After the simmering of Anantnag riots in 1986, the aboriginal community of Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits, were subjected to an unprecedented genocide with the community members subjected to targeted, torturous, and inhumane murders from 1989 onwards. The intentions of the majority community of the valley was made loud and clear through their acts as well as announcements (through print media, loudspeakers in mosques, slogans in rallies, and so on), where they openly declared their intent to ensure Kashmir is an Islamic state with complete implementation of Sharia, and no other religious community to be tolerated there. Under this aim, they ensured the seventh exodus of the Hindus of Kashmir!
From late 1989 onwards, the Hindus of Kashmir had to flee their own homeland and become refugees in their own country! The scenes of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits reaching the camp sitesin Udhampur, Jammu, Delhi, etc are heart wrenching. These people had to run away from their homes in dead of the night, with no clarity on their destination, and no avenues and plan for their stay. In those days, they lived in large halls (like the Geeta Bhawan, Jammu) with curtains giving each family a 6 ft by 6ft space. They lived in tents in the camp sites like Purkhoo, Mutthi, etc. They even lived in cow sheds and stables! The people from the cold lands of northern India who used to own multi-storey houses in Kashmir, were suddenly struggling in the extreme heat of plains of India. Thousands perished to the sweltering heat, snake and scorpion bites, depression, and so on.
It has been over three decades of the community being internally displaced and living as refugees in their own country. The community has taken a firm resolve to ensure they won't forget the genocide unleashed on them! They won't forgive the perpetrators of this genocide! They will ensure they will return to their homeland on their own terms and will ensure they will not have to face the same fate ever again in future! This is the seventh time in last seven hundred years that the community has been forced out of their homeland. This time in a modern, democratic, and secular dispensation. The community has taken a vow that this will be Satim te Patimexodus (Seventh, but last). To ensure the community never forgets what they have endured, and never lowers its guards to be subjected to the same genocide yet again, Youth 4 Panun Kashmir organizes an annual program -Nishkasan Ka Dard(Pain of exile). The program has a three-fold agenda:
- 1. Remember and re-live the pain
- 2. Celebrate the resilience
- 3. Re-affirm the resolve
Read More