FRAGRANCE OF IDEAS
When the wounds of Pahalgam carnage are still creating a chaos in the body-psyche of the Indian nation, a number of other untoward happenings again created headlines in the Kashmir valley. These happenings are surely very disturbing and cause further immense pain about the fate and future of the non-Muslim minorities in the valley. Butchering 26 Hindu tourists in Pahalgam-Kashmir after confirming their religious identity stands out as one of the heinous crimes against humanity.Kashmir ceases to be a place which anyone would like to visit in search of peace, brotherhood, human values and fortitude. With the forced exodus of the indigenous people of the land -the Kashmiri Pandits due to their genocide and ethnic cleansing in the valley, Kashmir is today known in the world, unfortunately, as a place infested with terrorism, violence, killings and immence socio-religious intolerance.The above mentioned headlines pertain to a recent mysterious death of a Sikh youth in Tral-Pulwama whose body was found hanging from a tree near his native place. Surjeet Singh Shanty son of Fouja Singh of Dharamgund village in Tehsil Tral sent shockwaves through a very small community of Sikhs in the valley of Kashmir. Surjeet was found dead on 24 June, 2025 and everyone feared foul play in his unfortunate death.Next, A Kashmiri Pandit girl named Niha Raina of Neuw-Pulwama was converted to Islam a couple of months ago before getting married to a Kashmiri Muslim in the valley against the wishes of her family. Her family made some modest complaints and protests but in vain and the name of Niha was changed to Fatima. The issue is also awaiting trial in the court of law.
The incident stated above about the conversion though is an isolated incident about such conversions of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley after their mass exodus from Kashmir in 1989-90, but there are a number of such incidents in regard to the microscopic Sikh community in Kashmir over the last more than three decades.A number of press conferences, media releases that were published in the media and also an SGPC statement released at various intervals over the last three decades confirm this unfortunate pattern in the valley of Kashmir. The kidnappings, torture and killings of minorities that started in the period of 1980s still haunt every member of the minority communities in and outside the valley of Kashmir.Mysterious deaths, manipulated conversions and shocking methods of killings have surely become a part of the torturous socio-political scenario affecting the common psyche of the people in the valley. Many a time they take it as a ‘new normal’ in the valley. We are reminded of some of the gravest incidents of 1990s in this regard that created havoc and ignited genocide of minorities; and unfortunately the society at large in the Kashmir valley stood silent at the time of its great and historic test. The stories of the kidnappings, torture and killings also need to be narrated here to put things in perspective, but at a later stage of the narration.Some very thought provoking articles written by a few conscious intellectuals among the Kashmiri Muslim majority community have recently appeared in the mainstream media of Jammu and Kashmir and especially the Kashmir valley. These articles boldly speak about the degeneration of the society and the social ethics in the Kashmir valley particularly in the context of the political turmoil that has been in vogue for the last, almost now, four long decades.The authors have raised pertinent questions in regard to the human values that have been compromised and mutilated over the last four decade’s story in Kashmir valley. They have indeed also talked about the mass-exodus of the minority Hindu community in the valley and have made it known that the terrorism and violence have deeply damaged the image of Kashmir and Kashmiris throughout the globe.They are repentful and remorseful of the degeneration, decline and decay of social values, mutual tolerance and cultural & civilizational upbringing in the entire Kashmir valley and hold every conscious & civilized individual responsible for it. While we think about our present, it is important to go into history and try to learn from the past. Those who learn from their mistakes are called smart people but those who also learn from other’s mistakes are called both smart & wise.What happened in Kashmir was not a by the way affair, its seeds were sown in 1931. The gory incidents of 1986 in which scores of temples were burnt and brought down in the entire Kashmir valley and particularly in South Kashmir though were sudden but planned; and this was propagated as the trailer of the events to follow.Such statements were issued by all known and unknown leaders of the society in Kashmir affecting the morale of the people living in the valley. Gun was surely a late entry which facilitated or activated the fast-forwarding button. We have tragic stories of kidnappings, torture and killings of minorities before all of us.Sarvanand Premi, a die-hard secular and intellectual face of the Anantnag district, was kidnapped, tortured and killed along with his youngest son, poor Virender Kaul. Their bodies were found hanging from a tree near their village the next day, the first such case in the recent history of Kashmir. But yes, their fault was that they were Hindus by faith and were brutally tortured before their death for that.
