‘Staying in Valley in 1990 bad decision’

Pandit leader claims many families left Valley after Oct. 15 target killing ■

◗ ‘NO KASHMIRI Pandit is safe in the Valley. For Kashmiri Pandits (there is) only one option left; leave Kashmir or get killed by religiously fanatic minds who have support from local population’

Following the target killing of three Kashmiri Pandits by suspected militants earlier this year, a few thousand Brahmin Hindus living in the Valley were cogitating to leave their homeland en masse “to start their lives without fear somewhere else.” The target killings were reminiscent of similar murders that were committed in 2021 and, at a greater scale, also in 1989-90.

In fact, one of the community leaders, Sanjay Kumar Tickoo, had publicly asked the members of the minority committee to leave the Valley “to save your lives.” He had in a signed statement issued on August 16 said, “No Kashmiri Pandit is safe in the Valley. For Kashmiri Pandits (there is) only one option left; leave Kashmir or get killed by religiously fanatic minds who have support from local population”.

This was the day when Sunil Kumar Bhat, a farmer, was shot dead and his cousin Pitambar Nath alias Pintu Bhat injured by suspected militants in the family apple orchard in southern Shopian district.

But the authorities quickly stepped in to discourage the Pandits from doing it. They told the community leaders that any such step would send a wrong signal out rather it would be playing in the hands of those behind the target killings. The Union home ministry enjoined the J&K administration that not a single Pandit family should leave the Valley in distress and fear.

However, Tickoo claims that several Pandit families have migrated from the Valley, mostly after the October 15 target killing of a Pandit farmer Puran Krishan Bhat in Shopian. The government denies it and says that on the onset of winter and after the harvesting period is over, many families migrate to Jammu and that there are no instances of migration due to fear in the Valley.

Tickoo said, “Given what has unfolded in the past couple of years, the prevailing uncertainty and the fear of unpredictable future events, not only me but many other Pandits who chose to stay put in the Valley in the 1990s strongly believe we made a mistake. That was a wrong decision.” He hastened to add, “That was not a decision taken collectively but individually.”

Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, met the families and colleagues of the slain Pandits not only to share their grief but also ensure justice and “all possible help from the government”. He also pledged those behind “despicable terror attacks” will not go unpunished and that “Terrorists and their supporters will have to pay a very heavy price for their heinous acts”.

The KPSS leader, however, believes that cursing the past would not change anything. “What can change the situation for better for the remnant Pandits of the Valley is not any administrative or military measures initiated by the government but “sincere intervention” by the socially respectable people of the majority Muslim community.

Tickoo heads Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), a body of those Kashmiri Pandits who chose not to leave the Valley in 1990 when a vast majority of the minority community fled their homes and hearth to escape violence. He told this correspondent here that there were 3,464 such Pandits comprising 808 families living in the Valley, but 17 families have moved out in the recent months. “In the past couple of years there have been 7 target killings of Pandits, and the entire community is increasingly fearful of their lives,” he said.