The biggest truth of our search
was now crystal clear.
What the Kashmiri Pandits faced in 1990
was nothing but genocide and exodus.
Instead of giving them solace,
we left them unseen unheard for 30 long years!
Their distressing plight was given labels
like cowardice, exodus, migration!
It's shameful to even think of today!
How did we fail to recognize
this massacre of humanity?
This dreadful journey of Kashmir genocide
broke my heart,
and destroyed my ego.
All the knowledge, strength and success that we can have
are no good
if we cannot understand human pain,
if we cannot realize
what lies in the hearts.
The only essence of our existence is
what we feel in our lives
and what we make others feel.
And I felt that the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits
didn't just happen in Kashmir in 1990,
but it happened once again
when we didn't accept the genocide.
It was now time for the next leg of our search.
The genocide had happened...
Didn't the state machinery, police, army,
governments of Kashmir and India and the media
do anything about it?
How could such a terrible genocide be overlooked?
Be denied?
Be hidden?
When it comes to the government of Kashmir, some important questions come to mind.
Why did Farooq Abdullah resign on the 18th January and leave?
He has said that Jagmohan was appointed without consulting with him.
Hence, he had resigned.
Is that true?
Secondly, during that entire duration
from 1987 to 1990 and later,
nobody was held culpable
for anything that transpired in Kashmir.
The only person who was ever held responsible was Jagmohan.
He was accused of coming to Kashmir and
inciting Kashmiri Pandits to flee as part of a conspiracy.
Is that the truth or
an excuse given by the terrorists?
Jagmohan was also accused of
creating communal riots in Kashmir
which then led to his termination.
Was there any truth in these accusations?
I had two questions on my mind all the time.
First, why did only the
terrorists accuse Jagmohan?
Second,
on 26th January, Kashmir was to be 'liberated' from India,
to be declared Islamic Republic of Kashmir,
who, after all, prevented that from happening?
Farooq Abdullah felt that
the situation was beyond his control.
That's when he thought he better leave
so, he won't have bear the responsibility
and he won't be held accountable.
And the entire blame
would be shifted on someone else.
So, he resigned.
Then he left.
It's believed he went to London from Kashmir
where he loved playing golf.
There is a huge dilemma and misconception out there
that the government of India somehow or Jagmohan
had organised the exodus.
They created stories
that Jagmohan made us get out of there.
Tomorrow, while you're living in Mumbai
and some leader or somebody tells you
that you leave because we have to
accomplish something, will you go?
What hurts my heart is when people say that,
we didn't do anything, it was Jagmohan
who forced them out of the valley.
I left because Jagmohan asked me to leave.
Leave all your property
and household items behind
and take refuge in tents
and I agreed!
This is the narrative they have created.
Jagmohan went there
and he didn't even have a week's time
before 26th January.
In that duration, he had to control the situation
while nobody was willing to co-operate.
Jagmohan then resorted to his old contacts.
He called people he knew to get information.
There were many things that governor monitored himself.
I was the District SP of Budgam back then.
He would call anybody.
Any person who would work...
he'd call them directly.
He said if anyone came...
there was a curfew and anyone who'd come would be shot.
Thus, everyone understood he was a force to reckon with.
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed didn't like him.
He despised him.
Communists didn't like him.
They hated him.
Benazir Bhutto's sworn enemy was Jagmohan.
I challenge that if they think
that the populace doesn't need plebiscite
then let them go and see that Jagmohan
will be cut into Jag-Jag- Mo-Mo Han-Han.
Pakistan understood that to get rid of Jagmohan
they needed to do something big.
Thus, Mirwaiz was killed.
Today, the names of the culprits and how
they came from Pakistan is known.
A complete report was published after their detailed interrogation.
Jagmohan has to go right away.
Why so?
Because he has incited riots
and committed atrocities here.
There's bloodshed all around.
What the militants do
like bomb explosions, is that justified?
Yes, of course.
They do the right thing.
Secularists were ruling India
and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the home minister
so, they grabbed the opportunity to get rid of him.
Thus Jagmohan was made to leave.
As far as I am concerned,
I always believe in doing the right thing.
I personally gave orders to protect Pushkar's family.
Then how did this happen?
Sir, you gave orders
so did Commander Bitta.
You know whose orders would be followed.
You are fired.
Sir, they have left.
When someone attacks us,
or an incident occurs,
what's the first thing we do?
We go to the police.
When we get to know about
someone else facing any issue,
even then the first question we ask is
whether they have informed the police.
Because we have faith that
the purpose of the police is to protect us.
No matter what the situation is,
you're likely to consider approaching the police at least once.
