Ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus

Ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits was an event that occurred on 19 January 1990 when most of the Pandit families were forced to flee from Kashmir valley after being repeatedly threatened and targeted by crowds of Kashmiri Muslims and Islamic radicals. The estimate of Pandits having fled Kashmir ranges from approximately 100,000 to a number as high as 350,000.

Background

In 1986, Ghulam Mohammad Shah snatched the power from his brother-in-law Farooq Abdullah and became the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Shah decided to construct a large mosque, Shah Masjid which was named after him within the premises of an ancient Hindu temple inside the New Civil Secretariat area in Jammu. Many people of Jammu took to streets to protest with large demonstrations and marches against this decision. Gul Shah on his return to Kashmir retaliated and incited the Kashmiri Muslims by saying "Islam khatrey mein hey" (Islam is in danger). As a result, Kashmiri Pandits were targeted by the Kashmiri Muslims. Many incidents were reported in various areas where Kashmiri Hindus were killed and their properties and temples damaged or destroyed. The worst hit areas were mainly in South Kashmir and Sopore. In Vanpoh, Lukbhavan, Anantnag, Salar and Fatehpur, Muslim mobs plundered or destroyed the properties and temples of Hindus. During the Anantanag riot in 1986, although no Hindu was killed, many houses and other properties belonging to Hindus were looted, burnt or damaged. Although Islamists were involved in the riot, it was also revealed after an investigation that some workers of main political parties including the National Conference and Congress had also taken part in the riot alongside them. Many Hindus left the Kashmir valley as a result due to the prevailing situation in Kashmir. In March 1986, Shah and his government were dismissed as a result of him being unable to control the detoriating security situation in the state.

The Islamists lost overwhelmingly in the 1983 and 1987 state elections. They alleged that the 1987 elections were rigged. They then started to turn to violence to advocate separatism.

Induction of fear

In July 1988, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front began a separatist insurgency for independence of Kashmir from India. The group targeted a Kashmiri Hindu for the first time on September 14, 1989, when they killed Pandit Tika Lal Taploo, an advocate and a prominent leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu & Kashmir in front of several eyewitnesses. This instilled fear in the Kashmiri Pandit community especially as Taploo's killers were never caught. The Pandits realised they weren't safe in the valley and could be targeted any time. The JKLF and other Islamists went on to kill many other Kashmiri Hindus including many prominent ones. On January 4, 1990, a local Urdu newspaper, Aftab, published a press release issued by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, asking all Pandits to leave the Valley immediately. Another local paper, Al Safa, repeats this expulsion order. Explosive and inflammatory speeches being broadcast from the public address systems of the mosques became frequent.

Exodus

In order to undermine his political rival, the then Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, Minister of Home Affairs Mufti Mohammad Sayeed convinced Prime Minister V.P. Singh to appoint Jagmohan as the governor of the state. Abdullah resented Jagmohan who had been appointed as the governor earlier in April 1984 as well and had recommended Abdullah's dismissal to Rajiv Gandhi in July 1984. Mufti was convinced that such a move will irritate Abdullah and make him quit. Abdullah had earlier declared that he would resign if Jagmohan was made the Governor. However, the Central government went ahead and appointed him as Governor on January 19, 1990. In response, Abdullah resigned on the same day. This led to utter chaos and Jagmohan could not reach Srinagar due to bad weather and had to stay at Jammu. Lawlessness took over the valley and the crowd with slogans and guns started roaming around the streets.

News kept coming of violent incidents and those Hindus who survived the night saved their lives by traveling out of the valley and to other parts of the country. Most of the Kashmiri Hindus left Kashmir and moved to other parts of the country.

Aftermath

The militancy in Kashmir had increased after the exodus. The militants had targeted the properties of Kashmiri Pandits after their exodus.

Kashmiri Hindus continue to fight for their return to the valley and many of them live as refugees. The exiled community had hoped to return after the situation improved. They have not done so because the situation in the Valley remains unstable and they fear a risk to their lives. Most of them lost their properties after the exodus and many are unable to go back and sell them. In 2010, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir noted that 808 Pandit families, comprising 3,445 people, were still living in the Valley and that financial and other incentives put in place to encourage others to return there had been unsuccessful. According to a J&K government report, 219 members of the community had been killed in the region between 1989 and 2004 but none thereafter. The local organisation of pandits in Kashmir, Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti after carrying out a survey in 2008 and 2009, said that 399 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by insurgents from 1990 to 2011 with 75% of them being killed during the first year of the Kashmiri insurgency.

Recent Development

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has promised to remove controversial Article 370 from constitution to remove special status to Kashmir and ensure all citizen of India have equal rights to go and settle in Kashmir. But till December 2015 he had not mentioned any law amendment. Article 370 has been considered a roadblock in the resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits as the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir does not allow those living in India outside Jammu and Kashmir to freely settle in the state and become it's citizens.

Some experts do feel that Article 370 is different than the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus and both should be dealt with separately.

As of 2016, a total of 1,800 Kashmiri Pandit youths have returned to the Valley since the announcing of Rs. 1,168-crore package in 2008 by the UPA government. Bhat, president of Youth All India Kashmiri Samaj criticised the package to be a mere eyewash and claimed that most of the youths were living in cramped prefabricated sheds or in rented accommodation. He also said that 4,000 vacancies have been lying vacant since 2010 and alleged that the BJP government was repeating the same rhetoric and was not serious about helping them. In an interview with NDTV on January 19, Farooq Abdullah commented that the onus was on Kashmiri Pandits to come back themselves and nobody would beg them to do so. His comments were met with disagreement by Kashmiri Pandit authors Neeru Kaul, Siddhartha Gigoo, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and retired General Syed Ata Hasnain. He also said that during his tenure as Chief Minister in 1996, he had asked them to return but they refused to do so. He reiterated his comments on January 23 and said that the time had come for them to return.

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