Within the last ten days, nine people in Kashmir were gunned down torridly and horridly, a situation eerily reminiscent of the 1990s.
The recent intensification of attacks on citizens is becoming commonplace in Kashmir, and just a walk to the market or to school may become someone’s death knell. Fear and tension permeate the air and there is sadness in Kashmiri eyes behind all smiles. The Valley is bleeding once again in the nucleus of stormy rain and aching pain.
Minorities right now are clearly being targeted and there were recent killings of civilians by terrorists in Kashmir. Those murdered include the principal and a teacher of a government school in Srinagar’s Eidgah area, Supunder Kour and Deepak Chand, besides 70-year-old Makhan Lal Bindroo, a prominent businessman and the owner of a pharmacy in Srinagar, and a street vendor from Bihar, Virendra Paswan, also a cab driver Mohd Shafi Lone. Disturbing visuals of blood, chappals, and cart of the Bihari gol-gappa walla on Saturday around his dead body and a UP carpenter was shot dead haunted the nation. Within a little over a week, nine civilians were killed.
Someone wrote on Twitter while sharing this picture from the 90s :
“Valley feels like it did back in the 1990s
String of recent targeted killings of civilians in Valley has inspired fear among many….The situation is reminiscent of that in the 1990s”
#Kashmir
Valley feels like it did back in the 1990s
String of recent targeted killings of civilians in Valley has inspired fear among many….The situation is reminiscent of that in the 1990s#Kashmir pic.twitter.com/rdjEgtY0t7
— ????? ????? (@Manav_SS_Gupta) October 17, 2021
According to a police statement, “So far, 28 civilians have been killed by terrorists in 2021. Out of 28, five persons belong to the local Hindu/Sikh community and 2 non-local Hindu laborers.” Daily, the numbers are rising and these eventually will turn into targeted pogroms because invariably while over 500 people have been arrested, the guilty mostly flee and the innocent get nabbed and incarcerated.
Recently in the Pampore encounter, citizens’ homes also have been destroyed and here is a video of a destruction of a home in Saturday’s Pampore encounter.
Saturday Pampore encounter See How House was Destroyed…?
#Kashmir pic.twitter.com/Iy91L2PCVo
— syed owias (@Syedowias0) October 17, 2021
Fierce Poonch gunfight rages with terrorists holed up Jammu, on October 17th. The gunfight resumed between security forces and a group of heavily-armed terrorists in the Mendhar belt of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday afternoon. There was mass property destruction with wailing amidst the people’s devastated homes. It is terribly distressing to lose a home, a place of sanctity and safety.
According to official sources, the joint team of Army, police, paramilitary troops along with elite commandos of the Indian Army was carrying the search operation in Nar Khas forests of Mendhar when the terrorists fired at them. “The firing was effectively retaliated and the encounter resumed,” they said. “The area is cordoned and the terrorists are holed up in the operation,” said a police official.
This was a week-long gunfight that started on October 11, so far nine Army personnel including two Junior Commissioned Officers have been killed. As per sources, the security forces have detained two persons for allegedly providing logistics support to the terrorists. “During searches on the intelligence inputs, two persons have been detained for providing food and shelter to a group of heavily armed terrorists,” sources said. They said the duo is being questioned for more details. The traffic on the highway close to the encounter site is also suspended.
During the recent attacks with loss of lives, a Kashmiri wrote, “This sister survive in attack and supports work not to touch her is she fine….reminded me of a war in which a sahaba lost her husband, son, and brother But she comes completely covered people amazing asked her, she replied_lost by love once not my “HAYA”….. Allahuakbar”
This sister survive in attack and supports work not to touch her is she fine….reminded me of a war in which a sahaba lost her husband ,son and brother But she come completely covered people amazing asked her , she replied_lost by love once not mmy "HAYA"….. Allahuakbar❤️ pic.twitter.com/Wqe8jfz2qY
— Wani Amir (@wamir033) October 13, 2021
Wahid, the youngest son was consoled by his mother when he was looking towards his destroyed house in a military operation in Shopian’s Tulran village on 12 oct 2021
Wahid, youngest son was consoled by his mother when he was looking towards his destroyed house in a military operation in Shopian’s Tulran village on 12 oct 2021#Kashmir pic.twitter.com/6RTBIOwbGj
— syed owias (@Syedowias0) October 13, 2021
The 1990s saw the greatest turbulence and massacres in Kashmir triggered on 4 January 1990, when a Srinagar-based newspaper Aftab released a message, threatening all Hindus to leave Kashmir immediately, sourcing it to the militant organization Hizbul Mujahideen. On 14 April 1990, another Srinagar-based newspaper named Al-safa republished the same warning. The newspaper did not claim ownership of the statement and subsequently issued a clarification. Walls were pasted with posters with threatening messages to all Kashmiris to strictly follow Islamic rules which included abidance by the Islamic dress code, a prohibition on alcohol, cinemas, and video parlors, and strict restrictions on women.