We asked all the Kashmiri Pandits
that when they were being killed mercilessly,
and were being forced out of their homes,
did they ever seek help from the police?
And if they did, didn't the police help them?
There must have been some sort of governance in Kashmir!
Did nobody help them?
We spoke to ex-police officers
who were posted in Jammu and Kashmir back then.
We asked them whether
the Jammu Kashmir police had become brazenly inactive?
If yes,
then why?
And how?
The police weren't accommodating us in any way.
It didn't seem like they were meant
to protect us and keep us safe.
It was a completely negative scenario.
A 72 year old lady,
who had nothing to with anybody
and would keep busy with her prayers in her home,
was killed mercilessly.
They not only killed her but also denied the murder.
They said they didn't do it.
When we approached the police,
they refused to give us the postmortem report, citing tension in the environment.
We got the postmortem report after three years!
And it said
she had died due to blood pressure.
It didn't say she was strangulated.
I filed an RTI against Handwara police station, DC office Kupwara,
asking for information regarding that case.
The reply I got was really unfortunate.
I was told the case was closed.
There will be no enquiry on a closed case.
That's the reply I got to my RTI appeal.
My sister
was killed.
Even if there was supposed to be an enquiry,
the police shut the case.
She was hacked into pieces,
but even then the file was clamped down.
There was no enquiry or trial.
Our relatives
and brothers and sisters were killed.
There was no enquiry at all
and nobody was punished for any murder.
Our rights as humans
were squashed.
When the society at large is affected,
the police can't remain untouched.
Local police is part of that very society.
One brother was a terrorist
and the other was in the police,
third brother was a sympathiser.
Given such circumstances, what could the local police do?
I have seen myself
when I was the District SP in Budgam,
a highly affected area in the Kashmir valley,
my colleague Qadir Shah was killed
by terrorists.
I was their target but unfortunately, he died.
When we went to bury him,
he was denied burial ground.
When the entire situation is vitiated
and the secretariat is infected
so are the judiciary and the police,
your entire society
you name the society's wing...
Everyone, intelligentsia,
Universities, colleges, everyone was affected.
It felt as if they would attain freedom any moment.
In these circumstances, it shouldn't be difficult for you to understand the plight
of J&K police.
So, yes, the kind of help Kashmiri Pandits deserved
was not given to them.
Hence, they had to flee.
The Jammu & Kashmir police department was in such worse situations,
that the few officers who were not
hand in glove with terrorists,
couldn't perform their duties.
When every colleague of yours has turned into a traitor,
what can you do?
And the diligent officers who were abiding by their duties
were being targeted.
It's deeply saddening that families of those diligent officers have to
live with the wounds of having lost them.
My father who was working in the police department...
He was deputed to CID those days.
And he was posted in the border district of Kupwara.
When my father went to apply for leave
and deposit his service revolver,
he would usually commute in his Jeep.
But that day his Jeep broke down.
We don't know if it was a deliberate attempt or not.
He decided to take the bus.
He boarded the bus at Kupwara bus stand
along with his PSO.
The bus travelled 8-9 kilometers
from Kupwara bus stand passing through a remote area
which was deserted.
A van overtook the bus
and stopped across the bus.
Yusuf and I don't remember the names of others...
There were 4 local militants from Heevan village.
They opened the door and entered the bus.
They took my father's name 'who is Chuni Lal Shala'
My father and other passengers didn't say anything.
Everyone knew him but nobody said anything.
My father's PSO stood up and pointed at him 'this is the man'
There's a Kasipura village.
There was a hut amidst the fields
where he was interrogated.
What we have heard from people
is that they wanted to know many things from him
about the movement but he didn't speak.
So, they tortured him which was expected.
They broke his joints, his bones,
they pulled his teeth, his nails...
Then they got him out.
They tried to hang him on a tree.
6 people were trying to hang one man who was unarmed.
He had no pistol or weapon.
They were hanging him.
And the whole village is cheering and jeering...
'Look how an infidel is hanged!
If they talk about humanity now,
what happened to their humanity back then?
A human was being killed then too.
They tried but they couldn't hang my father.
Then they took out a pistol and shot him.
And killed him.
His body was thrown on Kasipura Road.
That's how my father was killed.
Why? Because he was working for India.
Being a conflict zone,
most of our army has been posted in Kashmir.
After the 90s,the army has been consistently fighting terrorism out there.
But, before the spread of terrorism,
when boys were going across the border for training
and were returning with arms and ammunition,
what was our army doing on the borders?
Why didn't they stop those boys?
There was a bus stand in Batamaloo, west Kashmir.
Buses would ply towards the borders from there.
