Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Sickness in a New Frame

We received a mail from one Nishat Khan which read this "Ase Gache Pakistan,Batew varaay ti batenevsaan"
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For those of you who wonder what this email from a Kashmiri Muslim friend who wrote to Roots in Kashmir means. It means "Muslims of Kashmir want Kashmir without Pandit men but with Pandit women".
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Such is the colour of Aazadi or sickness whichever way you look at it.With such sick souls around which honourable person would like to live in Kashmir.More than independence ,Kashmiri Muslims like this Nishat Khan need to be humanised but then who can humanise such masses whose leaders are buy synonmys of Sikander Butshikan and Nero.
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When we last received a mail form one Yahya Khan (another Kashmiri Muslim friend) exhtolling the virtues of being a "Bitta Karate" we presumed sickness cant go farther than this but we were terribly wrong. Kashmir's psyche in the absence of Pandits,its original inhabitants,has gone to perverse positions.
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I can only request God to forgive people like Nishat and Yahya and maybe he re-considers the desicion of who to be sent as a part of Ashraf-ul-Makhlooq'.

The Mask Comes Off.....

Spin Doctors and Image Makers spent many years and wrote reams of paper trying to potray a wolf as a lamb.A lamb who was at the mercy of the butcher(the State of India in this case).They worked overtime and burnt midnight fuel making movies and writing lengthy juicy articles on how Yasin Malik and JKLF were totrtured by the Indian Government.How their inalienable right to kill and terrorize "minorities" was being taken away by the Indian State.In all this the Electronic English Media channels like NDTV and CNN-IBN played their part.They projected Yasin Malik as a Gandhi.What all of them conveniently chose to ignore was his past.How he had maimed and killed people in the name of something called "Azadi" was simply swept under the carpet and not talked about.But then who has ever controlled Frankesteins.
Last night probably JKLF had a bath , its lambs attire washed down in Jhelum.The wolf emerged...

Here read this...
JKLF to review its decision of ceasefire, if K-dispute is not resolved
GK NEWS NETWORK
Muzaffarabad: The chief commander of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Salem Haroon has said that JKLF would reconsider its decision of ceasefire if human rights violations continued unabated in Kashmir and the dispute was not resolved in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of Kashmiri people. According to a press statement issued here Tuesday, Haroon made these remarks while addressing “Mujahideen” commanders of the organization on the occasion of world human rights day Monday. Expressing serious concern over the ever-increasing violence in Jammu and Kashmir he said that despite the Indian government’s claims of zero-tolerance against rights abuses there was no let up in the human rights violations in the state. He regrettably noted that the extra judicial killings, torture, molestation of Kashmiri women and killing of innocent civilians continued unabated. He said that it was ironic that Indian troops were seeking promotions and getting awards thereby killing innocent Kashmiris ruthlessly without an inkling of accountability. Hailing the endeavours of the party leader, the JKLF chief commander expressed his gratitude to all those Kashmiris who participated in the protest and token hunger strike led by Muhammad Yasin Malik, the Chairman of Liberation Front. He reiterated that JKLF would continue its efforts to take the ongoing liberation struggle to its logical end despite all odds.

Monday, December 10, 2007

RIK blasts NHRC for being silent on Pandits Exodus


State Times (Front Page)

The Hindu (Nation Page)



The Political & Business Daily




Hindustan (Front Page)



Dainik Jagran



Jansatta

Press Coverage of Protest by Pandit Children under the banner of "Roots in Kashmir"

TIMES OF INDIA-HYDERABAD
UPROOTED! Activists and children of Kashmiri Pandits participate in a candlelight protest organised by ‘Roots in Kashmir’ at Indira Park in Hyderabad on Sunday, on the eve of International Human Rights Day to bring to light the injustice meted out to the Kashmiri Pandits
Frustated Pandits look for their Human Rights-Aastha Manocha(The Indian Express)
New Delhi, December 9: Hundreds of young Kashmiri Pandits marched from Jantar Mantar to B K Ganjoo Park via Bangla Sahib on the eve of Human Rights Day to protest against the relative silence of NHRC on their plight as they have been left to fend for themselves in exile for the last 18 years.
Led by mostly children and youngsters under the banner of Roots In Kashmir the protestors shouted anti-NHRC and anti-terrorist slogans. Many children marched ahead, carrying banners with slogans pleading to save their community from extinction and joining an endangered species list.
The march proceeded from Jantar Mantar to Bangla Sahib to pay their respects to the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur who had vowed to protect the Kashmiri Pandits back in the 15th century. From there they marched to B K Ganjoo Park, named after a telecom engineer brutally killed at his home in the valley during militancy. After saying a small prayer at the park in memory of the friends, families and homes lost to militancy, the meeting commenced.
By means of this march the displaced community also looked to raise awareness about the atrocities committed on them.
‘Last year we had submitted a memorandum, we were assured action but nothing has been done about it, the NHRC has been proved to be a toothless tiger, there is no use of such kinds of so-called watchdogs’, said Rashneek Kher, a member at the march.
‘The least they could have done was to initiate proceedings against the people we had named.’
Similar protests and similar sentiments were seen all over the country in cities like Hyderabad, Chandigarh etc.

NHRC fails to provide succour: Kashmiri Pandits (THE TRIBUNE)



Pandits criticise Rights Panel - The Asian Age


New Delhi, Dec. 9: "Roots in Kashmir", a youth group from Kashmir, held a protest rally on the occasion of International Human Rights Day here on Sunday to bring to light the alleged injustice perpetrated on Kashmiri pandits.

