Part II: Chapter 10

DESTRUCTION AND DESECRATION OF TEMPLES

With the transformation of political power in Kashmir 1339 A.D. the temples and cultural symbols of Hindu style came under severe Muslim onslaught. The Muslim rulers steeped in Islamic orientation with commitments to the forcible expansion of Islam desecrated, plundered and despoiled the temples and shrines manifesting the character of Hindu faith and thought. As amply supported by historical evidences Kashmir with its protracted history dating back to antiquity has been a Buddhist, Vaishnavite and Shaivite seat and as such has witnessed amazing levels of cultural growth and flowering with their visible imprint on viharas, caityas and temples dotting every inch of Kashmir soil. As has been the common practice with Muslims a concerted campaign of bigotry was generated with the state apparatus in the lead role to defile and destroy temples and other cultural expressions of Hindus fascistically declaring them as un-Islamic thereby sealing any intellectual effort to probe their aesthetics and cultural value. The destructive campaign as a result of religious Repossessions and paranoia has continued with no relent with a priori objective of dismantling and annihilating a cultural ethos suffused with the ingredients of tolerance, assimilation and wider vision of understanding. With narrow perspectives in view and hate syndrome as a motivating factor no efforts have been spared to scatter the bacilli of iconoclasm to establish Muslim cultural domination coupled with obscurantism giving rise to an ethos antithetical to the ideals of harmony, coexistence and peace.

It will be in the fitness of things to put that the total history of Muslims in Kashmir spans over a period of six hundred years and it has been a period of crusade chasing the twin objectives of conversion and inconoclasm which are two faces of the same operation. Jonraj as an historian of eminence was a witness to the forcible conversion of the Hindus of Kashmir and the desecration and demolition of the Hindu temples and cultural signs and symbols akin to the faith. The iconoclastic character of Islam was well within the range of his observation and experience when he with the bold flourish of his pen dilated on the desecration and destruction of Hindu temples wrought by Muslims who in obedience to their religious promptings flashed the naked weapon of force to expand the Islamic base with a view to earning the promised religious compensation. Jehad or holy war has been the instrument to desecrate and level massive stone structures of temples and to convert the Hindus to the faith of Islam. The Sayyids, the Chaks, the Mughals and the Afghans harnessed and pressed into service their political power and authority to realise the conversion and with a view to achieving the objective it became imperative to decimate and obliterate the colossal religious and cultural symbols of Hindus especially their temples and shrines.

The first bacilli of iconoclasm were sown the day when the Muslim rulers under obligation to a fiat issued by a proselytizer masquerading as a Sufi resorted to the tyrannical measure of stopping the Hindus from fresh constructions of temples and shrines for idol-worship and disallowing them to execute repairs to the existing ones lying in a state of collapse and ruin.50 Startling records were set in the destruction of temples and other symbols of Hindu culture. The materials from the destructed temples were looted and wantonly utilised to build mosques and hospices and in most of the cases plinths were not ravaged but kept intact and mosques built and imposed on the temple sites. The Muslim iconoclasm did not spare the sculptural treasures amazingly creative and superb in conception and execution and reflective of an intolerant culture model it Divas pursued with religious zeal to hasten Islamisation with a view to reducing Kashmir to a Muslim ghetto.

Art connoisseurs throughout the world will feel shocked to learn that gun power as a hardware of war was harnessed by Muslims to destruct and despoil the temples which religion and art wise are the churches of the Hindus. When destruction could not be achieved through the blasting material, the Jungles in the proximity of the temples were felled to use them as fuel for setting the gigantic structures ablaze. The tremendous heat generated through the burning of logs of wood split the chiselled stones and set them violently asunder with the result the massive structures fell and crumbled in a pile of ruins. The brutality was not inflicted on one temple but was heaped without an exception on the giant temples studding the gem of the valley. The ruins of Martand, Avantipur, Tapar, Parihaspur, et al are mute witnesses to the depredations and ravages wrought by Muslims.

The Muslim iconoclasts, ignorant, puerile and pervert, harboured no sense of guilt when they destroyed the sparkling specimens of Kashmirian architecture signalling a new apogee through a blend of indigenous style with the Greek and Roman styles. The lofty pyramidal roofs were dismantled. The trefoiled doorways covered by pyramidal pediments were broken with hammers. Colonnades fashioned after the Greek model were removed. The said-materials were either sadistically destroyed or used in mosques where their artistic loftiness and grandeur were lost. The losses thus rendered to the mosaic of world culture were colossal and incredible.

The Temple of Martand built on a plateau amidst cnthralling natural ambience is a unique marvel in stone symbolising through its distinctive style a celebrated classical order comparable to the architectural orders that have flowered as mile-stones during the whole course of evolution. Shocking as it is the same stone temple, solid and enduring, was put to the orgy of devastation through gun power and when sufficient quantities of it were not readily available, its foundations were dug deep and chiselled and skilfully carved stones removed filling the gaping wounds with logs of wood and putting them afire. Prior to the destructive process huge hammers were cruelly used for one full year to destroy and vandalise its wealth of masterly sculptural works of immense artistic merit and value. The same destruction was wrought Oil the massive stone temple at Bijbehara which was famed as the city of temples. It was pillaged and destroyed and its well carved - out stones with engraved figurines of gods and goddesses of Hindu pantheon were utilised for the construction of a hospice which is not a patch on the original temple. The temples were so massive in size and dimension that it was difficult to believe that they could be the handiwork of human endeavour.

Remarks Sir Walter Lawrence, "While the old Hindu buildings defy time and weather, the Musahnan shrines and mosques crumble away. Other foreign travellers have recorded that Hindu temples were built to endure for all time. Their solidity of construction and their gigantic size strike one with wonder that puny men could have built them. They often gazed upon them with amazement and lamented bigoted Muslim fanatics who laid them to ruins with tremendous effort."

