Busting the myth of decades about why Kashmir Pandits left Kashmir in 1990.

1. Its our story, that we told
But was never heard
The truth stone walled
With a more convenient
version,
Worst than even losing our
home & dear ones,
Was the denial of the
TRUTH…why did we leave?

2. Background – year 1988
• It was the summer of 1988, my mummy was a teacher in a school
run by the Sanatan Dharm trust, the headmaster was an old
Kashmiri Pandit man. A peculiar thing was being observed in the
school, many boys in the age group of 16-17 yrs were missing from
the school, no response from the families.
• The old headmaster with a deeply worried look told a group of
Hindu teachers one day, ‘The boys have crossed the border for
‘training’ (training in warfare).
• Kashmir, had experienced its periods of turbulence since
independence but Military training of Kashmiri Muslims was a first.
You could sense the change in the air, there was something that
the Muslims were privy to & we were not.
• Two, low intensity bombs rock Srinagar, a first for Kashmir…
• However, Kashmiri Pandits had mastered the art of survival during
centuries of Muslim rule, which was to bury the Head in sand &
repeat, THIS TOO SHALL PASS…

3. Background – year 1989
• By 1989, the air of Kashmir was heavy with the sound of Jihad,
Azadi and JKLF.
• In my own class, we were 5 hindus in a group of 38 kids and I
observed Muslim boys scribbling JKLF, Azadi, on desks, giggling
about it in break time & telling the Hindu children,
‘Kashmir will be liberated soon’ & ‘There will be NO school after
the winter Break’.
• On way to my maternal granny’s house on the left there used to
be a huge gate with a sign, ‘Look a donkey is peeing here’ but one
day I observed, it had been freshly painted & now read, ‘Indian
dogs go back’…
• Ominous signs were everywhere, things were tense throughout
1989, there used to be curfews often, cross firing and people
were generally worried sick if some one did not come home in
time.
• Kashmiri Pandits helplessly watched the deteriorating situation,
hoping against hope that Army will be sent & things will be OK….

4. Creating the FEAR
Armed men entered the house & killed
TikaLal Taploo a Pandit leader on Sept 14,
1989. The first Pandit victim fell to bullets.
His funeral procession was pelted with
stones.
From this point onwards things only went
Downhill & it was clear that Farooq
Abdullah, the CM of Kashmir had NO
CONTROL over the situation! Or worse he
DID NOT CARE.
On Oct 14, 1989 massive crowds gathered in the heart of Srinagar , felicitated by
on-lookers chanting fiery slogans, ‘ What will work here, the rule of Mustafa’ ‘No
Eastern No Western Only Islamia Only Islamia’
An earthquake has occurred in the realm of the infidels (Hindus),
The mujahids have come out to fight

5. Creating the FEAR
On Azad Kashmir Radio,
Benazir Bhutto gives a terribly
provocative Jihadi speech in
1990, which was heard all
over Kashmir
For the Ghazis invoked by Benazir Bhutto, Kashmiri Pandits were Infidels who deserved
to die…
Every village will rise a cry:
AZADI! From every mosque
will rise a cry: AZADI! From
every school, every child will
let out the cry: AZADI,
AZADI,AZADI!
By Oct, 1989, few more prominent Kashmiri Pandits are murdered in cold blood, among
them Retired Judge Neekanth Ganjoo.

6. Creating the FEAR
1989 & Jan 1990 also saw open threat letters being given to
prominent Kashmiris to Quit Kashmir. These would typically
be stuck to their main door. It read thus:
‘We order you to leave Kashmir immediately, otherwise your children will be harmed-
we are not scaring you but this land is only for Muslims, and is the land of Allah. Sikhs
and Hindus cannot stay here. Kashmir Liberation, Zindabad.’
Signalling the implementation, M. L. Bhan of Khonmoh, Srinagar, a government
employee, was killed on Jan 15, 1990.
Baldev Raj Dutta, an operator in Lal chowk, Srinagar, was kidnapped on the same day. His
dead body was found four days later, on Jan 19, 1990, at Nai Sarak, Srinagar.The body
bore tell-tale marks of brutal torture.
On Jan, 04, 1990, a local Urdu newspaper, Aftab, published a
press release issued by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, asking all
Pandits to leave the Valley immediately.

