Displaced Pandits protest, seek dignified return to Kashmir
Over three decades on, wish to return home in Kashmir still remains a distant dream for 3.5 lakh internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits, who staged a vociferous protest outside the United Nations office here on Tuesday.
January 19, 1990 marks the day of mass exodus of 3.5 lakh Hindus, who had to flee Kashmir to save their lives from armed Islamic radicals sponsored by Pakistan.
Thirty-one years, on the KP community, including elderly, young boys and girls, yet again staged a protest outside the UN office here with a hope that the government takes cognisance of their tears, pain, and agony and do something for their dignified return to their homeland.
Holding placards and banners that depicted “genocide unleashed upon the KP community”, the protesters demanded justice and their rights.
One of the protesters, Ashwani Kak, said, “We had great hopes from PM Modi since 2014, but in the past seven years, our hopes have started fading. There is no road map as yet. January 19 night was a nightmare for us. And, see the irony…31 years on, this nationalist community with Tricolour in their hands is still on the roads demanding justice and restoration of their fundamental rights.”
“Our homes, properties and temples in Kashmir are either in a shambles or encroached upon by the majority community,” he added.
Sunaina Kachroo, a Kashmiri Pandit woman said, “Our women were raped and then killed. Our fathers and brothers were killed to terrorise us. Over three decades on, we are still demanding our rights. We want to return to our homes with full dignity and safety.”
The protesters had worn black bands on their arms.
Ashwani Chrungoo, president of Panun Kashmir (PK) — a frontal organisation of the community — said, “We want a law against genocide. Successive governments hitherto have given it a name of migration and tried to form policies for reversing migration, but it is not possible unless a policy to reverse genocide is formed,” he said.
“I feel the Centre has done half the work when it reorganised Jammu and Kashmir state in August 2019. The UT has to be reorganised again. In Valley, the government should create Panun Kashmir for KPs and similarly devise a separate mechanism in Jammu for statehood. While all this has to take place at political level, on policy level, the Centre should bring legislation against genocide, so that it doesn’t happen again anywhere in India,” he added.
Rapes, barbaric killings and mass exodus left a deep scar on the generation and many of Kashmiri Pandits died agonising deaths in dilapidated camps of Jammu, Chrungoo added.