The temples at Tapar (Pratap-pur) that were built by the queen of a Hindu ruler, Pratapaditya, were amazing marvels of Hindu architecture. The ruthless Muslims destroyed them with vengefulness and are novel in a dilapidated condition. What is astonishing that a Muslim ruler, Zain-ul-Abidin (1420-70) A.D. who withdrew the despicable levies on Pandits and re-settled them in Kashmir after they were forcibly expelled from Kashmir thus earning kudos for his exemplary tolerance, utilised the huge temple stones and Hindu idols to build a bund from Naidkhai to Sopore. If figurative meaning of his visit to Sharda, a centre of Hindu pilgrimage now in Pakistan, is drawn from what Jonraj writes about it, it can be averred that he was responsible for the desecration, breakage and destruction of the wooden idol of ancient origins at the highly revered place of worship.

The Mughal emperors who were enamoured of the beauty of Kashmir valley have been extolled for their tolerant credentials, but on the basis of available authentic evidences it can be said that they were the same fanatic in matters of dismantling and devastating the religious places of Hindus. It is surprising to learn that Jehangir in his religious fury dismantled the flight of steps linking the Temple of Shankaracharya to the river Jehlum near the Temple of goddess Tripursundary. Nurjohan as his celebrated queen utilised the same chiselled and sculptured stones to erect a massive mosque known as Pathar Masjid. The Muslims never used the mosque for prayers not for the fact that it was built with looted materials from a temple but because it was constructed at the instance of a woman who was a Shia-Muslim by faith and creed. The same mosque was declared as property of the state by the Sikh commander, Phula Singh, on the genuine plea that it was built with the materials dismantled and looted from a temple. The Muslims raised a hue and cry as the mosque continued to be locked in Dogra times and it was under a British conspiracy that the mosque was returned to the Muslims who trumpeted its occupation by the state as a great symbol of tyranny.

The Narparistan Temple built by a Hindu ruler was forcibly occupied and turned into a Muslim shrine by the installation of a grave (to sanctify the grab) in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The Kashmiri Pandits not taking the brutality lying down locked horms with the Muslim rebids and recovered its possession from the unlawful occupants. But Muslims mobilised their ranks, screamed Jehad to grab it away from the Pandits and installed a new grave to maintain and fortify the forcible occupation. The famous temple at Skand Bhawan at the head of a spring was desecrated and the spring of oozing waters blocked by hurling of huge stones and boulders and re-christened as the shrine of Pir Mohammad Basur. The Dedamar Temple was also levellcd and demolished and was forcibly converted into the Tomb of Malik Sahib. The temples at Amrita Bhawan were laid waste and the site was occupied and converted into shrines and burial grounds.

It was Praversena II, the founder of the city of Srinagar, who had constructed a country residence for a reputed Hindu saint on the north-eastern corner of the legal Lake Bernier who accompanied Aurangzeb in his visit to Kashmir has exposed the iconoclastic activities of Shah Jehan, a famous Mughal emperor. In his travelogue Bernier records that the doors and pillars carved out of stone that were used in the Shalimar garden built on the same area of villa were looted from some temples which were demolished by Shan Jehan. And Bernier comments that their artistic grandeur and value was beyond estimate.

The famous Temple of Shiva Pravareshwar was de,nolished and with its looted materials was built the shrine of Baha-ud-Din Sahib.60 The grave-yard that surrounds the shrine is a repository of many ancient remains that have been used in walls and tombs. The ruins of a gate-way lying at one corner of the grave-yard are still existing and the stone blocks of which the gate-way is built are of exceptional dimensions. As the Muslims have no strong tradition in erecting shrines with stone blocks, it is authenticity held that they are the materials of Shiva Pravareshwar Temple.

The Jamia Mosque situated in the vicinity of the shrine of Baha-ud-Din is surrounded by numerous temple stones and massive pillars lending strong credence to the belief that it was built on the site of a Vishnu temple which was worshipped and adored by Kashmiri Pandits. It has been the site of a Buddhist Vihara as well which must have stood close by it. The Buddhists from the region of Ladakh still bow at the site with a deep sense of veneration.

The temple of Vishnu Ranaswamin which as per the noted historian Kalhana was erected by Ranaditya was subjected to the Muslim fury of desecration and destruction and ultimately suffered the orgy of its conversion into the shrine of Pir Haji Mohammad. The Muslim shrines situated at Zakura (Juskapur) are built out of the materials from temples that were destructed. Again the shrine of Farrukzad Sahib is constructed at the site where there stood a massive temple dedicated to Amareshwar, and contains the remains of the destructed shards of temple. There were temples built on an inlet of Anchar Lake which were demolished and their looted materials utilised in the construction of tombs and shrines. The shrine of Khawaja Khizar is built with the ruins looted from a temple.

The temple of Vishnu-Padamaswamin of considerable fame at Pampore was plundered and levelled and its delicately chiselled columns and ornamented slabs were utilised in the erection of the shrine of Mir Mohammad Hamadani and other Muslim shrines standing in the same locality.

The ancient site of Parihaspur on the plateau of Paraspur was vandalised and destroyed by the Muslim vandals. As is historically established the site was littered over with Hindu temples and Buddhist Viharas and caityas. The places of worship consecrated to gods and goddesses of Hindu and Buddhist religions were built by the great conqueror Lalitaditya who is also credited with the completion of the Martand Temple of considerable repute. The same saga of destruction is connected with the temples and shrines dotting the Hariparbat Hillock which were demolished grabbed and converted into shrines and mosques.

The temple grab and destruction as the rallying point of Muslim Jehad failed to abate in its tidal wave even under the rule of the Dogras who professed Hhldu faith and belief. The Islamic forces having a distinct narrow and communal stream continued their onslaught on temples and Hindu-style cultural symbols. Brute force was let loose to forcibly occupy the temple at Sahyar in the capital city of Srinagar. Blatant attempts were made to grab the Bhairav Nath Temple at Chattabal but in face of Kashmiri Pandit resistance the Muslim Communal forces had to beat a temporary retreat. The bigoted elements in the police force came down heavy on the Pandits who were vigorously vociferous in their demand for handing over the Laleeshwari Temple back to them as it was unlawfully grabbed and occupied by the Muslims. The Glancy commission constituted by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1931 unjustifiably rejected the Pandit demand for the restoration of the possession of Hariparbat and Shankaracharya Hillocks to the Kashmiri Pandits on the flimsy and untenable ground of the consistence of some graves on their foot-hills. The Buddhist sites with established historical background were not returned to the care the possession of Pandits who had to be punished for their anti-British stances and sentiments.

