After the success of the Vivek Agnihotri film, The Kashmir Files, there’s a spontaneous explosion of emotions of people from Jammu to Kanyakumari. This catharsis follows because scores of people had absolutely no idea of the brutality of the Kashmiri Pandit genocide as part of a larger conspiracy.
However, the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 still appears sudden, which it was not. The genocide of a community/race is not about the numbers but the intent of the crimes committed against them. The intention to ethnically cleanse Kashmir of Kashmiri Hindus always existed. If one looks chronologically, the blood-thirsty Jihadis always wanting to purify the Kashmir-Vaadi, hunted the Kafirs out of the valley.
Kashmir, one of the cradles of Hindu Civilization, have been at the receiving end of varying hues from hostile foreign rulers from the early fourteenth century until the reign of Shah Mir in 1819 when Maharaja Ranjit Singh liberated Kashmir. Courtesy of the Sikh-Dogra kings, during 1819-1930, the indigenous folks had a brief respite from the vicious alien.
From the 1930s, Kashmir was again infected by radical Islam, with critical characters like rabble-rouser Abdul Qadir and Sheikh Abdullah, a descendant of a Kashmiri Pandit named Rago Ram Kaul. After the arrest of Abdul Qadir sedition, the first-ever organized violent Islamist Jihad in the recorded history of Kashmir took place on this date, July 13, 1931. The clarion call was:
Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert, leave or perish)!
The mayhem continued for months. Countless Hindus were burnt alive, murdered, maimed, girls and women raped, molested, and even forcibly converted to Islam. Those who refused jumped into well after throwing their kids first. A few Jihadis who died after being challenged by the Police were hailed as martyrs. It’s ironic that in independent India, the J&K State Govt. sanctified those Jihadi terrorists as fallen heroes by commemorating them every year on July 13 as Martyr’s Day.
At the time of independence, the political integration of all Indian territories into India was the most critical objective of Sovereign India.
On August 11 1947, the Maharaja dismissed his Prime Minister Ram Chandra Kak, who had advocated independence for the state. Hari Singh was already tilted towards accession to India, but his only concern was Nehru’s interest in Sheikh Abdullah. Around that time, Pakistanis decided to preempt wresting Kashmir by force. They launched operation ‘Gulmarg.’ Led by Pakistani Army regulars, about 5,000 Jihadi tribes from FATA (today’s Taliban region) attacked the region on October 22, 1947, with the same clarion call:
Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert, leave or perish)!
When Maharaja Hari Singh made a desperate call, Nehru conveyed that Delhi was not in a position to rescue them.
The Muslim officers of State Forces betrayed the Maharaja, killed officers like Col Narayan Singh Sambyal and showed the enemy the way to Kashmir. The Mujahideens made rapid advances into the Baramulla sector, killing 11000 to 14,000 inhabitants – leaving the entire belt – from Bhimber to Mirpur to Kotli and Muzzafarabad to Baramullah annihilating Hindus and Sikhs. They stopped only to loot, burn houses, rape women, and abduct young women. They did not spare even the nuns of hospitals and convents. After throwing their children first, women jumped into the Kishenganga River to save their dignity.
When Sardar Patel tried to retrieve the lost ground in Kashmir due to Nehru’s recklessness, Indian troops were flown to Srinagar and began their swift operations. Within a few days Army recaptured Baramulla and significant parts of J&K. But before Hari Singh signed the ‘Instrument of Accession,’ on Nehru’s firm demand, Sheikh Abdullah was released and made Prime Minister of Jammu & Kashmir.
The transfer of power from British to Indian leaders led to the transfer of power from the Jammu-based Hindu ruler to Kashmir based Islamist leadership. The consequences have been tragic, and the chaos created 70 years ago remains far from being sorted out.
After being caught for his shenanigans, Sheikh was sacked and jailed for 11 years. During this time, Kashmir was relatively peaceful. Later, Nehru felt bad for Sheikh and released him before his death. That’s when a Gilgit-born separatist Amanullah Khan founded Plebiscite Front in 1965, whose armed wing – Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) carried out the hijacking of a Srinagar-Jammu flight in January 1971. But their major terror activities peaked in the 1980s.
The 1971 war had a humiliating impact on Pakistan that their vehemence for Independent Kashmir diminished. Both India and Pakistan also had other significant domestic problems, which pushed Kashmir on the backburner. The attitude of Sheikh Abdullah and other Radical Islamic leaders also changed.