Unknown masked men with Kalashnikovs forced people to reset their time to Pakistan Standard Time. Offices buildings, shops, and establishments were colored green as a sign of Islamic rule. Shops, factories, temples, and homes of Kashmiri Hindus were burned or destroyed. Threatening posters were posted on the doors of Hindus asking them to leave Kashmir immediately.
During the middle of the night of 18 and 19 January, a blackout took place in the Kashmir Valley where electricity was cut except in mosques, which broadcast divisive and inflammatory messages, asking for a purge of Kashmiri Hindus.
On 21 January 1990, two days after Jagmohan took over as governor, the Gawkadal massacre took place in Srinagar, in which the Indian security forces had opened fire on protesters, leading to the death of at least 50 people, and likely over 100. These events led to chaos. Lawlessness took over the valley and the crowd with slogans and guns started roaming around the streets. News of violent incidents kept coming and many of the Hindus who survived the night saved their lives by traveling out of the valley.
On 25 January 1990, the Rawalpora shooting incident took place, wherein four Indian Air Force personnel, Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna, Corporal D.B. Singh, Corporal Uday Shankar, and Airman Azad Ahmad were killed and 10 other IAF personal were injured, while they were waiting at Rawalpora bus stand for their vehicle to pick them up in the morning. All together around 40 rounds were fired by the terrorists, apparently from 2 to 3 automatic weapons and one semi-automatic pistol. The Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police post located nearby, with 7 armed constables and one head constable, did not react. Such was the ascendancy enjoyed by the terrorists. Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), with its leader Yasin Malik, in particular, were allegedly involved in the killings. Incidents like these further expedited the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir.
On 29 April 1990, Sarwanand Kaul Premi, a veteran Kashmiri poet was gruesomely murdered. Several intelligence operatives were assassinated, over the course of January.
On 2 February 1990, Satish Tikoo, a young Hindu social worker was murdered near his own house in Habba Kadal, Srinagar.
On 13 February 1990, Lassa Kaul, Station Director of Srinagar Doordarshan, was shot dead.
On June 4, 1990, Girija Tickoo, a Kashmiri Hindu teacher was gang-raped by terrorists, who ripped her abdomen and chopped her body into two pieces with a saw machine while she was still alive.
In December 1992, Hriday Nath Wanchoo, a trade union leader and human rights activist, was murdered with Kashmir separatist Ashiq Hussain Faktoo being convicted for the murder.
Many Kashmiri Pandit women were kidnapped, raped and murdered, throughout the time of the exodus.
Outcome: The militancy in Kashmir had escalated after the exodus and more so after the Abrogation of Article 370.
Kashmiri Hindus continue to fight for their return to the valley and many of them live as refugees. The exiled community had hoped to return after the situation improved. Most have not done so because the situation in the Valley remains unstable and they fear a risk to their lives. Most of them lost their properties after the exodus and many are unable to go back and sell them.
The Indian Government has tried to rehabilitate the Hindus and the separatists have also invited the Hindus back to Kashmir. Tahir, the commander of a separatist Islamist group, ensured full protection to the Kashmiri Hindus.
Burhan Wani welcomed the Kashmiri Hindus to return and promised to guard them. He also promised a safe Amarnath Yatra. Kashmiri Hindus residing in the Valley also mourned Burhan Wani’s death. Burhan Wani’s self-styled successor in the Hizbul Mujahideen, Zakir Rashid Bhat, also asked the Kashmiri Hindus to return and ensured their protection.