The conductor would openly shout
Upur kupur upur kupur, that means
you want to go to Kupwara, we'll take you.
If you want to go across, Upur, we'll take you there also.
Once they'd cross over,
some person would take them to the training camp.
There were 8 training camps in PoK.
The Jammu Kashmir border is spread across 750 kms.
There weren't enough troops there.
There were no Rashtriya Rifles.
They came in late 91 and early 92.
Not a single battalion was there.
After the 71 war it was believed,
there was no conventional threat from Pakistan.
The Line of Control stretched from 20,000 ft above
to 1,000 feet below.
There were many jungles and ravines.
A few people could enter very easily.
But I believe the main reason was that
the Line of Control wasn't strongly guarded.
Hence, they'd go to and fro easily.
After getting trained in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, how many people
from your group made it here alive
and how many surrendered?
Sir, 103 left from there
and 13-14 got buried in the snow
- and... - They died?
They died in the snow storm.
I believe
our rules and regulations are such
that the army can't act unless ordered to.
Can you just force any community
in this nation to flee
and steal their property while the army does nothing?
I still haven't found the answer to this.
I don't think anyone
has bothered to analyse why that happened.
I recall clearly that during my growing years
people believed that what was printed in newspapers, was set in stone.
Unless a news was printed in the papers,
it wasn't considered authentic.
My dad used to say
if it's in the papers, it has to be true.
From general knowledge quiz
to debates,
to preparing for competitive exams,
reading newspapers was a must.
Or you just couldn't pass.
That was the reputation newspapers held once.
But today if we say that media
is the 4th pillar of democracy
which is meant to create awareness amongst the society,
people won't realize that
we're talking about the media!
They'll laugh at you!
An important aspect of our pursuit
was to understand that the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits that
remained uncovered, who played
the most vital role in this cover-up.
Was it the media?
When we scrutinised Kashmiri print media,
we realised they were openly supporting terrorism.
How was that even possible?
Al safa bate dafa.
- Al safa bate dafa. - What's he saying?
Batte dafa matlab Kashmiri Pandit
Yahaan se bhaag jao
Kashmiri print media be it Al Safa
or other Urdu papers
came together
and carried out a PR campaign for JKLF, Hizbul Mujahideen
and other separatist organisations.
And posters of the people killed
were put up all over.
I must say, to some extent,
poster of threats from terrorists
were printed in papers, warning the Kashmiri Pandits to leave.
First of all, they'd appoint people
who were their kin
and were carrying out the terrorist activities.
Once appointed,
they'd have access.
If you appoint someone
who opposes terrorism,
and says that we're a part of India,
he will be cast away
and then he will be killed.
Secondly, foreign news papers
or channels like BBC,
they wanted footages
of the on goings here.
But who'd go there with a camera?
If you don't have access,
you'll get killed if you go there.
Only those people survived
who had direct connections.
To understand the long standing terrorism,
and the ideology of its supporters
and their strategy,
we studied all the famous Indian newspapers
and television channels.
And yet we couldn't understand this ideology.
What kind of ideology was this
that purported terrorism in Kashmir as a freedom struggle?
That was labelling radicalists as separatists?
That was turning terrorists into leaders and giving them a stage?
That was exaggerating atrocities of army against
Kashmiri Muslims for years in their news
but were blind to the miseries of millions
of Kashmiri Pandits forced out of Kashmir.
It was as if they didn't exist!
The first aspect is that
terrorism or separatism in Kashmir
was looked upon from a bigger perspective.
Hence, the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus
was portrayed as an insignificant part of it.
It was always said that the bigger problem was that of the terrorism in Kashmir,
of what Pakistan has to say,
of what the separatists and political leaders in Kashmir have to say,
who are the telling the truth.
Thus, neither the ministers took any action
nor did the national and international media.
For one, that was the trend those days...
Secular, liberal, progressive,
intellectual people
had no sympathy for the Hindus.
If you wanted to be a successful journalist,
you had to be like them.
The ones you call victims today
are in reality privileged Pandits of Kashmir.
Pandits were in minority in Kashmir
yet they had taken over all government jobs, finance ministry
and social benefits too.
Hence, the majority
Kashmiri Muslims faced injustice
and were tortured.
It was because of Pandits' monopoly,
that the rift between rich Pandits and poor Muslims widened.
When educated youth of Kashmir protested,
their monopoly was threatened
and they decided to leave Kashmir.
Vishnu Ram, back to the studios from Kashmir.
We are all hungry for TRP.
TRP means money.
If you present Yasin Malik
as a youth icon,
and if he becomes a sensation,
and he sells, then you get money.