The activists marched from Jantar Mantar to Shaheed B.K. Ganjoo Park at Gole Market. The protesters also paid obeisance at the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, signifying the importance of the martyrdom given by Guru Teg Bahadur for the pandit community. "Roots in Kashmir" has condemned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for not coming to the rescue of the Kashmiri pandits. "It has been 14 years since the formation of NHRC but it has completely failed to address the grievances of the Pandit community, which is living in its 18th year of exile from its homeland," said Roots in Kashmir media coordinator Aditya Raj Kaul.

To escape persecution, more than 500,000 Kashmiri pandits had to leave their homes in the Valley and out of that, more than 50,000 are still languishing in uninhabitable refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi. "The NHRC has ceased to exist for us. We have submitted memorandums, fought cases and even met all senior bureaucrats and officials to appraise them of the situation but no results till date," said Ms Neeru Kaul, an activist from the group.
"It continues to work as a biased forum," she added.

Roots in Kashmir is also unhappy with the Indian government over the issue of terrorism. "In spite of cases of serious nature pending against terrorists, they roam free, but Pandits continue to live a life of refugees in their own land," Mr Aditya Raj Kaul said.

Roots in Kashmir chief coordinator Amal Magazine said, "The international recognition of our issues is the result of the struggle launched by the Pandit group during the last 17 years of exile. Roots in Kashmir holds that terror has become a pan-India phenomenon now with global linkages and the group endeavours to bring to light the real culprits and murderers of innocent Kashmiris."

What about us, say Kashmiri Pandits


Abhinav Kumar

In exile for the past 18 years, Kashmiri Pandits in the Capital condemned the National Human Rights Commission on Sunday for failing to investigate cases of atrocities against members of their community by militants in Jammu and Kashmir even after filing a petition on it a year ago.
Pragya, 11, a member of the Kashmiri Pandit community, has visited her ancestral home only twice. Born and brought up in Delhi, a visit to her homeland in Jammu has increased the urge to go back to her native land.

“The place is simply fantastic,” she exclaims, not finding the right words to express her longing for her homeland.

As many as 100 members of the community took out a protest march from Janpath to BK Ganjoo Memorial Park near Gole Market demanding a fair trial and the immediate arrest of Yasin Malik and Bitta Karate, besides better living conditions for the 50,000 displaced Kashmiri Pandits living in camps in Jammu.

“As per United Nations guidelines and definitions, our community also qualifies to receive the status of Internally Displaced People. We feel we should be granted this status since we are neither migrants nor refugees. We are Indian nationals and we have been ousted from our homes,” said Aditya Raj Kaul, media coordinator of Roots in Kashmir, a youth organisation fighting for the community’s cause.

Members of the community across Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Jammu staged simultaneous protests against the rights panel.



“It has been 18 years now since the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu. Probes have been ordered into the Ayodhya and the Godhra cases, but the cases of militant action against the Kashmiri Pandits have been totally ignored by the NHRC,” said Amal Magazine, chief coordinator, Roots in Kashmir.

“December 9 being the World Human Rights Day, we hope our protests act as a wake up call for the NHRC and result in a probe into the cases and also meet our other demands,” said Raj.


Sunday, December 9, 2007

NHRC has failed to provide succour: Kashmiri Pandits

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi , Dec 9 (IANS): Displaced Kashmiri Pandits Sunday flayed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), accusing it of failure to provide succour to the community living in exile for the past 18 years.

On the eve of International Human Rights Day, a rights group, Roots In Kashmir (RIK), held a protest rally in the national capital, bringing to light the "injustices perpetrated on the community".
Hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were driven out of their homeland in 1990, a year after separatist insurgency broke out in Muslim majority Kashmir Valley with armed groups demanding separation from India on religious lines.

"The NHRC has ceased to exist for us. We have submitted memorandums, fought cases and even met all senior bureaucrats and officials to apprise them of the situation but there has been no result till date," Neeru Kaul, an RIK activist, told IANS.
"It has completely failed to address the grievances of the Pandit community, which is living in its 18th year of exile from its homeland."
She said that despite cases of serious nature pending against erstwhile militant commanders, Yasin Malik and Bitta Karate, they continue to roam freely enjoying "all support from the Indian government".
On the other hand, "the Pandits continue to live the life of refugees in their own land", said Kaul.


"Astonishingly, the NHRC and the home ministry of India have in a written communication against a Right To Information application said that they don't have any data on terrorist Bitta Karate of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front while it's a known fact that there are cases pending against him in TADA and CBI courts," said Aditya Koul of RIK, who had filed the application around two months back.
"In the reply, the home ministry also said that they have no information on the number of Pandits killed in the Kashmir Valley since 1989," Koul said.
The group had equally harsh words for global human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
"A blind attitude towards the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Pandit community speaks volumes of the discrimination against the Kashmiris," said Koul.



The rallyists are demanding that an enquiry commission be set to probe the reasons for Kashmiri Pandits' exodus from the valley and that the trial of former militant commanders like Bitta Karate and Yasin Malik be initiated.


They also said that exiled Pandits be declared as Internally Displaced People (IDP) and given succour according to the UN norms as well as better rehabilitation facilities for the people living in relief camps in Jammu and Delhi.