During the 2016 Kashmir unrest, transit camps housing Kashmir Hindus in Kashmir were attacked by mobs. About 200–300 Kashmiri Hindu employees fled the transit camps in Kashmir during the nighttime on 12 July due to the attacks by protesters on the camps and held protests against the government for attacks on their camp and demanded that all Kashmiri Hindus employees in Kashmir valley be evacuated immediately.
Over 1300 government employees belonging to the community had fled the region during the unrest. Posters threatening the Hindus to leave Kashmir or be killed were also put up near transit camps in Pulwama allegedly by the militant organization Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Sanjay Tickoo, president of Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), says that the ‘Article 370’ affair is different from the issue of exodus of Kashmiri Hindus and both should be dealt with separately. He remarks that linking both the affairs is an “utterly insensitive way to deal with a highly sensitive and emotive issue”
As of 2016, a total of 1,800 Kashmiri Hindu youths have returned to the Valley since the announcing of Rs. 1,168-crore package in 2008 by the UPA government. R.K. Bhat, president of Youth All India Kashmiri Samaj criticized the package to be a mere eyewash and claimed that most of the youths were living in cramped prefabricated sheds or in rented accommodation. He also said that 4,000 vacancies have been lying vacant since 2010 and alleged that the BJP government was repeating the same rhetoric and was not serious about helping them. In an interview with NDTV on 19 January, Farooq Abdullah created a debate when he stated that the onus was on Kashmiri Hindus to come back themselves and nobody would beg them to do so. His comments were met with disagreement and criticism by Kashmiri Hindu authors Neeru Kaul, Siddhartha Gigoo, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, and Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd.). He also said that during his tenure as Chief Minister in 1996, he had asked them to return but they refused to do so. He reiterated his comments on 23 January and said that the time had come for them to return.
Village Defence Committees were set up in 1995 to protect Hindus from attacks in remote areas. Following the murder of a Kashmiri Hindu Sarpanch Ajay Pandita Bharti in June 2020, former Jammu and Kashmir police chief had said Shesh Paul Vaid that minority Hindus could be armed and Village Defence Committees could be set up with proper planning. Following the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, by August 2021, nine properties of Kashmiri Hindus who had fled the state were restored to them. In September 2021 a portal was launched for migrants including Kashmiri Hindus to address property-related grievances stemming from the exodus.
Certain actions trigger reactions and today, most Kashmiris are living in despair amid fear, uncertainty, shootouts where many innocent Kashmiris have been killed, and also the fresh exodus of Kashmiris pandits in the recent killing spree. Other Kashmiris are leaving due to unstable conditions and tourism closing down in the economically battered Kashmir.
Recently when Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and former Supreme Court justice Arun Kumar Mishra on Tuesday heaped praises on Union home minister Amit Shah for his “untiring efforts” that he said had ushered in a “new era” of peace and law and order in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, I had to pinch myself to see if I was reading right!
No, there is no new era of peace in Kashmir but slayings, shootings, crippled tourism the main source of Kashmiri income, and a collapsed economy, shattered lives, fear, mistrust, hatred eroding in smoky bitter hearts, and the Government needs to dialogue with the Kashmiris and not keep declaring Day when it is Night. Denial is more dangerous than facing the truth and will bring people to a state of shock and mental breakdown. Bad history must never repeat itself and we must learn from its mistakes.
The question still rises in people’s minds that as the Uttar Pradesh elections are nearing, there is turbulence in the nation and the Hindu Muslims tensions are surging. It appears that this violence is politically motivated and, in fact, during elections, the poor Hindus become soft targets so as to allegedly win votes. During elections, Hindus Khatre Mein Hain, sadly.
UPDATE: Just as I finished writing this article, I got to learn that two more nonlocals were killed, another injured in Srinagar, on Sunday, October 17th, and another critically injured in a militant attack in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district Sunday evening where the firing took place at Wanpoh area of Kulgam. “Terrorists fired indiscriminately upon #NonLocal laborers at Wanpoh area of #Kulgam. In this #terror incident, 02 non-locals were killed and 01 injured. Police & SFs cordoned off the area,” a police tweet said. The identity of the slain could not be established immediately. The incident took place a day after two nonlocals were killed in Srinagar and Pulwama. This month, 11 civilians have been killed by terrorists.