But not that the Islamist Jihadis were silent. During this period, Maqbool Bhat, the first poster boy of Kashmir’s Islamic terror, ambushed police personnel and a local CID Inspector, Amar Chand. After his arrest, local authorities helped him escape to Pakistan. Bhat was also accused of masterminding the hijacking of a Passenger Airline to Lahore.
After the Plebiscite Front was merged with the renewed National Conference in 1975, Sheikh Abdullah returned from the political wilderness. It resulted from a pact (stern warning) with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He then won consecutive elections to remain Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir till his death in September 1982. Things were in better control.
Farooq Abdullah succeeded him as Chief Minister, and his shenanigans with Jihadis began. There were noises of internal quarrels post-June 1983 Assembly elections. In the meanwhile, several attempts were made by terrorists to release Maqbool Bhat through ransom. In 1984, when the JKLF kidnapped an Indian diplomat Ravindra Marathe in Birmingham and killed him, failing the demand for Maqbool’s release, Maqbool Bhat was executed in Tihar within weeks. Indira Gandhi appointed Jagmohan as the Governor of J&K in April 1984. Farooq’s Government fell in July 1984, after his brother-in-law Ghulam Mohammad Shah defected and assumed power with the support of the Congress. Zia-ul-Haq
After Mrs Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi succeeded.
The Islamic Jihad Re-Invented
With the loss of power, Farooq Abdullah playing in the hands of Pakistan instigated an upsurge in the Islamic fundamentalist activities in the valley. Amanullah Khan of JKLF was tasked to trigger an insurgency by the Pakistan Army, which later took official sanction as OPERATION TUPAC (or the Zia plan) by General Zia-ul-Haq. Pakistan-trained militants triggered the mayhem in Srinagar, Baramulla, Pulwama, Bhaderwah and Anantnag – and these urban centres turned into terror hubs. An orgy of riots, looting and arson against Hindus and several temples being burnt and razed to the ground every Friday paved the way for Jagmohan to dismiss Gul Shah’s Govt and impose Governor’s rule, and later President’s rule on September 7 1986.
After the infamous Rajiv-Farooq-Accord – the foundation stone of the ‘MODERN-KASHMIR-CRISIS’ – Farooq was again sworn in as CM in November 1986 in an NC-Congress coalition government.
The 1987 State election is the most-rigged election in India that triggered an alliance called the Muslim United Front MUF. The main force behind the coalition was pro-Pakistan Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani, JKLF head Yasin Malik and Hizbul Mujahideen head Syed Salahuddin, all hardcore terrorists. Funds from across the border generously started flowing to hardliner mosques and clerics to trigger religious passion.
Farooq Abdullah gave the disgruntled MUF leaders greater sympathy in the valley than their actual electoral strength, which helped them further boost Operation-Topac and unleash terror in the Kashmir Valley.
By 1988 mid-June, spontaneous demonstrations were held demanding commitment to Islamicise Kashmir through the imposition of Shariah Law. Three people died in police retaliation when two bomb blasts targeting the TV station and the Central Telegraph Office were engineered. The prestige of Farooq’s Government among Jihadis started suffering. Between July and December 1989, his Government released 70 hardcore Pak-trained terrorists. The Jihadi sentiments acquired a new terrorist character. Posters were pasted on select homes of Kashmiri Hindus, and the mayhem started.
The question here is, could this have been possible without the knowledge of the Rajiv Gandhi led Union Government of 1989?
Governor Jagmohan kept Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi fully apprised of the developing situation was removed on July 11, 1989. Later he exposed Rajiv in an open letter what he had written to Rajiv when he was PM:
It was shocking that PM Rajiv Gandhi failed to take cognizance of such reports and any appropriate action for sheer appeasement politics. The Kashmir Valley was knowingly and systematically handed over to the Jihadi terrorists by the Rajiv-Farooq duo. The open proclamation of ‘Jihad had overtaken the so-called quest for ‘Azadi”.
March 14, 1989: Prabhavati from Budgam district was killed at Hari Singh High Street, Srinagar, J&K.
September 14, 1989: A top-rated lawyer and social and political activist, Tikka Lal Taploo, was put to bullets by the JKLF killers in Habba Kadal, Srinagar.
October 4, 1989: An ex-Sessions Judge Nila Kanth Ganjoo, who emerged as a detestable Kafir when ordered the execution of the dreaded Maqbool Butt, and based on the evidence deposed, that was later also upheld by the Apex Court.