The momentous event of Jammu and Kashmir acceding to the Union of India in 1947 did not bring spectacular cheer and relief to the native Kashmiri Pandits. Instead a new storm of destruction gathered for them leaving them bereft and beleaguered. As hapless victims to a tyrannical order the state governments of all political hues vigorously worked out the single-point programme of marginalising and edging them out of their natural habitat for ethnic cleansing. Besides political and economic oppression and elimination they had to face governments under tight leash of the Muslims who contrived aided and abetted the bigoted arts of laying claims to the temples and their properties. The temple lands cremation grounds and holy springs reinforced by relevant documents as properties of Pandits faced immediate onslaught and were first held in dispute by resorting to tampering of records and other fraudulent methods and subsequently usurped by whipping up religious frenzy with a view to expanding Islam and its reigning sway. In 1978 various SROs issued by the government not only fortified and strengthened the Muslim Auqaf Act but also Fated the Muslims to grab the temple lands without check and constraint for their transmission to Muslim Trusts. Not fewer than 70 temples and lands attached with them were cruelly confiscated from the possession of the Pandits who proffered their claims supported by relevant revenue records but were arbitrarily dismissed and rejected. The temples of historical importance were aggressed and huge portions from them sliced away to be offered to the Muslims as booty in a platter. The Spot of Vethavothur as the source of Vitasta worshipped by the Kashmiri Pandits as manifestation of Siva's grace was pushed into a dispute and encroached upon through generation of mass frenzy. Lok Bhawan with its mention in Rajtarangini was turned into a hot spot by grabbing the lands attached with the Temple from hoary ages. The holy spring at Anantnag was wantonly aggressed and huge chunks of land attached with it were fascistically sliced away for transfer to the Muslims. Lands measuring 55 kanals belonging to the Durganath Temple as the precious property were straightaway grabbed only to beef up the landed wealth of the Muslim Auqaf Trust. The lands attached with the Hariparbat Hillock were never offered protection by various governments from the concerted Muslim onslaught and were subsequently grabbed and confiscated from the helpless Pandits. The path for Parikrama around the Hillock which is central to the theme of Kashmir's birth and its cultural history was dug out and the earth carried to fill the Muslim Auqaf lands.

The Dewan Shiva Temple of Fateh Kadal has borne infinite scars stabbed on it by noisy mobs of Muslim intolerants. Its outer walls facing the road-side have been felled and damaged umpteen times. Whenever there is a volcanic eruption of violence mostly on superficial grounds, the said temple emerges as the prime target of desecration, demolition and arson. On 26th of January 1989 the minority community of Kashmiri Pandits was held in a total grip of fear and panic when a thousand strong mob of Muslims wielding weapons desecrated and damaged the Dewan Shiva Temple. The strong door of the temple refused to give way and the Muslim mob indulging in vandalism removed the idols in the open worship enclosure quite adjacent to the main temple and hurled them into the running gutter. All attempts were made to put the temple on fire. The government playing its tune to the unison of Muslim storm-troopers had advance information about threat to peace on this day, but no arrangements, stiff or lenient, were made to provide protection to the minority community and its culture symbols. The attack on the temple was led and organised by the pro-Pakistan cadres of people's League, Kashmir Liberation Front, Muslim Students Federation and Islamic Students League thriving under tremendous patronage from the government headed by Farooq Abdullah and his cohorts.

The Hanuman Temple at Hari Singh Street, Srinagar attracting large crowds of Hindu, for worship has been subjected to the worst forms of desecration and plunder at the hands of Muslim marauders. It is not once but numberless times that the presiding idols in the temple have been desecrated, lifted and hurled into the Jehlum at the shores of which the temple is situate. The latest brand of violence inflicted on the temple was when the Muslims and the Sikhs forging an alliance at the behest of two secessionist leaders, one from the Punjab and the other from Kashmir, organised a massive procession against the Kashmiri Pandits. Starting from the Gurudwara in Lal Chowk, Srinagar the procession was immediately joined by the Muslims as per the pre-meditated plans and crossing the old Amira Kadal Bridge it ran amok and desecrated, looted and plundered the Hanuman Temple. Replicating the history of vandalism the main idol visas plucked out from the sanctum sanctorum and thrown despicably into the flowing waters of the Jehlum. The procession yelling "Muslims and Sikhs are brothers. Where from have Pandits come? " forged ahead towards Hazuri Bagh and put the Arya Samaj Mandir to flames. And ultimately the Muslims and the Sikhs in a joint operation burnt down the Nirankari Bhawan. Be it put that the Nirankaris are bete noire of the Sikhs.

The Temple at Ganpatyar in Srinagar consecrated to the god Ganpati with its history embedded in the misty past has a woeful saga to relate as it has suffered scares of defilement and demolition at the hands of so-called rational nationalists and sinister communal elements day in and day out. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a result of the eratic political rivalries in Pakistan was brutally hanged and Muslims of Srinagar with a deep streak of pathology in their collective personality lost their shirt and pelted stones at the Ganpatyar Temple as a tactic to keep the Pandits on tenterhooks. The Arabs lost a war to the Jews and with a view to boosting the morale of the fleeing soldiers the Muslims took out a massive procession yelling out trenchant anti-Jew slogans. While passing by the side of the said emple standing calm and tranquil, they ran berserk, pelted the temple, damaged its gates and walls with all the Islamic vigour. Desecration to some pages of the Muslim Holy Book manipulated by some political miscreants to arouse public wrath sparked off demonstrations massive in size and scale, and the Ganpatyar Temple fell a victim to the Muslim fury. Farooq Abdullah won an election and his Muslim supporters frantically celebrating his victory by flaunting V-signs pelted the entire Hindu habitation including the temple.

