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A crucial question now facing the Jammu and Kashmir administration is the return
to the valley of lakhs of Hindus who were forced to abandon their hearths and
homes in the wake of Pakistan's proxy war in Kashmir in 1989-90.
Caught up in a political crisis, New Delhi has remained blissfully unaware of the
war of nerves that has been going on between the Government of Dr. Farooq Abdullah
and Pandit organisations ever since the Chief Minister announced early last month
that as part of his plan for the return of the migrants, the Kashmir! Hindu
employees would have to go back to Srinagar, failing which they would forfeit
their right to draw salaries against posts held by them in various parts of
Kashmir when Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence campaign began.
The announcement raised a storm of protest not only from migrants' organisations
but also the BJP, their contention being that the Hindus who had suffered the most
in the very first thrust of Islamabad's renewed bid to annex Kashmir were "once
again sought to be exploited to prove the claim of the so-called normality in the
valley".
While there are many who believe that the Chief Minister was sincere in his
declared intent of bringing back the Pandits, the migrants say this plan "is yet
another bid on the part of the powers-that-be to use the hapless Pandit minority
as pawns with absolutely no regard for their safety or economic and political
future."
To demonstrate his sincerity, Dr. Abdullah made an impassioned plea in the
Assembly: "Kashmir is incomplete without the Kashmiri Pandits. There can be no
normality until they are enabled to return to their homes. Who will ring the
temple bells in Kashmir if they are not there?" But, unknown to him, as also to
his opponents in the ramshackle migrant camps, the ISI had already prepared its
plans to thwart any attempt to bring back the Hindu minority to the valley. The
first phase of this plan manifested itself in a Badgam village, where seven
members of a Pandit family were called out and shot dead one night. The massacre
had not only benumbed the local sympathetic Muslims but, worse, triggered a
renewed exodus by the few Pandit families who had returned to their native
villages during the last two years. in the second phase of the ISI operation, a
blast at the entrance to the inter-district bus stand in Jammu claimed 15 lives
and left 70 persons Injured. Almost within days came the bomb blast aboard a
Jammu-bound bus near Pathankot and another in Kupwara district in which the
district police chief and eight constables were injured.
Dr. Abdullah was compelled to caution the legislators to be careful as they could
also be the target of such attacks. "Pakistanis are out to pick soft targets,
especially in villages." Pro-India activists, former legislators and leading
National Conference leaders have indeed been among the main targets of the ISI
attack in Kashmir ever since the "Operation Optac" started but the softest target
has been the hapless Pandit minority of which today - after the killings and
exodus of 1989-90 followed by a well-planned campaign of torching their houses -
hardly a few hundred families remain in the valley.
Neither the Home Ministry in Delhi nor the Jammu and Kashmir administration, it
would appear, has given serious thought to the real problems of the Kashmiri
Hindus who, numbering about 3,00,000, have, to quote the National Human Rights
Commission Annual Report for 1995-96, "been compelled to leave their homes and
live temporarily in other parts of the country..." A succession of Governments in
Delhi since 1989-90, varying in complexion, far from paying any serious attention
to the plight of this uprooted segment, displayed scant awareness of even the
basic question thrown up by the largest-ever exodus since the Partition of the
sub-continent: How and why were the Kashmiri Hindus in a calculated and systematic
manner made the very first target of the ISI operations in 1989-90? The wrath of
this uprooted segment, paradoxically, is not directed in the main against
Pakistan, the ISI or its outfits but against the Government of India for its utter
callousness to the plight of the community and its patent effort to sideline the
real issue involved in the migration and in the systematic torching of the
localities in Srinagar and its environs where Pandits lived in large numbers and
where, in the event of their return, they could once again become a vocal force.
It is the Pandit community spokesmen's contention that the campaign of threats,
accompanied by selective and cold-blooded killing of several Kashmiri Hindus such
as Tikalal Taploo, Nilakanth Ganjoo, Lassa Koul, P.N. Handoo and Prem, was carried
out to signal the launch of Islamabad's plan to throw out the Hindus because, in
Pakistan's estimation, they constituted the bulwark of the pro-India support base
in the valley. New Delhi recognises the force of this argument but is not prepared
to own it as, in its view, this might antagonise the pro-India Muslim sentiment in
the valley or whatever is left of it.
The valley, all through its chequered history, has seen the rise and fall of a
long chain of dynasties, kings, queens and even charlatans. In the changing
history, some common features recur with a surprising frequency: first, the
continuing tyranny over the Kashmiris, whatever the character of the regime, and,
secondly the baiting and victimisation of the minuscule - but vocal and
intelligent - Pandit minority.
Will the lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to abandon their hearths and
homes, in the wake of the fundamentalist campaign of terror, intimidation and
killings and as the first batches of ISI-trained terrorists wielded their guns in
Srinagar in the winter of 1989-90, ever be able to return? To their occupations?
To their fields, orchards and other places of work? More precisely, can they
ever be persuaded to live down the shattering memories of the December-January
period of 1989-90 and agree to go back as simplistically suggested by the Farooq
Abdullah Government?
Howsoever, disinterested the mandarins in New Delhi's North and South Blocks may
choose to be, this is the most vital issue facing the nation in Jammu and Kashmir
today. Dr. Abdullah may well be sincere in his proclaimed desire to ensure the
return of the Pandits but he has yet to display an awareness of the practical
problems involved - apart from the genuine reservations the community as a whole
entertains. A leading Jammu daily reported on April 7, 1997 that apart from the
fact that "over 5,000 Pandit homes have been burnt and even the debris has been
removed and sold" as many as 2,500 houses belonging to the Pandits "continue to be
under illegal occupation of some people... and the Government is faced with many
legal difficulties in clearing the encroachments". Other problems which, according
to this newspaper the returning migrants will be up against are: (I) even where
the structures are standing, all fixtures such as doors, windows and electric and
water fittings are missing, (II) land and orchards belonging to the Hindus have
been occupied illegally, the estimated extent being about 140 acres and (III) the
fundamentalist organisations in league with some dishonest and anti-Indian
officials, "are striving to ensure that the revenue records show the illegal
occupants as legal owners."
Where will the returning migrants live even if they decide to respond positively
to Dr. Abdullah's appeal in utter disregard of the mercenary threat? Where are the
"safe zones" which the Kashmir administration has spoken of" The creation of such
zones, even with the best of will and effort, would be possible only over a period
of time with careful planning and considerable outlays. But even the groundwork
has not been taken up.
It is one thing to air the pious intent of brining back the Pandit migrants and
quite another to actually demonstrate on the ground ways of resettling as many as
3,00,000 of them and providing for their adequate security and means of
livelihood.
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