7. The Nightmare of KP’s –19th Jan 1990
There was no one in charge in Kashmir. Farooq
Abdullah had resigned & fled to London.
Administration had collapsed. Curfew had no
effect, mosques exhorted mobs for Jehad &
armed JKLF militants marched on the roads.
That night a whistling sound was heard from the Mosques at night, and the eerie
sound would not stop. Then came the chilling slogans from the Loudspeaker in the
mosques! The war cry before rioting ‘Naara-e-taqbeer, Allah ho Akbar!’
Tens of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims poured into the streets of the Valley,
shouting ‘Death to India’ and Death to Kafirs.! The valley was reverberating with the
war cries of Jehadis.
All male Muslims, including children and the aged, wanted to be seen to be
participating in this Jehad. More sloganeering continued exhorting the hysterical mobs
to embark on Jehad!
What do we want— Freedom! O tyrants, O infidels, leave our Kashmir.

8. The Nightmare of KP’s – 19th Jan 1990
Then came a slogan that sealed our fate, I don’t
know what my father must have felt upon hearing
it…
We want Kashmir with Kashmiri Hindu women but
without their men
Its hard to describe that fear, that feeling of abandonment on that dark cold night,
stranded in our own homes, encircled by rampaging mobs.
My parents expected the crowd to come in any moment now. I & my brother were
asked to put on our shoes on & crouch in a corner. I had turned 13 two days ago, mom
had a kitchen knife hidden in her ‘pheran’…she had a ‘plan’ for us both…if THEY break
in…
Jagmohan had taken charge on that very day, 19th Jan 1990. Pandits had faith in him,
many frantic calls were made to him that night but he was helpless stuck in Jammu
due to bad weather..

9. The Nightmare of KP’s – 19th Jan 1990
Later, we came to know that the mosque sloganeering was not limited to ONE locality
but had been orchestrated THROUGHT Kashmir with precision! Those who had
organized such a show of force in the middle of a cold winter night, had only one
objective; to put the fear of death into the hearts of the already frightened.
The terrible fear invoking strategy of Jehadi’s had worked, early morning of 20th Jan,
1990, some Kashmiri Pandits had packed their essentials….the EXODUS had begun…
Pandits had hoped the army would intervene &
save them from the catastrophe. But no such orders
were given by the Central govt. Pandits were on
their own.
The long night of fear and terror continued and we expected to meet our death
any moment. However, the unexpected happened, we saw the day break & the
Mosques went silent…for a while.

10. The final push for EXILE
Broadcasting vicious Jehadi sermons and
revolutionary songs, interspersed with blood
curdling shouts, threatening Kashmiri
Pandits with dire consequences, became a
ritual after the night of Jan 19th.
During the day long gun trotting processions were taken out with massive crowds
shouting AZADI, AZADI,AZADI. Sometimes Pandits were forced to lead them, idea
being should there be an exchange of fire with CRPF – KP’s become the 1st
victims.
Meanwhile, cold blooded Pandit killings continued. On Jan 25th we were in our
bedroom when we heard a loud roar, I thought a big dipper truck was unloading,
later came to know 4 Air force officers had been gunned down in the lane next to
ours. After that, we never ventured out except to buy food & rations…
On Feb, 13, 1990 another prominent Kashmiri Pandit, Doordarshan Director, Lassa
Kaul was killed. As months passed, rapes of Pandit women & murders were order
of the day.

11. The final push for EXILE
The valley of Kashmir resounded with hysterical mobs
screaming Azadi and, the rule of Islam, armed men were
patrolling the streets…and every day few KP’s killed in cold
blood. Later, that year, a KP teacher was gang-raped & her
body sawed into pieces…some were killed & hung from trees
No one in Delhi, Media, intellectuals or human rights took notice of the utter
helplessness of the 5% MINORITY of Kashmir as we lay literally under SIEGE,
there was a deafening silence , we were persona non grata & left to fend for
ourselves…
So in this hopeless situation after about
a 1000 of brutal cold blooded murders
and rapes; By end of 1990 – 3.5 Lac
KP’s had bid adieu to the land of their
ancestors to save LIFE & HONOR &
became a refugee in their own
country…Kashmir had been
CLEANSED of it s Minorities & no it
was NOT ’coz of JAGMOHAN...

12. Fact Sheet of Atrocities on KP’s

13. References:
Our Moon has blood clots by Rahul Pandita
http://refugees-in-their-own-country.blogspot.in/
http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/kashmiri-pandits-offered-three-
choices-by-radical-islamists/
http://ikashmir.net/history/genocide.html