Press Coverage of Protest against "Communalisation of the Amarnath Yatra"

Pictures: Hindustan Times

Mid-Day

Dainik Jagran

The Times of India

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."

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.

POLITICS OF APOLOGY-by KAMAL HAK

(An old cartoon from the India Today)

Recently our lost homeland has been a buzz with news of different nature. The national media has been replete with the stories about Kashmiri Pandits reopening their temples and other places of worship after nearly eighteen years. These news stories also empathetically highlight the cooperation extended by the local Muslims in organizing the prayers and hawans at the previously abandoned temples. This is also fact that now more and more displaced Kashmiri Pandits find themselves mustering enough courage for taking a brief sojourn to their roots. Also, despite what the local media in Kashmir may project, Kashmiri Muslims at their individual levels are renewing their contacts with the displaced community. On their return from a brief visit to the valley many displaced Kashmiri Pandits speak about the discernable change of heart in the local Muslims. Some even suggest the preparedness of the local Muslims for apologizing to the displaced Pandits for the injustice committed against them.

A few months back some sort of brouhaha was created when the erstwhile spokesperson of All Party Hurriat Conference, Saleem Geelani, offered apologies to displaced Kashmiri Pandits on behalf of Kashmiri Muslims during a seminar organized by Roots in Kashmir in Jammu. Many agencies, with vested interests, and including some Kashmiri Pandits lose no time in branding these incidents as the indications of changing times in Kashmir. It may also be true that the times have indeed changed in Kashmir. But, does it necessarily mean the conditions have become so much conducive for the return of displaced Pandits that these demand a complete about turn of the very fundamentals that have driven and sustained the community’s struggle in exile.

One question that needs to be debated and understood is if these individual expressions of remorse carry any meaning? Alternatively, one also needs to ask a question if any institutionalized apology by the Kashmiri Muslims would tantamount to atonement of their sins. Displaced Kashmiri Pandits will have to be carefully guarded in responding to these hollow apologies, which will increase in numbers in the times to come. They need ask themselves a question which Marina Warner a renowned novelist and critic raised some time back, “Is apology today’s new political enthusiasm?”

This is also a fact that there is nothing new in the recent apologies made by certain Kashmiri Muslims. Various influential Kashmiri Muslim individuals and leaders have in past publicly apologized to the displaced Pandits in public. Only difference being that earlier the recipients didn’t see any significant in these otiose pronouncements. The process of offering apologies to displaced Pandits, perhaps, started in the year 1999, when during course of a huge international conference at The Hague, the Hurriat delegation offered to publicly apologize for the crimes committed against the Pandit. Panun Kashmir delegation attending the conference didn’t attach any significance to that and thought the gesture was only dictated by political expediency.

Some years later, the late Ashok Kak assembled a galaxy of Kashmiri Separatist leaders including Shabbir Shah and Omar Farooq in a first ever post 1990, across the table interaction with displaced Pandits. The proceedings of that meeting went on the expected lines with the Pandits vociferously expressing their anger and the Muslims trying to strike reconciliatory notes. The general sentiments of the Kashmiri Muslim leadership at that time also were overwhelmingly apologetic.

Nothing significant emerged from the said meeting as, perhaps, the reconciliatory tones were more a produce of head than the genuine outpouring of the heart. The deceit, cunningness and the rabid fundamentalist mindset behind their extirpation also might have heavily weighed in the minds of the Pandit participants, who dismissed the developments as part of a politics.

Some time later, in the year 2005, an interaction was held, in Motel Ashok Jammu, between groups of Kashmiri Muslim leaders with displaced Kashmiri Pandit representatives which included Dr. K.L. Chowdhury, a senior Panun Kashmir leader. It was during this meeting that a former militant and then mainstream politician Babbar Badr expressed his guilt, neglect and repentance for the sorry state of displaced community. It was around same time when during a seminar on Kashmir held in Jammu University, Babbar Badr, on his own and Kashmiri Muslims’ behalf sought hand folded forgiveness from Panun Kashmir Convener, Dr. Agnishekhar.

Apology as an instrument of reconciliation has become an important tool internationally. There seems to be an unprecedented rush to offer apologies in the belief of creating benchmarks for acknowledging the wrongs took place. Whether, such apologies can become harbingers of progress towards restoring the mutual trust between the warring societies is, however, debatable. In the aftermath of Virginia (USA) legislators voting unanimously, early this year, to express profound regrets over Old Dominion’s role in promoting slavery, Senator Henry L. Marsh 111 expressed that he foresaw “no true progress in this country until we get a reconciliation and honest dialogue about race and slavery.” The same applies to politics of Kashmiri Muslim apologies as well, as no bridges can ever be built without an honest and dispassionate admission of conspiracy that forced an exodus of three hundred and fifty thousand ethnic aborigines from Kashmir.

