Trigger Warning: Mentions of sexual violence, brutalities
“Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,
Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast.”
(If there is a heaven on earth, it’s here, it’s here.)
The beauty of Kashmir continues to give meaning to Amir Khusro’s famous lines.
Kashmir – the crown of India, the land of incredible beauty. Lying between the great Himalayan Range and Pir Pranjal mountain range, Kashmir is inevitably a place of simplicity and pristine natural beauty. Kashmir is sketched with a distinct culture that keeps you fascinated throughout your journey, from Srinagar to Sonamarg and Gulmarg to Pahalgam.
But some 32 years ago, this beautiful moon got a black mark. 3,00,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes and migrate. When the whole Kashmir was reverberating with the slogans of “Azadi” and “Pakistan Zindabad,” the governments were merely suppressing the screams of Kashmiri Pandits.
Women were raped, robbed and thrashed out of their residences. It was the midnight of 19th Jan when power was shut down in the valley, and Kashmiri pandits’ men were threatened to evacuate the valley leaving their women behind. They were given two options: either convert to Islam or die.
More than three lakh pandits vacated the valley. Covered faces of men with AK-47s were wandering freely on the roads, and people were applauding them. They shot Kashmiri pandits and Indian security forces to death. Shops, factories, temples and homes of Hindus were burned and eroded.
Kashmiri pandits became refugees in their home state, and their property encroached. A man was killed by a drilling machine to his forehead only because of a tilak. A woman was brutally assaulted for four days, and a glass jar was injected into her genitals.
A woman was bound to eat rice soaked with her husband’s blood. They were not only killed by a terrorist from Pakistan but also by their childhood friends and neighbours.
Have you ever thought about why we don’t know much about what happened there? So many of us are to blame. No media coverage, no outcry from the public, even the Indian Government had failed, and the list goes on and on.
To date, their genocide is not recognised. But yes, after movies like “Shikara” and recently released “The Kashmiri Files” and books like “Our Moon Has Blood Clots” by Rahul Pandita will make people rethink and encounter the harsh reality which was hidden for years.