Part II: Chapter 4

KASHMIRI PANDITS - SOFT TARGETS

Thousands of Muslim terrorists owing unflinching loyalty to multiform political and religious organisations including the ruling National Conference were primarily responsible for the introduction of "gun culture" in Kashmir thereby militarising the Muslim ethos already infected of communal canker. Frenzied and wild, they launched upon a systematic campaign for wiping out Kashmiri Pandits to establish an absolute Muslim sway with Islamic destinations in view. The foul statements and venomous and uncalled for comments about the Pandits maliciously etching them on the Muslim mindscape as the agents of India were a precursor to the storm that was imminent to engulf them. The trend was set when they were put to sporadic killings and their properties torched and looted. The government authorities overtaken by communal motivations and prejudices pooh-poohed the stygian and murky developments with the result that the state as per the premeditated design lurched into an abysmal disaster and destruction.

A sadhu clad in saffron living in a temple in north of Kashmir was chopped into pieces with an axe and the sack containing his hacked body was recovered from a ditch. The grue-some killing did not cause an alarm to the deracinated rulers enjoying carnival of power and pelf. Though they were in know of the developments yet dismissed it as a stray case of mysterious murder. The Mahant of the Vicharnag shrine on the outskirts of Srinagar was brutally murdered by a constable in the employ of J&K Government when he dared spurn the offer of conversion to Islam as an alternative to his murder. The powers that be did not pretend to be shaken and were in high voltage jubilation as events were unfolding as per the delineated blue-print. A Pandit lady travelling in a bus in Pulwama was blatantly molested by the Muslim passengers thus pointering to the all-time low dip in Muslim rationality. The incident though highlighted at many a forum did not send shock waves in the ranks of ruling mandarins. A Kashmiri Pandit lady in thirties serving as a staff-nurse in a government hospital was whisked away and stripped stark naked and pushed out on the highway for every passer-by to witness her humiliation and dismaying as it is the incident that did not cause horror to the guardians of law and order. A bullet was shot at a Kashmiri Pandit lady killing her on the spot and in the ensuing whirlwind of confusion most of the Pandit ladies crossing the Habbakadal bridge were ruthlessly mauled and molested. It caused no tremors and law enforcing agencies completely infected and polarised felt no impetus to act to checkmate and blot out the forces that were unleashing brutalities reminiscent of medievalism. A Kashmiri Pandit in budding youth was killed by a Muslim killer in broad daylight and the authorities hush-hushed the whole case and posed the killer as an insane despite his confession that he was paid money to kill any Pandit who came his way. A notorious brigand acting as a muscleman of the powers that be killed a Pandit by forcibly barging into his house and striking his head with a brick and the police prevaricated for long before an FIR could be registered. And the progeny of the person murdered were forced to withdraw the case.

The properties of Kashmiri Pandits were being plundered and set afire and the ruling elite as part of the whole design never moved in the direction of undertaking preemptive measure. A residential house belonging to a Kashmiri Pandit at Saraibal in Kashmir was burnt to ashes and the government appeared sunk in a pathetic state of inactivity. The shop of a Pandit situated on the ever-busy court-road in Srinagar was looted in daylight and the police posse present on the scene disappeared in a jiffy. Most of the Hindu shops in Ganda Singh Building in Srinagar were savagely looted by the Muslim looters and the government authorities were in deep comas All liquor shops belonging to Pandits were brutally looted and the government of the day never bothered to act to rein the frenzied Muslims, thus posing itself as a model of inertia and inaction. The non-Kashmir Hindus who are bonafidestate Subjects and have a history of residence in the valley were suddenly looted by the Muslim marauders on the untenable plea that they are outsiders with no inherent rights to reside and carry on businesses in Kashmir. Yet the government under the strangle-hold of Muslim fanatics did not feel obliged to act with force to disfigure the monster of Muslim intolerance. Strikes were flared and demonstrations held against Darwin as his scientific theory conflicted with the Islamic concept of creation. The government failed to smell the rat. The institutions founded and run by the Kashmiri Pandit minority were put to bomb blasts and cruel flames of fired and the senseless violence that was being perpetrated on the minuscule minority did not invite a vigorous intervention from the government agencies which in reality shared deep commitments to ethnic cleansing. The supine negligence on part of the government coupled with its incredible imperviousness to the sharp and precipitous decline in communal and political scenario was deliberate to allow the proliferation and consolidation of anti-India and anti-minority sentiment and thrust to materialise the ultimate objective of disengaging Kashmir from the Indian union. The terrorists with training in arms and minds stuck in cages were operating with policy, purpose and direction and the National Conference-Congress combine led by Farooq Abdullah had commitments to withdrawal from the scene at an opportune moment leaving the field open for the terrorists to establish their full sway and writ.