The recent months have been an emotional roller coaster ride for the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) community. The Kashmir Files (TKF) movie reopened a million wounds inflicted on every KP soul by Islamic terrorists in their bid to wipe Hindus out of Kashmir.
Following the stellar success of the much-awaited movie and the unprecedented manner in which it galvanised the whole nation, an unabated offensive was unleashed by the Hinduphobic pseudo-secular lobby against the makers of TKF and all those who supported it, the political and the apolitical class alike.
Consequently, even while celebrating the brave attempt of an audacious filmmaker to awaken India like never before about the horrors of ethnic cleansing that the Pandit community has faced, KPs had to wage a parallel battle against the lobby to ensure that the impact and the glory of TKF were not compromised because of the latter’s false propaganda against it.
If all this wasn’t overwhelming enough, a pattern of targeted Kashmiri Pandit killings, which started with the cold-blooded murder of a KP employee, Rahul Bhat, inside his office in Budgam by terrorists on May 12, has served as a grim reminder that Hindus continue to be slaughtered in Kashmir even in this new era of hope and change.
image source : theweek.in
Following the gruesome killing of Rahul Bhat, a series of similar bloody episodes have surfaced in Kashmir in the last month and a half. From the gunning down of the 36-year-old Kashmiri Pandit teacher Rajni Bala in her school premises in Kulgam on May 31 to another broad daylight murder in Kulgam just two days later of a bank employee named Vijay Kumar from Rajasthan, Hindus are being targeted left, right and centre in the valley by the Islamist forces.
Terror outfits issuing open threat letters against Kashmiri Pandits, warning them to flee the valley yet again or face death, is atrociously reminiscent of the ugly scenes of the late 80s and the early 90s when KPs were forced to leave their native land in order to save their lives.
On the other hand, among those in Kashmir who are not being spared either are Kashmiri Muslims whose loyalties lie with the Indian union, Muslims who dare to transcend the hardline Islamic codes and even the poor non-muslim migrant labourers. The brutal killings of the 35-year-old TV artist Amreen Bhat in Budgam and constable Reyaz Ahmad Thokar in Pulwama earlier in May affirm that the radicals are going all out in their extermination spree to create a toxic atmosphere of mayhem and trepidation in Kashmir.
The fact of the matter is that the targeting of Kashmiri Pandits and nationalists of all faiths in the valley is a vicious attempt by terrorists to assert that the situation on the ground continues to remain hostile even in the post-Article 370 revocation era.
Truth be told, following the portrayal of the unadulterated truth surrounding the genocide of Kashmir Pandits, and the subsequently forced exodus of the community from their homeland, in The Kashmir Files movie, some sort of a backlash against Hindus in Kashmir was always on the cards. Nevertheless, it would be unideal to argue that things worsening so rapidly amid a spike in the targeted killings of Hindus in recent weeks was the most general anticipation among the masses.
As a result, however, the Government of India (GOI) has been at the receiving end of widespread criticism from Kashmiri Pandits. Given how dangerously things stand at the moment, the clamour for relocation of KP employees placed in Kashmir under the Prime Minister’s employment package to Jammu is absolutely justified.
image source : kashmirreader.com
The J&K government’s approval last week of a scheme for promotions of those KPs cuts no ice with the fear-stricken Pandit employees who would settle for nothing less than having their posts sent to a safer zone like Jammu. It has become imperative for both the UT and the central administrations to come to grips with the actuality that the swift unfolding of the chaos has led to certain non-negotiables for the KP employees, not working out of Kashmir whilst clouds of terror hover over them currently being the most important of those non-negotiables.
Need for a strong counteraction
Clearly, the Modi government has its work cut out. It begins with an immediate acceptance of the reality that the security apparatus (or the lack of it) put in place for KP employees in Kashmir has largely failed in ensuring their safety. Hence, the need of the hour is for the government to take a comprehensive relook into its strategy and come up expeditiously with a fresh blueprint to stop the bloodshed of Kashmiri Hindus. In this regard, it is promising that the Union Home Minster Amit Shah has already set the ball rolling but one can only imagine that there are dozens of loopholes to be plugged.
image source : hindustannewshub.com
Under the present circumstances, therefore, the idea of resettlement of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the valley seems nothing more than wishful thinking. Let’s face it, if a handful of KP employees working in Kashmir under the supervision of the Jammu & Kashmir UT administration and the central government are not safe, it would be naive to assume that the GOI is anywhere close to having succeeded in creating an environment of peace, security and stability in the region for the honourable return of the Pandit community as a whole.
By giving Pakistan a bloody nose in its own backyard in 2016 and scrapping Article 370 in 2019 to eliminate the absurd law that questioned J&K’s complete integration with the rest of India, the Modi government scripted some glorious chapters in India’s fight against Pakistan-sponsored terror and the anti-India separatist forces in Kashmir.
These unparalleled events skyrocketed the faith of the Indian people, especially the Kashmiri Pandits, in PM Modi’s leadership and the BJP as the saviours of India’s nationalistic pride and the salvagers of the honour of Kashmiri Pandits.
Unfortunately, the abrupt rise in the acts of terror against KPs of late has somewhat dented their confidence in the Modi government’s overall scheme of things vis-a-vis Kashmir and Kashmir Pandits. The only way to reverse this situation and restore the faith is by giving a befitting reply to the terror machinery that aims to sweep away any trace of Pandits in the valley and by delivering a stern message to Kashmir’s political class with separatist leanings which continue to purse its brazen agenda even in the midst of this turmoil.