The Muslim marauders, violent and highly aggressive, supporting the agitation that was unleashed at the behest of Srinagar Bar Association in thick contacts with the powers that be burnt the entire shopping complex of the Somvar Temple of Habbakadal. The shop-keepers suffered enormous losses and also lost their source of livelihood. The government of Farooq Abdullah discernibly in cahoots with the swelling tide of Muslim insurgency did not bat an eye-lid at their plight as the victims involved were all Kashmiri Pandits who had been scored off its slate of policy and planning to meet the ends of ethnic cleansing. A reign of terror was let loose against the Bandit community. Their houses were set ablaze. The temple at Sathu Barbarshah was torched. The Pandits protested, demonstrated and clamoured for security and pleaded for justice, butt all in vain. A mammoth public meeting of Kashmiri Pandits held within the temple precincts to lodge a protest against the outrage was stoned by the Muslim rabids. Scores of protectors were injured and the police posse failed to act. All the Kashmiri Pandit fora sensing the holocaust that was in store for them forged a joint front to fight the government discrimination and apathy towards the community. Peaceful protests were organised, dharnas held and representations shot. But nothing concrete could emerge.

In its editorial date-lined 20th Nov. 1987 the Martand as the official organ of the Kashmiri Pandit ethno-religious minority has recorded, "The community had not fully recovered from the shock of Shri A.K.Ganjoo at Sathu Barbarshah on Tuesday, the 10th of November, when we had to suffer the burning of minority shops in Habbakadal and a temple at Barbarshah on Tuesday the 17th of November, in the wake of the second day of the bandh sponsored by the Srinagar Bar Association. The terror and vandalism let loose on Tuesday resulting in the total destruction of property worth lakhs of rupees and burning of one temple at Sathu Barbarshah speaks well of the organisation and tenancity of mischievous elements trying to stir up communal tension in the valley. The violent mobs who held the city as hostage for the whole day were ably supported by police indifference and apathy. These mobs were so to say freely allowed to damage and destroy whatever came their way. It appeared that the entire civil administration was not only drowsy and inactive but in total disrepair.

We have often referred to the tact that whenever leaders of various political parties are at loggerheads with one another or whenever they have to cover up their inadequacies or incompetence they find it convenient to turn to this tiny minority and make them scapegoats for their own misdeeds. We are constrained to say that the system which surrounds us is totally rigged against the minority community.

We cannot be happy at the frequent eruption of violence in the state and the minority is the main victim in majority of cases whenever such violence breaks out. We have often cited concrete instances of loot murder burning of property of the minority community and of governments inability to bring the culprits to book in such instances.

We are not certain whether we should call the attitude of the government towards the agitation sponsored by the Srinagar Bar Association as political amateurism or sheer complicity. During the ten days of the Srinagar Bar's boycott of courts in support of the government s Barber Move order of October 7, the state government never cared to issue an appeal to the Srinagar bar to call off their boycott.

The captain crews of Pro-Pakistan forces operating under a religious veneer never relented in their unmitigated campaign to capture and devastate the temples and shrines with their origins in the ancient past of Kashmir. The sacred shrine of Muran in Pulwama fell victim to the Muslim bigotry and three sacred springs of this historical shrine of ancient origins were filled with stones and boulders and captured and occupied with maximum support from broad sections of Muslim populace. The government of the day already in the lap of fundamentalist forces did not bother to act and respond though protests were lodged and petitions submitted.

Swami Nandlalji as a spiritualist of great standing with acceptability among large sections of Muslims had established an ashram (hermitage) at Tikar in north of Kashmir. The Muslim storm-troopers burnt it to ashes with absolute vengeance. The total assets of the hermitage were lost in the devastating fire. The law-enforcing agencies allowed law to be torn to tatters and shreds. The arsonists with established records in loot, murder and arson were never chased captured and put on trial.

The loot plunder and destruction of temples and shrines was not the handiwork of thieves and burglars but as borne out by irrefutable facts had the connivance and complicity of various brands of politicals chasing the secessionist agenda which seemed to have state sponsorship and patronage. A gangster was caught red-handed witl1 incendiary material on his person at the highly venerated shrine of Chakreshwar on the Hariparbat Hillock. The police posse mounting vigil on the shrine did not report the incident to the relevant quarters. On getting the wind of it the devotees at the shrine raised hue and cry contacted the government authorities and impressed on them the dire necessity of curbing the looters and arsonists. However some arrests were made though reluctantly and persons involved were charged with theft burglary and violation of Arms Act. It came as a rude shock to the Kashmiri Pandits when politicals strained their every nerve to secure their sate release. The vandals were none other than the Muslim youth operating under political patronage to undermine communal peace and amity with a view to expelling the Pandits from their native land. It is pertinent to put that the Al-Jehad activists pledged to the mission of destruction of Pandits and their properties were the front-rank workers of National conference with its dominant membership from the Plebiscite fronters.

The Muslim rabids in their relentless and untiring campaign for the grab of the Hindu shrines suddenly generated Muslim frenzy for constructing a mosque on the strip of land that legally belonged to the Papaharan shrine. The government authorities were contacted and apprised of the sinister plans of the Muslim fanatics who harbour least respect for law of the land. They perhaps had given them go-ahead signals became apparent when the rabids were not stopped in their tracks of building a mosque on the land-area attached with the shrine and encroachment, already made, was not cleared. The Superintendent of Police and Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Anantnag who were forced through the intervention of a Hindu Minister to arrive on the trouble-spot were shown and given the copies of the revenue records relevant to the case thereby debunking the Muslim claims. Being Muslims of the treacherous stock they declared to the Muslims that revenue records had neither relevance nor sanctity. Such a declaration on part of the two government officers expected to be fair and equitous boosted the morale of the law-breakers who conceived and coined every coercive measure to stop the Pandits from fencing the land area with the result that it was left open to trespass and grab. A land area of 15 kanals and 10 marlas as was buttressed and reinforced by revenue records was attached with the shrines

The Additional Secretary of Farooq Abdullah said to be a pimp or a tout was found feting, wining and dining in the company of a Muslim girl in a particular house at Anantnag. The Muslims got the wind of it and felt extremely enraged. Their wrath should have visited on the persons involved in lechery, but in their rabid hate they targeted a temple which was desecrated, pillaged and looted. Its glass-panes were pelted and broken. The photographs of gods and goddesses worshipped by Kashmir Pandits were destructed in Islamic fashion. The assets of the temple were looted as booty. The formality of contacting the police was carefully observed and as usual no notice was taken of the acts of vandalism indulged in by the vicious Muslim elements. Prior to this vandalism the Nandkeshwar shrine at Wanpoh was desecrated and plundered and a temple at Danois village in Kulagam Tehsil was ransacked and looted in similar fashion.

