Valley forced around 70,000 Pandit families comprising over 350,000 women, men, and children to flee their homes in the weeks and months that followed. We will go back on our own terms," Kashmiri Samiti president Sunil Shakdher said in August 2002 in response to the then Farooq Abdullah regimes proposed rehabilitation agenda. However, 30 years after they were forced to flee their homes, the safe and dignified return of Pandits to the Kashmir Valley remains a distant dream. The published threat, however, came nearly three months after one of the darkest nights in Jammu and Kashmir 19 January 1990 observed as the Exodus Day by the Kashmiri Hindu community. Successive governments in New Delhi and Srinagar have attempted to draw displaced Pandits back to the Valley. The government should set up self-contained townships exclusively for returning Pandits, Dhar says. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group[8] from the Kashmir Valley,[9][10] a mountainous region located within the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Many Pandits celebrated the Indian government move as they believe it will pave the way for their return to the Valley. [61] Scholar Alexander Evans estimates by 1990, there would have been 160,000170,000 Pandits in the Kashmir Valley. Several Hindu temples and houses were targeted in the city. [33] The nature of the planned exodus has remain controversial, with the involvement of then Governor Jagmohan in organising a clandestine exodus been a subject of controversy. According to some estimates, notably by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), of 75,343 Kashmiri Pandit families in January 1990, more than 70,000 fled between 1990 and 1992. Consequently, riots broke out in Jammu and Kashmir. Sheth, the former director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in India (CSDS), lists Indian communities that constituted the middle class and were traditionally "Urban and professional" (following professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc.) [41], In 2010, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir noted that 808 Pandit families, comprising 3,445 people, were still living in the Valley and that financial and other incentives put in place to encourage others to return there had been unsuccessful. Newly appointed, he had arrived in Srinagar on January 19. He also demanded that a probe be conducted to ascertain on whose orders a total of 70 terrorists were released in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989. kashmiri pandit man Blogs, Comments and Archive News on Economictimes.com Successive governments have promised that they will help this process, but the situation on the ground in Kashmir has meant this remains only an intention. Following the communal riots, Governor Jagmohan dismissed the Gul Shah government; Farooq Abdullah was subsequently re-installed as chief minister. The Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits Ghulam Mohammad Shah came into power after snatching the position from his brother-in-law Farooq Abdullah and became The LG administration and the central government are primarily concerned with addressing security problems. As many as 36,289 (till December 30, 2003) lives have been lost. Major media outlets have that the kidnapping was a fake one as the kidnapping took place just after 5 days Sayeed took the office. This decision had helped catalyse the Kashmir genocide's bloody 1990s chapter. [47], There are zones set up with offices for relief. The year 1984 also saw another crucial event that contributed significantly to the rise of separatist insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir: the hanging Maqbool Bhat, JKLF co-founder and a pioneer of the secessionist movement. 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Kashmiri Pandits are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. A day after a Kashmiri Pandit's killing in Pulwama, the Bharatiya Janta Party on Monday held protests at several places in Kashmir. He asked Kashmiri Muslims to make Pandits feel more secure. Asia, Asia [72], Henzae is an ancient traditional form of singing practised by Kashmiri Pandits at their festivals. Politician Mirwaiz Farooq of the All Jammu and Kashmir Awami Action Committee was shot dead by a militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen in 1990. What is the truth of the 1990s Kashmiri Pandit migration? Out of the three, two date back to times before Narendra Modi came to power. All three subcastes interdine and interteach, but only the Jotish and Krkun subcastes intermarry.[22]. Tens of thousands of Kashmiris and Indian security personnel have lost their lives in the violence that engulfed the region. In addition, there are hundreds of families living in government tenements in Purkhoo on the outskirts of Jammu, in Nagrota and in Muthi. People of india indian govt just stood watching kps haunted down killed and forced into exile. It were saffron communals people like RSS VHP BAJRAN Kashmiri Pandits are Hindu Kashmiris native to the Kashmir Valley, and the only remaining Hindu Kashmiris after the large-scale of conversion of the Valley's population to Islam during the medieval times. WebGenocide of Kashmiri Pandits. It is 30 years since the exodus from the Valley of its minority Hindu Kashmiri Pandit community. At events in cities in India and abroad to mark their exodus, Pandits pledged to return home. The events of 19 January 1990 were particularly vicious. These organisations are involved in rehabilitation of the community in the valley through peace negotiations, mobilisation of human rights groups and job creation for the Pandits. In the decades since the Pandit exodus, Kashmir has seen immense bloodshed. The killings of innocent natives and ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits must be seen in the context of the deeper intent to secure the secession of Jammu and Kashmir. The exodus took place at the same time that the BJP was upping the ante across northern India, and over the years, the plight of Kashmiri Pandits has become a potent Hindutva issue. [10], According to Indian government, more than 60,000 families are registered as Kashmiri migrants including some Sikh and Muslim families. This article is protected. Jammu, UPDATED: Oct 8, 2021 18:18 IST. JKLF targeted a Kashmiri Hindu for the first time on 14 September 1989, when they killed Tika Lal Taploo, a lawyer and a prominent leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir, in front of several eyewitnesses. It marked a shift in the motivations behind the militancy in Kashmir hitherto driven primarily be a separatist sentiment, it now took a more communal colour and moved towards jihad. While they were left unharmed for the most part, terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba massacred Pandits at Sangrampora (1997), Wandhama (1998), and Nandimarg (2003). Although the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) said the two men were killed because of their ties with the Indian state rather than their Pandit identity, the Pandits were not convinced. The Pakistani military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are said to have provided weapons, training, and logistical support to the JKLF. Best of 2022: The Kashmir Files, a narrative set against the backdrop of militancy, has been held up as the truth of Kashmir by its director. As many as 75,343 Kashmiri Pandits are estimated to have fled in January 1990, with about 70,000 more following till March, as per the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti. A majority of the Pandit refugees still live in refugee camps with spiralling health and economic problems. While India would like the current phase of stability at the LoC to continue, it has little incentive to try to make a grand gesture toward peace with Pakistan. Habibullah wrote he also appealed to Jagmohan that he telecast an appeal to Pandits that they stay in Kashmir, assuring their safety on the basis of the assurance of the Anantnag residents. Even our Muslim friends were caught up in the Islamist frenzy of that period, Dhar recalled. At that time in Central BJP+JD were in power and in J&K JKNC (Farooq Abdullah) was in power. Although Farooq Abdullah was with full majority, he wa On the day of 8 December 1989, the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed was carried out by members of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a Kashmiri terrorist separatist organisation, in Jammu and Kashmir. On 21 January 1990, two days into the governor's rule, the paramilitary troops of the Central Police Reserve Force (CRPF) opened fire on a group of protesting civilians on the Gawkadal bridge in Srinagar, killing about 50 Kashmiri Muslims as per estimates. But within two years, the Centre broke up the NC, and installed dissident Ghulam Mohammed Shah as Chief Minister. "Terrorists and jihadis began committing atrocities on all Pandits and Sikhs," he said, adding "The V P Singh government was then running with the support of the BJP.". 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