October 31, 1989: Sheela Koul (Tiku), a housewife, was gunned down by JKLF terrorists at Shivapora, Srinagar. When the ambulance failed to arrive, she was carried to the hospital on a folding bed, where she was left unattended.
December 1, 1989: Ajay Kapoor was in his locality where he was showered a volley of bullets in cold blood by the JKLF butchers.
December 27, 1989: 57-year-old prominent lawyer Prem Nath Bhatt of Anantnag returned to his home when the Muslim terrorists pumped bullets straight into his head in full public view.
Rajiv Gandhi lost power at the Centre to his bête noir, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, in December 1989. VP Singh made Farooq Abdullah’s arch-rival Mufti Mohammad Sayeed his home minister.
The militants gained further after the kidnapping of Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya Sayeed on December 8, 1989. In sheer panic, Farooq’s Govt agreed to release five more dreaded imprisoned Jihadi leaders.
The Kashmiri Hindu genocide of January 19, 1990, was only the culminating point of the surrender of governments before the ‘terror regime’ in Kashmir valley.
As the cold, dark night fell, the Kashmiri Hindus were panic-stricken when the valley began reverberating with the war-cries of Islamists, choosing carefully the highly provocative, communal and threatening slogans:
“ओ ज़ालिमों, ओ काफिरों, कश्मीर हमारा छोड़ दो
कश्मीर में अगर रहना है, तो अल्लाह-हु-अकबर कहना होगा
ला शरीक़ा ला घरबिया, इस्लामिया! इस्लामिया!
मुसलामानों जागो! काफिरों, भागो!
इस्लाम हमारा मक़सद है, क़ुरान हमारा दस्तूर है, जेहाद हमारा रास्ता है
कश्मीर बनावों पाकिस्तान, बताव वराइये,बत्नीव सान!!”
Meaning: “O! Merciless, O! Kafirs leave our Kashmir. Anyone wanting to live in Kashmir will have to convert to Islam. From East to West, there will be only Islam. O! Muslims, Arise, O! Kafirs, scoot. Islam is our objective, Quran is our constitution, Jehad is our way! We will turn Kashmir into Pakistan along with Kashmiri Pandit women, but without their men.”
Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims poured into the valley’s streets, screaming from loudspeakers and crowded streets, giving a final push to the Kafirs and stirring the worst nightmares into the lives of Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs. They were once again presented with three choices:
Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert, leave or perish)!
Sensing the inevitable, Farooq Abdullah abdicated his responsibilities as the Chief Minister on January 18, 1990, and ran away to London after presiding over full-blown Jihad. He didn’t even wait for handing over of charge. There was NO GOVERNMENT IN J&K FROM January 18, 1990, to January 22, 1990. Jagmohan, who was appointed the Governor again on January 19 1990, could reach Srinagar only on 22 Jan1990. By then, the jihadis had taken over the valley.
The terrorists systematically eliminated Kashmiri Pandits. The holy war didn’t spare any – the victims, including men, women and children, were subjected to the greatest indignities.
Only a handful of Indian Media reported this genocide, with barely two-three line news that too was carried out somewhere on the 14-15th page. The intelligentsia and over-ground sympathizers of this ‘Jihadi -movement’ kept guiding the militants from behind the scenes spouting lies through their teeth. That the 1990 genocide of the Kashmiri Pandits took place under the watch of Governor Jagmohan is the biggest lie!
All available evidence and witnesses confirm that the National Conference and Congress government in J&K and the Congress government at the Centre (from 1986 to 1989) miserably failed to protect against the Kashmiri Hindu genocide.
The targeted killing of Hindus residing in isolated pockets in the valley never stopped. By December 1990, 300 plus more govt employees, and security personnel, were killed by Jihadi Terrorists. The genocide of Wandhama, Parankote, Dakikote, Chapnari, Doda and Kishtwar, where Hindus were segregated and killed, was part of radical Islamic Jihad, is continuing even today.
The history of Kashmir for the last century and beyond concludes that the militancy and terrorism in the Kashmir valley was never a ‘Freedom Struggle.’ No freedom impinges upon others’ freedom. It was, and it is, out and out an Islamic Jihad and the refusal of democracy to seek Sharia.
It is overwhelming to witness that while expressing their anger against the tragic brutalities, the Kashmiri Pandits have only been stating facts without losing the decorum of language, debate, and discussion.
There won’t be another appropriate time for the Government to establish and institute a “Truth and Accountability” commission that holds everyone who perpetrated and enabled this genocide accountable. It is about time!