The Martand date-lined 26th July, 1985 carried an article by P.N. Bhat who had observed, "Kashmiri Pandit community stand on cross-road of historic with all evil forces poised against it. Not a single day passes without report from some village, town or mohalla in the city regarding an assault here or theft of an idol there. Land grab of the community has become the order of the day. During the last three months historical holly shrines of Kashmiri Pandits in Vetesta verinag, Tehsil Guru, Siligam Shivala, a shrine in Tehsil Pahalgam and Lok Bhawan in Duru Tehsil have been desecrated. There is a planned conspiracy to harass this unfortunate community by patronised anti-social elements who have, it seems, earned the anticipatory clemency of ruling parties since 1947. It has been established beyond any shadow of doubt that in this orgailised assault, be it Vetesta, Siligam, Lok Bhawan or Tral, all the political parties, Jammaat-i-Islami, National Conference (F), National Conference (K) and Congress (I) join hands and have not even a word of condemnation against these encroachments, abuses and attacks on the members of the minority community. It is a matter of police and intelligence record that all important leaders of National Conference (F) and Congress (I) have given their tacit approval and active support to these lawless lizards for belabouring the minority community at Siligam and Lok Bhawan. The local administration is directed on telephone not to execute the warrants against the known miscreants and pressure is mounted on them to exact concessions from the minority community. This community is being asked to surrender even what is left behind by the encroachers at the point of gun."

Gautam Nag associated with the highly revered name of Gautam Rishi has been sacred to the Kashmiri Pandits and other Hindus who take a dip in its holy waters before they resume their march to the cave of Amar Nath in the mountainous region. Motivated by the same hate syndrome Qazi Nissar, the Mirwaiz of South Kashmir, with deep pledges to the Muslim secessionist politics based on sheer bigotry operating under the protective wings of Mufti Mohammed Sayyid, the then Congress Chief, added a new chapter to the Islamisation campaign and communal tension which he ably and tenaciously orchestrated and heightened by issuance of Friday calls to capture Gautam Nag shrine. He rose like a meteor in the skies of communal politics in Kashmir when he himself cut a ram on a day sacred to the Hindus and issued Friday calls to the Muslims purporting to aggress the Hindu shrine for grab and occupation. Not only did he coin a new etymology of Gautam Nag but also concocted a story that a Muslim saint, a neo-convert to Islam, used to sit at the site for peace and rest. The Muslim Auqaf declaring that all Muslim properties were under its protective care and management had no impact on Qazi Nissar who through his rude deportment and fanatic rabble-rousing came to be seen as the pale version of Sikandar, the iconoclast.

Qazi Nissar said to have risen from rags to riches went on giving Friday calls to the Muslims to fortify their ranks for aggression on the shrine. The process continued with no relent with a view to keeping the communal cauldron on non-stop simmer. On every Friday call as could be observed droves of Muslims got collected in unprecedented numbers, fretting and fuming, bespattering and inveighing, ready on a nod to maraud, plunder and capture the shrine. To deter the Pandits from building a response they were reviled and humiliated and their residential quarters were pelted and they were subjected to physical assaults. The government of the day sunk in pathetic negligence and inertia appeared at the fuelling end and had given ample signals that it had a common cause with terrorism. Ultimatclv the Gautam Nag shrine was aggressed, its dharamshallas were burnt to cinders and the Mahant living within the premises of the shrine was cruelly beaten and spat at.

The government under the helmsmanship of Farooq Abdullah declared the shrine as disputed and appointed a petty Assistant Commissioner for adjudication of the title.

The Kashmiri Pandits not only in Anantnag but throughout the length and breath of the valley were deeply anguished and shocked and immediately opened up channels of communication with the government authorities inside and outside the state. The relevant and authoritative records and documents were culled and gleaned and submitted for perusal. Qazi Nissar acting in tandem with the government authorities did not relent in his vicious campaign for adding momentum to communal discord and tension, strife and disorder. The lawless elements under patronage of the political class were in the process of proliferating their base on ground for hiving Kashmir from the political organisation of India.

The Anantnag Prabandhak Committee in its emergency session on 21st of February 1989 was unequivocal and forthright in its condemnation of the wave of commtulalism unleashed by Qazi Nissar and rejected his utterances about the Gautam Nag shrine as false and spurious. The committee also resolved to apprise the Chief Minister of the state and the Central govermnent about the strengthening of communal forces as a result of thinning of securalist ranks. The deluge of resolutions passed and issued out by the Kashmiri Pandit organizations and tore expressed their explicit intent to contact the Sadhu Samaj at Allahabad that is committed in word and deed to the safe-guarding of Hindu interests all over the country.

The communal politics with its pointed thrust against the molecular minority of Pandits was highlighted by the Martand, date-lined 24th of March, 1989 under the caption "will Qazi Nissar-Farooq Abdullah collusion set Kashmir ablaze"? The government was openly charged with a conspiratorial nexus with the monsters of rabid hate who were doggedly working to the nefarious end of disseminating inter-community hatred and disaffection. The mullahs of varied brands that were imported into Kashmir Acre preaching Jehad for the achievement of political objectifies with their sharp thrust against Kashmiri Pandits. The armed battle between the Iranian Hajis and the Saudi security forces and the explosion at Faizabad ammunition dump provided grist to the mill of Muslim violence against the religious enemies. The communal propaganda that Was politically motivated and officially regulated was invested with vigour and stridency to realise the goal of denuding Kashmir of Hindu culture symbols with the implicit underpinning that Kashmir had ceased to be a cup of tea for the Pandits.

