25 Years of Exile of Kashmiri Pandit : What happened on January 19, 1990 ?

[doppelganger]

Frankly speaking - part of the reconciliation and moving on can be by moving on and forgetting ' bad memories '

Reconciliation will only come with repatriation.

There can be no reconciliation with the culprits sitting in the homes and squatting on the lands of the victims.

 

[CONNAN]

Those who stayed back faced guns from both sides: Kashmiri Pandits recall horror

Kashmiri Pandit families, who were rehabilitated at Budgam district after years of migration, protests against poor facilities and threaten to migrate again with their belongings. Waseem Andrabi/ HT File Photo

Vijay Sas was 14 when his father, an employee with the Jammu and Kashmir judiciary, vowed not to migrate from the Valley at a time when thousands of Hindus were fleeing their ancestral homes in the face of rising militancy.

While around 60,000 Kashmiri Pandit families escaped the separatist insurgency as the violence peaked in 1989 and 1990, close to 800 households chose to brave the bullets.

Twenty-five years on, the families say they feel safe and have no regrets.

Many believe staying back was a hard choice, harder still was to live with it. (HT File Photo)

“Once my father was picked up by the Al-Umar militant outfit in 1992 with the intention to kill him, but a Muslim lady from the neighbourhood negotiated his release. There were two attempts to harm my father but he withstood them,” said 39-year-old Sas, now a father of two.

The Srinagar resident said he himself faced a threat to his life in 1998 but separatist leader Shakeel Bakshi intervened.

Living in the Nai Sadak area that’s considered the heart of the separatist movement, Sas says he banked on the goodwill of the Muslim neighbourhood instead of the nearby security outpost.

“Neighbours have no religion. They are just neighbours,” said the high court employee.

Staying back in the face of violence was a hard choice but harder still was to live with it, said Sas.

“Unlike other Kashmiri Pandits, those who stayed back faced guns from both sides. For Muslims we were IB agents and for migrant Pandits we were ISI agents,” he said.

Sandeep Kaul’s family never migrated from Srinagar’s Karfali Mohalla area, known as Chhota Pakistan at the peak of militancy.

“My father, Poshkar Nath, worked with the Military Engineering Services. He was brave and despite my uncle’s suggestion that we move, he insisted ‘life or death should happen here’,” said the 29-year-old.

Living with a minuscule population, finding suitable life partners for sons and daughters emerges as a challenge, said Kaul.

“One of my sisters got married at the peak of street protests in 2008. But Muslim neighbours were always there to help,” he said.

Those who stayed back faced guns from both sides: Kashmiri Pandits recall horror

 

[magudi]

Palakkad, I know i have noticed among my Muslims friends. My point is not their influence. This time nobody is going to take it lying down.There will be country wide repercussions.

Athraku confidence veno keralam bharikunathu thanne avara

Anyways hope peace and sanity prevails

 

[Indo-guy]

Reconciliation will only come with repatriation.

There can be no reconciliation with the culprits sitting in the homes and squatting on the lands of the victims.

Reconciliation is a long drawn process . It is not a point measure ...
Repatriation will be one final step of those many steps which need to be taken - not the only step .

How and when - that is a million dollar question !

and when to tried to correct the past - we may not be able to do everything till last detail .

as long as Kashmiri Pandit get to go home ..it should suffice . It won't be possible to get every occupied house vacated ...

 

[doppelganger]

It won't be possible to get every occupied house vacated ...

Why?

 

[FNFAL]

Its a personal shame for me that i actually never felt the need to read up in depth about the plight of kashmiri pundits in all these years. All i knew was they were a displaced population who somehow came to terms with the cruel dikkat passed on them.
Only those who have actually borne the burnt of something similar would come close to understanding the psyche of affected.
Hopefully, my countrymen and women, across reiegions, acknowledge their plight and contribute to a meaningful end/solution.

 

[Indo-guy]

Why?

It is not practicable .

There are hundred thousands of Kashmiri pandits who were displaced ...that too 25 years back .

Do you think it is practical to track down house of each and every one ...and get it vacated from its occupant .

You can't rewrite history like that .

It is also like rebuilding every temple by reclaiming the every occupant masjid ....

you can also ask Why not ?

answer is - it is not practical solution .

We can't go back in time and undo everything ...without compromising our present . Sometimes it is best we to make a new beginning rather than relive the past ...

If Govt can create new secure colony for Kashmiri pandits within Kashmir valley ...it will be far better than try to send them back to their old homes which may not exist today ...

 

[chairborne ranger]

All Sikhs did this? All Sikhs were responsible for the assassination of Indira Gandhi and thus deserved to be butchered in the streets like animals? What did those Sikh victims do except be Sikh by birth?

No refugees huh? What do you call the widow colonies in Delhi?

What good are all these "bleeding hearts" when nothing comes of it? The crimes have still gone unpunished, none of the leaders have been held accountable and are still walking free and we know who they are.

1984 is very close to my heart and any sort of nonsense like you have spoken really will trigger a strong response in my bro, please stop trying to justify your comments. All these situations are sh*tty.

