Calls for justice for Pandits, Gaw Kadal victims ring in J&K

SRINAGAR: A group of Kashmiri Pandits residing in the Valley said on Monday that they wanted the state government to bring the community back to their homeland again, even as activists demanded justice in another case of alleged violence by security forces 30 years ago.

The Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) said 808 families are still in the Valley, mostly in central and south Kashmir. “Only one Pandit family has fully returned to the Valley in the last three decades,” said Sanjay Tickoo, KPSS chief. Tickoo said that the return of all families to the Valley was difficult.

Sandeep Mawa, chairman of the J&K Reconcilation Front whose family opened a business in Srinagar after decades of migrating from Kashmir, said that things are getting back to normal between the two communities. “Let us forgive and forget.”

Pandits fled the Valley starting January 19, 1990 because of threats, terror attacks, and a deterioration of law-and-order.

Activists also marked the anniversary of the Gaw Kadal massacre of January 21, 1990 when security forces allegedly opened fire at Kashmiri protesters. “Everybody is aware that innocent people were killed in the Gaw Kadal. It was a massacre, but even after three decades family are still waiting for the justice,” said Javeed Ahmad, an author based in Srinagar.

Political analyst Gowhar Geelani said that massacre was one of many such cases. “All massacres are a grim reminder that what has happened in the past can happen again, and why it is impossible to erase memories,” he said.