The Muslim onslaught on temples and Hindu culture symbols touched a new water-mark in the wake of Muslim terrorism sweeping the valley. Heinous crimes were committed in grabbing, desecrating, demolishing and setting ablaze the Hindu places of worship. Alarm bells were tolled when hundreds of temples and shrines in the district of Anantnag were razed to the ground, their properties looted and pillaged. Despite the disinformation campaigns launched by B.G. Vergese and Harvinder Baweja through the columns of "India Today" the fact remains that the Muslin insurgency holding aloft the banner of Muslim Jehad against the miniscule minority of Pandits has destructed and plundered temples and shrines of historical importance with a view to exterminating infidelity from the soil of Kashmir. There is hardly a village or a town where temples and shrines have not been destructed, desecrated and demolished. Some temples desecrated and damaged in Kashmir from 1990 onwards are under:

1. Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar

The temple in the Akara has been a chronic eye-sore to the Muslim fanatics. There was a park laid out within its premises. There were dharamshallas for the sadhus and hermits for their short sojourn and a residence for the mahant who looks after the entire shopping-cum-office complex. It has not been attacked once but has a history of attacks at the hands of Muslim rabids. Dashnami Akhara is the place where-from the pilgrimage for Amar Nath starts every year with religious rites and zeal. The same Akhara was put to flames by the frenzied Muslim mobs causing tremendous damage and destruction to the temple and the material properties attached with it. The Akhara is managed by the Dharmarth Trust which perhaps did not deem it apt to lodge a protest with the government authorities on the desecration and damage of the temple.

2. Ganpatyar Temple

Ganpatyar Temple has been the butt of attache whenever Muslims in their volcanic fury erupt on streets to show down jews, to mourn the death of Zia-ul-Haq, to burn the copies of Satanic verses written by a Muslim or to show down India if her team has defeated Pakistan. With the launch of Muslim terrorism the said-temple has been bombed umpteen times and subjected to rocket attacks t. twice to say the least.

3. Shiva Temple, Jawahir Nagar, Srinagar

The property of the temple that was stuffed in the dharamshalla was brought out alongwith some idols of the temple. Some utility items were looted as usual and other items considered inconsequential were put on fire. The idols were hurled away in absolute disrespect and contumely.

4. Raghu Nath Mandir, Anantnag

It was put to bomb blasts at least nine times. The same has been confirmed by the Mahant of the temple.

5. Gautam Nag Temple, Anantnag

The temple having two storeys was burnt to ashes even though the Homeguards were placed on duty there to save it from the Muslim marauders. A plethora of Sanskrit menu scripts in Sharda script were lost in the devastating fire. The orchard attached with the temple was mercilessly felled.

6. Three temples of Lok Bhawan, Anantnag

The temples had suffered Muslim wrath in 1986. The then governor, Jagmohan, had got them repaired. They were again put to an orgy of fire in the wake of terrorist avalanche menacing the valley. The dharamshalla was burnt. The temples were damaged and destructed.

7. Shailputri Temple, Baramulla

The temple has been completely burnt. The main idol of the Shailputri riding on an ox was attacked and its arms and legs axed. The whole complex is devastated. The walls surrounding the area have been damaged. The idol of Shailputri in its mutilated form is in the protective custody of B.S.F. personnel. The propaganda launched from various media agencies about the execution of repairs to the devasted temple complex with the aid of locals has been only a lie among many lies told about the secular polity of Kashmir lying in a shambles.

8. Wanpoh Mandir, Anantnag

The temple was repaired and face-lifted after it suffered desecration and demolition in 1986 as a result of Muslim bigotry. The Muslim marauders have again publicly desecrated it on 21st of February, 1992.

9. Bhairavnath Mandir, Baramulla

It was desecrated and damaged in 1990. The scars inflicted on the temple can be visibly seen.

10. Rupabhawani Mandir, Vaskura

The temple consecrated to the saint poetess, Rupabhawani, was subjected to the worst brand of desecration. The idols inside the temple have been removed and utility goods as part of assets of the temple have been looted by the Muslim looters. Night soil was littered over the steps of tile temple not once but ten times in the beginning of the calendar year of 1990. Some Pandits staying back in the hamlet despite their status of hostages strongly protested against the desecration of the revered temple. They were terrorised and mercilessly beaten. One of them was said to have cried," If the steps of a mosque were littered over with night-soil, you would have risen in revolt, cried that Islam was in danger and roasted Pandits alive."

11. Bhairav Nath Temple, Sopore

The temple was desecrated and damaged. The idols were broken and looted. The doors and windows of the temple have been looted and the walls around the temple levelled and the materials looted by the Islamic looters.

12. Khirbhawani Mandir, Ganderbal

The origins of the temple can be traced to epic times. It was subjected to a rocket attack on 4th April 1991 in which outer gate of the temple was severely damaged. It was again subjected to an attack on 4th of May, 1991. The outer structures still bear the bullet scars. According to B.G. Verghese the temple attracted attacks because of the presence of security forces guarding the temple. But he had not a word to say about hundreds of temples which were desecrated, damaged and destroyed by the Muslims and had no security forces to mount vigil on them.

13. Mattan Temple, Anantnag

A Muslim mob yelling in extreme fury and indignation entered the sacred premises of the temple and said Namaz and declared to the world that it was a Muslim shrine.

14. Gautam Nag Hermitage

The state administration replaced the CRPF personnel guarding the hermitage by the local armed police personnel who visibly harboured hate for the shrine and the Mahant looking after its management affairs. The Muslims targetted the hermitage and burnt most of the construction within its premises on 19th of Ocotber, 1990. The Mahant, Sukh Ram, had personally met the Home Minister who despite his promises to defend the shrine allowed the Muslim bigotry to take a toll of the sacred site of the Hindus.

15. Vilagam

There were three temples at Vilagam All the three are desecrated by the Muslim marauders. Walls enclosing the temples have been dismantled and materials looted. Idols have been either broken or removed.

16. Shoolara

The temple has been desecrated. The original idol has been removed from the sanctum sanctorum.

17. Gushi

The structure of the temple is standing, but there is no idol which has been broken or stolen by the Muslim bigots.

18. Kaloosa

The temple has been desecrated and its main idol broken or stolen.

19. Sadamalun

It is a hermitage with lots of land attached with it which are said to have been grabbed by the Muslims. The mahant was hacked to pieces.

20. Pattan ruins

The temples at Pattan which were ravaged and destroyed by the infamous Sikandar, the iconoclast, have been further devastated by the modern-day iconoclasts. That is how the ruins have dwarfed. The huge slabs that were still standing giving it the look of temples belonging to the hoary past have been removed and broken into heaps of pebbles.