Girja Tikoo, an unfortunate minority community member, who was on her ‘mission’ of collecting salary from her department, was kidnapped on the basis of a tip from her own colleagues, then gang raped and sliced alive into two on a bandsaw machine. Again the first case of such nature in recent history in Kashmir. Prana Ganjoo is another story of kidnappings, gangrape, inhuman torture and killings of 1990s which made the minority community aware about its fate and future in the valley.All these kidnappings and killings were monitored and planned by the so-called revolutionaries of Kashmir who are facing the justice system as on date and are in different jails. There is a method in madness, they say, so is there such a method in Islamic terrorrism too. And this method is not limited to terrorism alone, it spread to all those quarters who were officially supposed to curb it, face it and finish it.Kidnappers, those who were responsible for terror, torture and execution of people, were encouraged in various ways by the people in command in the governments. In order to negotiate peace with them, they were taken to the highest corridors of power and mainstream media notwithstanding the fact about its impact on the ground zero level and on those who were the victims of their heinous crimes.The crimes and charges for which they are now in the jails belong to the period with effect from the 1980s. As you sow-so shall you reap, the recognised law of nature was mutilated by those who were responsible to uphold it. There are stories after stories that can explain the saga of death and destruction in Kashmir, affecting everyone including those one lakh people who got killed over the last four decades in Jammu & Kashmir.
In this context, we have key evidence and witnesses too, still alive among us, who can testify about everything that happened to them or was done to them. One such name is Ramesh Marhatta, a Kashmiri Pandit from Village Uttarsu who was kidnapped from his temporary residence in Sonwar, Kashmir. He was then a young casual broadcaster in the All India Radio, Srinagar-Kashmir.On 26 September 1990, while he was preparing food for himself in his hired room, he was raided by a number of masked men with automatic guns in their hands and asked a volley of questions about himself and his job. He was then taken away by them for more ‘questioning’ and given a very bad treatment while on his way in a vehicle to some destination blindfolded and handcuffed. He was treated mercilessly during the transit and ultimately dumped in a room of a house in some nearby area.His night-long ‘interrogation’ was done by the dreaded terrorists and all inhuman methods were used to torture him including beating, hitting with hot iron rods and putting burning cigarettes against his naked body. The leaders of the terror groups that were in the forefront of the inhuman interrogation included Asiya Indrabi, Azam Inqalabi and some Urdu speaking terrorists having typical Punjabi accent in their language. They discussed his execution and the methods to do so in his presence.While he was begging for his life, it was suggested that his body should be cut into pieces on a bandsaw machine. He was pointedly asked as to why he didn’t leave the valley while the other members of the Hindu community had already left suggesting their clear intent of ethnic cleansing.
He was ultimately taken to a field where he could under captivity see Shankaracharya temple and was fired upon. Ramesh gathered courage and escaped the firing but four bullets hit him in his abdomen and right hip. He somehow managed to reach a nearby gate of the Badami Bagh cantonment area where he was taken in by the guard on duty in semi-conscious condition.He got shifted into the army hospital where he underwent a long surgery for one full day. He was in an unconscious state for three days and somehow miraculously escaped a sure death. His brave efforts were recognised by the government and he was also regularized in his job and transferred to Kathua. His only fault was that he was a Hindu by faith.For the purpose of introspection, Junaid Quraishi, a Kashmiri Muslim intellectual in his column titled ‘We, the hypocritical Kashmiris’ recently wrote: “As if the Ummah would suddenly wake if we Kashmiris kept putting other Kashmiris (like Kashmiri Pandits) to their eternal sleep. Bullshit!….We keep drinking poison in the hope that it will kill the enemies of those Muslims who have never cared about us”. It summarises the degeneration, decay and decline in the most abstract manner.To conclude, the woes & distress of minorities in Kashmir continue unabated. There is absolutely no hope for minorities of Kashmir to even think of return and resettlement without dignity & homeland despite all yatras, renovation of temples and crass bonhomie for petty vested interests. After all, they have lost everything but they have got their cherished right to freedom of expression which was never available to them in their own Kashmir valley in recent history….!
(The author is a senior BJP & KP leader, Human Rights Defender, author & columnist and can be reached at: [email protected])