Its a crapshoot.
What happened in 84 wasnt right by ANY stretch of imagination. My own house was used to shelter about 6 families back in the day. We can all agree that the riots were possibly the greatest blot on our democracy. But what I dont ever see mentioned, is all the non sikhs killed in the insurgency.. What i dont see is a sikh condemnation of bhindrawal.

 

[Indo-guy]

.. What i dont see is a sikh condemnation of bhindrawal.

Probably because things are not as black and white as we will would like them to be ...

 

[Black Widow]

After delhi Election over , BJP will form govt with PDP...

The main hinderence is PDP anti Pundit stand. BJP is negotiating on that issue. BJP want to relocate Pundits in Valley. The PDP want pundit to stay with Muslims. BJP want seperate township for Pundits..

PDP is not ready support in that cause.

Once Delhi is won, BJP will twist PDP arm and get it done..

 

[doppelganger]

It is not practicable .

Doing what's right comes before doing whats practicable.

There are hundred thousands of Kashmiri pandits who were displaced ...that too 25 years back .

Do you think it is practical to track down house of each and every one ...and get it vacated from its occupant .

You can't rewrite history like that .

Its 25 years, not 500. Its within the lifetimes of most affected. It will not be easy, but the alternative is to consign those "hundred thousands" of your countrymen to a life of refugees. Telling them they suffered a pogrom, a genocide, that there was nothing we were willing to do then, and there is nothing we are willing to do today.

Sorry, that is not acceptable to me.

It is also like rebuilding every temple by reclaiming the every occupant masjid ....

Then so be it.

you can also ask Why not ?

If you can ask why, I can ask why not.

answer is - it is not practical solution .

See above.

We can't go back in time and undo everything

We can at least try.

...without compromising our present .

We compromised our present by compromising our past.

Sometimes it is best we to make a new beginning rather than relive the past ...

That's a meek scared attitude. A defeatist one.

As always, the bigger crime is not speaking up and standing up against a crime, than the crime itself.

If Govt can create new secure colony for Kashmiri pandits within Kashmir valley ...it will be far better than try to send them back to their old homes which may not exist today ...

Does not matter whether the physical home or dwelling exists. Land records are still held by most displaced pandit families. Use them, even if the friendly neighbors have destroyed all state records in the intervening 25 years.

 

[Indo-guy]

Doing what's right comes before doing whats practicable.



Its 25 years, not 500. Its within the lifetimes of most affected. It will not be easy, but the alternative is to consign those "hundred thousands" of your countrymen to a life of refugees. Telling them they suffered a pogrom, a genocide, that there was nothing we were willing to do then, and there is nothing we are willing to do today.

Sorry, that is not acceptable to me.



Then so be it.



If you can ask why, I can ask why not.



See above.



We can at least try.



We compromised our present by compromising our past.



That's a meek scared attitude. A defeatist one.

As always, the bigger crime is not speaking up and standing up against a crime, than the crime itself.



Does not matter whether the physical home or dwelling exists. Land records are still held by most displaced pandit families. Use them, even if the friendly neighbors have destroyed all state records in the intervening 25 years.

To do what is right ...you need to know what constitutes ' right ' !

and what is right and what is not is not as simple to discern as you think !!!

Most Kashmiri pandits who have actually suffered in the process are actually ok with even the protected colonies or township .
They are not as revisionist as you are .
They are more prudent - Unfortunately our Govts have not been able to grant even those basic demands .

 

[doppelganger]

Most Kashmiri pandits who have actually suffered in the process are actually ok with even the protected colonies or township .
They are not as revisionist as you are .
They are more prudent - Unfortunately our Govts have not been able to grant even those basic demands .

They are a battered and beaten people.

A forgotten and marginalized people.

Did you expect any different?

Give them a choice between living in state secured ghettos on their own land and living on their own ancestral land in peace, security, and dignity, head held high, take a wild guess what each would choose.

You choose to take the easy way out. Because those affected do not demand more.

Because you gave them so little in the first place.

 

[Indo-guy]

They are a battered and beaten people.

A forgotten and marginalized people.

Did you expect any different?

Give them a choice between living in state secured ghettos on their own land and living on their own ancestral land in peace, security, and dignity, head held high, take a wild guess what each would choose.

You choose to take the easy way out. Because those affected do not demand more.

Because you gave them so little in the first place.

We live in an imperfect world !

while we like to idealize and romanticize about justice ... it is practicality which matters at the end of the day .

The security is the prime issue ...and if the separate township is going to add to the sense of security so be it .

Kashmiri pandits have very few choices .

For your information one of my Kashmiri pandit friend is well settled in Bombay . He does not want to go back to Kashmir despite having their ancestral house there...because the opportunities that Bombay provides ..J & K won't .
many such Kashmiri Pandits have been absorbed by the India in the rest of the country ...

Those who still want to go back ...we need to ensure that they will be safe .

We need to accept that we live in less than perfect world ..and we need to adjust to the many constrains placed on us by prevailing time .

 

[doppelganger]

@Indo-guy

You want to accept and go along with an "imperfect world" (I hardly think what happened to the pandits qualifies as just common garden variety "imperfect world" .....).

I am not.

I would rather fight to right an imperfect world. Balls to propriety and political correctness and other such meaningless limitations.