Yasin Malik was being applauded.
He would give lectures,
'Look sister, the thing is,
"there is a philosophy"
"there is an ideology"
and the sister is paying heed to him.
Yasin Malik was preaching us!
"We were lying at their feet".
There's a prominent news channel
in India called ****
They invited me for a programme
and I was told I'd be taken to Kashmir
and an important event will be held there.
Both Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits will be invited.
Then I was asked to give some more names
so, I obliged.
A senior editor of ****
who isn't part of **** since years now
was hosting the event.
I didn't hear from them for a long time.
Finally, I called a friend in ****
and asked about that programme.
He replied that they didn't want people who shared your ideology
to participate in that programme
hence you and the names you gave weren't called.
That's what they did.
This is the truth about Kashmir.
India's greatest asset is its democracy.
And the power of democracy lies in elections.
Elections imply that citizens
send their representatives in the assembly
who then form the Central Government.
From 1980s through the 1990s,
Kashmir has been a tense issue...
especially during elections.
Be it the controlling of terrorism there
or mending the situation,
or waging a war against Pakistan
or separatism,
it has been constantly talked about.
Then how is it possible that no Central Government has accepted
the plight of Kashmiri Pandits till date?
If Kashmir is ours,
aren't the natives of that land ours too?
Hello, Mr Krishnan?
What's the matter?
No officer or minister is answering my calls.
Are they on leave or in hiding?
Kashmir is burning!
Kashmiri Hindus are being butchered openly.
Sir, ask the home minister to send a plane immediately
or tomorrow perhaps...
Kashmiri Hindus were expendables for the Indian government.
Are they important enough for us
to fight against separatists,
fight against Pakistan
and fight against the Pan Islamic forces?
They thought we were not so important for them.
It was better to delay things...
Confrontation would mean an impending war.
So, saving Kashmiri Hindus was
Indian government's last priority.
The nation we belonged to
didn't consider us important enough.
But the ones attacking us were considering us as most important!
'Lets wipe them out first'.
It was this maze
this quandary that we were stuck in.
Tortured victims often get buried
under their circumstances and give up.
They forget that they have
a voice too...
And yet they have a hope...
That someone will listen to them and they will get justice.
Someone will acknowledge their pain and embrace them.
We asked them whether they tried to
take their grievances to the Central Government?
Whether their cries reached anyone's ears?
But we saw
on one hand, terrorists were being given a stage
while on the other,
Kashmiri Hindus were being labelled migrants in their own country.
Every couple of months we used to have some
protest, we used to have some rally...
- So, you were part of that activism? - Every time, everything...
Did that activism get you results?
- I don't think so. I don't think... - No use?
I don't think everybody heard us.
I don't think anybody even cared about it.
We left Jammu.
Boys and girls who were our batchmates
and my younger brother
was in medical college, Camp college...
We split, some of us went to Delhi
and met every politician we could
nobody helped.
I think it was all so fresh back then...
We would just hit the roads with fervour.
I recall being out in high temperatures.
There was lathi charge, you name it.
Water guns and everything.
I have personally faced everything.
- Really? - Yeah.
I have been out there. I was admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital
for possible head injuries because
my head was banged against the steps of the bus.
We were protesting that atleast acknowledge what has happened to us.
Four of us were protesting outside.
Five were allowed to go meet VP Singh
and we went in.
VP Singh asked us, 'What happened with Kashmiri Pandits?'
He had no idea!
No, he had no idea.
I think that is what really hurts the most.
These were his exact dialogues.
My exact retaliation to him is
there's no point talking to you!
If you don't know what has happened with Kashmiri Pandits....
Didn't he receive any intelligence reports
- as the prime minister? - Maybe it did but
he didn't accept it. I don't know what he was doing.
- Nothing happened when he learned of it? - Nothing happened, we went to jail.
- We were taken to... - What?
We were kept outside Tilak Road jail
because we were being rowdy supposedly.
- No! - Yeah.
They didn't put us inside because they couldn't arrest us.
They detained us.
They're creating a ruckus about detention in Kashmir these days.
We faced the same. We too should've made a hue and cry
about human rights.
We should've picked up guns in retaliation.
We did nothing like that.
We focused our energy
on resettling ourselves,
regroup
try to get a hold of our emotions
and just keep going.
It's a popular belief
that people who are in majority in a region
are the natives of that place.
Does this mean that Kashmiri Pandits
were always a minority in Kashmir?
Was it the first time when
they were ousted from Kashmir?
Was Kashmir originally a Hindu land where Islam was introduced?
Or was Islam already in existence here
and Kashmiri Pandits came settled here eventually?