21. Kanimoja Gantamulla

The huge stone held in great reverence at Gantamulla has been broken with hammers. Its half is missing and half is still standing. There were three hooves of the sacred cow at the same place and Kashmiri Pandits would throng the place on a particular day and date to have their "darshan". One hoof has been maliciously destroyed.

22. Hanumat Kund, Kupwara

The Hanumat Kund at the place of Halmatpora was a spring of oozing waters. It was held in reverence even by Muslims. Gujjar Muslims are said to have desecrated the spring by offering it meat and since then it is said to have dried up and it has now been filled up with stones and boulders.

23. Raja Ram Mountains

These mountains lie between Tangadar and Teetwal. The idol of Ram has been desecrated, broken or looted.

24. Khoj Bagh Temple, Baramulla

It was a Shiva Temple and has been burnt.

25. Hanjivera Temple, Pattan, Baramulla

The Samadhi of an unknown saint within the temple premises has been demolished.

26. Venkara Temple, Baramulla

It has been burnt.

27. Palhalan Temple Baramulla

It stands burnt to ashes.

28. Bhairav Nath Temple, Baramulla

It had 10 kanals of land attached with it. It is burnt.

29. Ragnya Temple, Zainpora, Kulagam

The temple suffered the Muslim wrath when Mast Gul and his local Muslim collaborators burnt the chrar mausoleumof Nund Rishi. It was a temple after the pattern of Khsirbhawani Temple at Tulamulla. It was desecrated, looted and destroyed by the Muslim Vandals.

30. Brari-Angan Shrine, Anantnag

It has been a centre of pilgrimage for the Kashmiri Pandits since ages. It had an ancient temple made of wood with dhooni (holy fire) burning perennially. Even the Afghan tyrants could not put it out. But the modern day frenzied Muslims have desecrated and decimated the whole complex with impunity. Swami Swayamanand had built a new complex at the site after the pattern of Khsirbhawani Temple. The Dharmashallas with three storeys each have not been spared either. The assets of the temple have been looted by the Muslim vandals.

31. Kulavaghishwari Temple, Kulagam

It is located within the heart of the town. Its origins lie in the Mother Goddess worship tradition. It was looted, desecrated and burnt. Its fencing is removed and looted. Two Dharmshallas within the temple premises have been burnt.

32. Temples, Hanand Chawalgam

The Shiva Temple standing by the side of Boys High School was looted and burnt. The Ganesh Temple within the same premises was enclosed by a brick-wall which has been demolished and materials looted. The G.I.E. sheets covering the structures have been dismantled and looted. The whole area is ravaged and destroyed.

33. Manzgam Temple

It was a temple consecrated to the goddess Ragnya. The idol in the pond is desecrated and looted. The Dharamshalla with two storeys is completely gutted. The G.I.E. sheets are looted. The Dharmashalla was so capacious that it could accommodate 5,000 pilgrims at a time. The walnut trees and poplars growing within the tracts of land measuring 100 kanals have been felled and looted. Small wooden chowkies and huts have also been looted and burnt.

34. Temples, Mirhama

The Shiva Temple standing by the road-side is burnt. Another temple built by the Dogra Rajputs has also been set ablaze.

35. Temples Arrh

The temple standing opposite to the Boys High Schools, Arrh is burnt to ashes. Another Shiva Temple standing in the midst of the habitation has met the same fate. The foundations of another temple had been laid. The plinth that was laid out has been dug out and materials looted by the Islamic looters.

36. Temple Batsargam

It was a replica of the Kulavaghishwari Temple of Kulagam. The wall around the temple has been dismantled and materials looted. G.I.E. sheets are also looted. The two storeyed Dharamshalla is burnt and destroyed. Chinars and walnut trees growing within the temple lands measuring 9-1/2 kanals have been felled and looted. The assets of the temple are also looted. The Muslim government of Krishna Rao proved shameless bysanctioning an ex-gratia grant of Rs. 3000/- which has been refused outright in view of the enormous losses suffered by the Kashmiri Pandits.

37. Katyayani Temple, Kulagam

It has been totally razed to the ground. The icons of Shiva Parvati and Katyayani have been desecrated and broken into pieces. Dharmashalla is burnt. Materials of the temple are looted as booty. The fencing around the temple area measuring three kanals has been removed and destroyed.

38. Vaishakhi Temple, Kharbrari, Kulgam

It has a spring with ancient Shiva Lingas studding its sides. The trees and poplars growing within the temple have been felled and looted. The wall around the temple has been dismantled.

39. Temple, Bugam, Kulagam

It is completely burnt. Its shiva and Ganesh idols have been desecrated and destroyed. It is standing on the Maw Kuliya, a part of Vishoka (veshaw).

40. Temple, Dhanav, Bogund, Kulagam

It was the seat of Muslim loot of 1986. The temple which was looted and destroyed in 1986 was repaired and now has again been looted and burnt by the same brand of Muslim destroyers.

41. Temple, Wanpoh, Anatnag

The two Shiva Temples on the Nandi Kulya have been burnt and destroyed. They were destroyed in 1986 loot as well.

42. Temple, Ashmuji, Kulagam

The temple with an area of 3 kanals has been burnt.

43. Temple, Divasar

It is an ancient temple site. It is burnt and its assets have been looted by the insatiable looters.

44. Temple, Khanbarni, Kulagam

The temple owes its origins to ancient past. Its area spawns over 1-1/2 kilometres up into the forests. It is a replica of Khsirbhawani temple. It has been burnt to ashes. The pine trees considered sacred and worshipped have been felled and burnt. It is essentially known as the seat of Mother Goddess Tripursundary.

45. Nari Bharan Temple, Shopian

It was a small temple built after the tradition that \vas set by the Hindu rulers. The Muslims could not but burn it too.

46. Thakur Dwar Temple Shopian

It was standing on the shores of river Rambiara. It was built by Rajputs with lots of investment. The Muslim arsonists burnt it with vengeance. A Dharmashalla for pilgrims was also burnt by sprinkling kerosene over it.

47. Kapalmochan Temple, Shopian

The Linga in the temple is desecrated and broken into pieces. The Dharamshalla meant for pilgrims has been burnt to ashes.

