Ashok Bhan
The night of January 1990, still brings shivers down my spine, when I along with my family was forced to leave my home in Srinagar and the thriving legal practice and move to the urban wilderness in New Delhi. It is not so easy for a displaced person, to make a mark, but thanks to the resilience of Kashmiri Pandits as a community and through sheer intellect and hard work, we did manage to live with honour and dignity even in exile and away from our roots. But roots are always haunting. So the resolution of the whole community is “We Shall Return with dignity to our Homeland”
The recent spate of targeted killings of Innocent civilians and the killing of an off-duty Sub-Inspector of JK Police in Pulwama, who was the seventh of such off-duty police official kidnapped and brutally Killed by new-age hybrid terrorists. These targeted killings of innocent civilians including outsiders and minorities unlike past evoked large condemnation and protestations by the Kashmiri Muslims. Kashmiris hit the streets in large numbers to protest against the killings. The political leadership across the spectrum, the civil society leaders and the spiritual and religious scholars and leaders strongly condemned the killings. There was a strong appeal to minorities, especially to members of the Kashmiri Pandit community who are living and working in the Valley not to be frightened to leave Kashmir. That regional political leadership collectively even called on the LG Manoj Sinha and urged him to resolve the issues of insecurity & other service matters of the KP employees and assured full support to the minorities. This manifests that the Soul of Kashmiri ethos and plural societal values of “Kashmir are alive”.
Killing one and scaring a thousand was once again the Modus operandi used by militants to force again the exile of minorities but Kashmiris unitedly failed their designs.
Kashmiris are sick of death and destruction unleashed…
