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The strategies
involved in the terrorists' operation against the Hindus in Kashmir
are simple: the extermination of Hindus, that is Subjecting Hindus
to brutal torture, to instil fear among them in order to achieve
their submission. To engineer a forced mass exodus of Hindus from
the land of their ancestors by way of issuing threatening letters,
kidnappings and torture deaths on non-compliance of the terrorists'
dictates and ensure the destruction of the secular and pluralistic
character of Kashmiri Society. Attacks, molestations, kidnappings,
gang rapes of the women folk of the Hindu Pandits to instil fear and
humiliation. Destruction and burning of residential houses of the
Hindus who have been compelled to abandon their homes. Looting of
their properties and appropriation of their business establishments
are undertaken to ensure that they do not return. Attachment of the
ancestral and landed property of Pandits Destruction of the social
and religious institutions of the Hindus by the desecration and
destruction of their places of worship. Appropriation of the
property of the Hindu shrines.
BURNING BOOKS, LOOTING OF CULTURE is also a very important part of
the plan. Kashmir was the crucible of Knowledge, Spirituality, a
hallowed centre of learning and the cradle of Shivaism. Kashmiri
Pandits excelled in philosophy, aesthetics, poetics, sculpture,
architecture, mathematics, astronomy and astrology. Sanskrit was
studied, propagated and spoken by women and men. Scholars and saints
such as Kalhan, Jonraj, Srivar, Abhinavgupta, Somanand, Utpaldev,
Somdev and Kshemendra created here an intellectual centre of
unrivalled repute. Fundamentalism and terrorism have been ruthless
in their assault on "Sharda Peeth", zealous in ravaging its
heritage, and consistent only in bloodthirsty intolerance. The
destruction of Hindu places of worship, forced conversions of
Pandits and death and ignominy to those who resisted, were
accompanied by a savage assault on literary activity. This process
has been going on since centuries.
Commencing 1998, the assault on learning began afresh. How else to
erase 5000 years of civilization? The Jammaat-i-Islami, a
fundamentalist organisation, launched a campaign to ransack
libraries in the educational institutions and flared ban on books
which did not correspond to their ideas about man, world and God.
The Kashmir university funded by the University Grants Commission
and headed by the Governor of the state was denuded of two thousand
books including the works of Milton, G.B. Shaw, Shakespeare, H.G.
Wells and tomes on Hindu Philosophy. Book-shops were looted in broad
daylight at Batamaloo, Srinagar. The library of the Information
Centre run by Government of India was looted and set on fire.
As a correspondent covering India for more than 20 years, I have
witnessed the terrible damage that terrorism in Kashmir has
inflicted upon people’s lives, their family, their culture, the very
fabric of society, not only of the Kashmiri Pandits, but also of the
Muslims of the Valley, who after all, are the victims too of
Pakistan’s bloody designs. Hence, with two journalist friends, we
started a Foundation: FACT – Foundation Against Continuing
Terrorism. The first task of FACT has been to mount an exhibition on
terrorism, focussing on the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits, so that
the people of India, who do not suffer directly from terrorism
understand, what it does to others. This exhibition opened in
Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, on 18th of this month and was
a great success. It was inaugurated by the acting US ambassador,
Robert O Blake, and Mr Bitta, Chairman All India Anti Terrorist
Front. More than 25.000 people visited the exhibition till its
closing day, on 23rd July. Amongst them; L.K. Advani, Deputy PM,
Justice Anand, Chairman National Human Rights Commission, Dr Karan
Singh, MM Joshi… It was covered by most English and Hindi national
newspapers and reported on by Zee News, Star News, Sahara, DD1, ANI,
DD2 and NDTV.
We had also invited Sonia Gandhi, since she has recently emphasized
that Pakistan should stop cross border terrorism and because she had
a (partly) Kashmiri Pandit husband, who was murdered by terrorists.
Unfortunately, Mrs Gandhi declined; and it seems even, according to
“inside” sources, that she advised her people to “keep away from the
exhibition”. Mr Vajpayee, also invited, did not bother to appear,
even after the massacre of the Vaishno Devi pilgrims and the attack
on the army camp in Jammu. It would have been good of him to make a
gesture towards the community of the Kashmiri Pandits, who after all
are Indian citizens and have been criminally wronged.
Thus, we need your support, you the ordinary Indians of India and
abroad, and we invite all of you, whatever your class, caste,
religion, or ethnic origin, to support witness this wonderful
exhibition, a first in the world. It will be next in Bangalore in
August, then on to Mumbai. Later, we would like this exhibition to
travel to the United States, a country which has recently suffered
from terrorism and is leading an unprecedented (and often lonely)
war on global terrorism. The American people should understand what
India has been going through in the last fifty years. Then on to
England, the home of so many Indians, to France, the seat of the
Unesco, and Switzerland, where the UN Human Rights commission sits. |