48. Kakren Temple

It was the biggest temple in the area built by a Dogra. It has 10 kanals of land attached with it. The temple is burnt and lands are encroached upon. The assets of the temple have been looted by Islamic looters. The Shiva and Parvati idols are broken and desecrated.

49. Temple, Mahnoor, Badgam

It was desecrated and burnt.

50. Temple, Yechakoot, Badgam

It was a temple consecrated to the goddess Sharika. It was burnt alongwith chinars in and around the temple area.

51. Temple Shoolipora, Badgam

It was looted and burnt.

52. Temple Sangrampora, Badgam

It is the seat of the latest massacre of Kashmiri Pandits. The Shiva Temple within the hamlet was denuded of utensils, druggets and other assets long back. Planks worth 30,000 were looted from the temple premises.

53. Gangajattan, Badgam

The water flowing out at a fixed time and date from a particular spot known as Gangajattan is highly revered by Kashmiri Pandits. Thronging the place in large numbers they would have a purifying bath and take to meditation. It was stopped by the Shia-Muslims as it was fiated un-Islamic and hence as part of infidelity.

54. Shiva Temple, Rainawari, Srinagar

The Islamic marauders have dug the temple from inside and Linga is hurled out into the rubble. Paintings on walls have been erased and destroyed. The icon of Jagatamba (mother of Universe) on a lion is broken into pieces. Two Dharmshallas are burnt and destroyed. Worship materials are looted. An FIR was lodged which was registered after great prevarication.

55. Ram Koul Temple, Hariparbat

The temple is damaged by Muslim vandals. Walls around the temple are dismantled and materials looted. Dharmashalla is burnt.

56. Ganesh Temple, Hariparbat

It is an ancient temple. Devotees having a parikrama of the Hillock commence their worship from this very temple. It has been desecrated, looted and burnt. The religious literature within the temple has been destroyed. Brutal attempts were made to damage the 'Shila' worshipped in great reverence.

57. Prayag Chinar, Shadipora

The Chinar at Prayag alongwith a small temple is destroyed with vengefulness. The Pandits would immerse the ashes of their dead at this confluence.

58. 7 Temples, Rainawari, Srinagar

All the seven temple in the locality of Rainawari have been desecrated, looted and destroyed. The Dharamshallsas within the temples have been burnt or damaged.

59. Vaital Bhairav, Dal Lake

The Shiva Temple in the premises of vaital Bhairav in the Dal Lake has been surrounded by public latrines built by Muslims who are sheer spiteful boors. The iron fencing of the temple is said to be damaged and removed.

60. Balak Pathshahi Temple, Srinagar

It was a small temple located near Food Control Department, J&K Government. The Idol of Shiva is desecrated and broken. The Srinagar Development Authority is said to have closed the gate of the temple by constructing a wall illegally on that side. The Supervisor appointed by the Dharamarth Trust was warned of dire consequences by the local Muslims if he entered the temple premises for inspection and assessment of losses.

61. Ram Temple, Khankhai Sokta, Safakadal, Srinagar

The idols of Ram and Sita are destroyed. A separate Shiva temple in the same complex has suffered the same fate. The Shiva Lmga is hurled into the Jehlum. The Dharamshalla having two storeys is burnt to cinders.

62. Ropa Bhawani Asthapan, Khankhai Sokta, Srinagar

It is destroyed and burnt. The G.I.E. sheets are looted. The walls around the temple are dismantled and materials looted.

63. Temple, Purushyar, Srinagar

The temple situated on the shores of the Jehlum was ravaged and desecrated. The Dharamshalla was put afire by the Muslim arsonists.

64. Katleshwar Temple, Srinagar

There are no idols in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The doors and windows of the temple are removed and looted. The walls of the temple have been scratched and razed. Shiva Linga thrown out of the temple is damaged. Chain is hanging and bell has been looted. All types of slang and obscenities are scribbled over the damaged walls of the temple. Dharamshalla is razed to the ground. Pandit houses around the temple premises are burnt and destroyed.

65. Raghu Nath Temple, Fateh Kadal, Srinagar

The structure of the temple has been pulled down. The idols studding the parikrama are missing. The idols of Ram, Sita and Hanuman are missing from the temple. Chain is hanging, but bell has been looted by the frenzied looters. The inner walls of the sanctum sanctorum are scratched. All sorts of dirt including shit is littered over the temple premises. All sorts of obscenities with genitals as the main theme are scribbled over the temple walls with charcoal. While going to the river-side there was a temple structure which has been destroyed. Steps leading to the main temple have been dug out.

The team of Kashmiri Pandits who paid a visit to the temple in the wake of the Sangrampora massacre was shocked to find obscenities of the worst brand scribbled over the temple walls.

66. Swami Gopi Nath Ashram, Kharyar, Srinagar

The main gate of the ashram has been levelled. The dirt and rubble littered over the compound of the ashram is thrown inside it by the secular Muslims. The temple 'sousing the Ganapati idol has been stoned and damaged. The trunk is chopped off. The mahl ashram is blocked by planks of wood after putting it to a bout of loot.

67. Temple, Payar

It is a piece of monument marking a specific development in the Hindu architecture. The same temple has been desecrated. The Muslim boors have built huge public latrines around it thus polluting the environs of the temple. The temple stones engraved with the figurines of Hindu deities are used as doorsteps to denigrate the Hindu faith.

68. Temples, Malmoh, Badgam

The temples situated on the Nallah Ferozpore have been looted. The walls around them are demolished. Trees standing in their midst have been felled and looted. The icon of Ganapati in the temple of Bhagishwar Bhairav was broken allegedly by one Mohammad Ashraf S/o Abdul Aziz who was never caught and tried for the heinous crime.

69. Temple, Shalla Kadal, Kanikadal, Srinagar

The temple built by the family of Tickoos has been occupied by a Muslim and is said to have turned it into his residence. He has painted the whole temple structure green and has hurled the Shiva idol into a gutter.

70. Pokhribal Temple, Kathidarwaza, Srinagar

It is situated on the shores of the Nageen Lake. It has been savagely looted and plundered. The musical instruments within the Dharamshallas have been looted. The utensils, pots, pans and cups worth lakhs of rupees have been removed from the temple premises by the Islamic crusaders. The Sikhs inhabiting the neighbourhood of the temple could not save the temple from the vandals.