There are also inherent dangers associated with the act of apologies as these can be effectively used to block the chances of a conflict free future. John Torpey in “The Entrepreneurs of Memory” strongly asks if the world wide concern with public apology represents a turning of society’s face towards the past and on that closes the possibility of imagining a better future. He further asks, “Isn’t there a danger that struggling to redress history will become a substitute for working a better future?” Marina Warner even goes to the length of suggesting, “Too many crimes have been committed in the name of future for us to rise to the call of apology.”

In response to the powerful presentation made by the Dr. Agnishekhar at the Prime Minister’s 1st Round Table Conference on Kashmir, Mufti Mohd. Sayed made a telling statement of the times by saying, “I am ashamed at what was done to Pandits. It is a national shame and ‘Hum iske liye sharminda hai.’ Mufti Sayed may have tried to score points then but one can’t be but be amused at his worthless statement. Those who get impressed by these apologies must understand the politics behind the same and should not forget that there was no succor for displaced Pandits in Mufti’s healing touch policy. Having been a union home minister and also a chief minister, Mufti can’t have been ignorant about no justice being possible without reparation. Nahla Valji commenting upon the proceedings of Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa rightly argues that, “reconciliation is ultimately linked to reparation and implies that without the later one can find neither justice nor closure.” In case of Kashmiri Pandits reparation can only be the recognition of their claim over a separate homeland in Kashmir.

Speaking at a seminar held last year during Summit of the Powerless, Omar Adullah strongly advocated setting up of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Kashmir on the similar lines as was done in post apartheid South Africa. True, the South African endeavor apparently seemed to have succeeded in its mission; however, recent reports have exposed some glaring omissions, which raise serious questions on the sincerity of purpose behind the whole process. Considering the inherent prejudice that Kashmiri Muslims have historically nurtured against the Pandits, will any commission be able to truthfully serve its terms of reference? Moreover, will the prevailing political and social dispensation in Kashmir ever allow setting up of honest and just terms of reference for any commission, which seeks dispense justice to the displaced community?

As mentioned earlier, Kashmiri Muslims will continue apologizing to the Pandits. The central question here is what that apology will actually indicate or achieve? Last year, during a two day seminar, Kashmir Imbroglio: Perspective, held in India Peace Center, Nagpur, Hurriat delegation led by their then spokesperson Saleem Geelani profusely expressed their regrets and sorry for whatever was inflicted upon the Pandits. Saleem Geelani even went to the extent of seeking forgiveness from the Panun Kashmir delegation comprising of Dr. Agnishekhar and Ramesh Manvati. The idea of an apology will definitely have an emotional appeal to many Pandits. But, what needs to be understood is that politics of symbolism must be isolated from the politics of substance, and then only the justice can be delivered.

The apologies from the very people who are the perpetrators of worst crimes against the humanity will only be symbolic and dictated by sheer political expediency. The apologies carry no weight or conviction as these are backed by a constructed mind set which welcomes the displaced persons as tourists and conspires against their permanent return. A testimony at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission stated, “We won’t say these perpetrators give us their money but they must give us some thing to show they are sorry.” Kashmiri Muslims can’t return lost seventeen years to the displaced Pandits but they need to give them some thing to show they are sorry. Kashmiri Pandits would be satisfied with a small portion of land on which they can give shape to their dreams and aspirations.

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Kamal Hak is a political analyst and a columnist. He as well is a senior leader of Panun Kashmir. Hak resides in Noida and can be contacted at kamalhak[@]gmail.com

THE PANDITS's OPEN WOUND-by Iftikhar Geelani(in PIONEER)

Bitta Karate, who murdered dozens of Kashmiri Pandits, walked out of court laughing this month when another attempt to convict him failed.It wasn't his victory, but the failure of the Indian state

One winter evening, late in 1989, a zooming Ambassador slowed down in the Chanakhan locality of Sopore town. A person wearing a Kashmiri gown (phern), apparently a Pandit, was thrown out and gun shots rentthe air. The bleeding person had not lost his senses. Holding hisbullet wounds he crawled to take shelter under a closed shop. Lawlessness had taken over the Kashmir Valley. Nobody would listen to anything but Azadi, to achieve which it was necessary to clear theValley of "informers" and leaders having the potential to "sell-out". The man who lay dying slowly of bullet wounds was crying for water inhis feeble voice. But the people of the neighbourhood, who were used to being hauled off by the security forces for harbouring anybody deemed a "militant" were in no mood to help. Instead of rushing to his rescue, they carried him by his arms and legs and tossed him into the Jhelum river which flowed nearby. That ended his misery.Till date, nobody has any answers for this strange behaviour -- a summary execution of sorts. The only explanation given was that thedead man used to live in a nearby village. He was a Kashmiri Pandit who had been kidnapped for providing information about militants tothe security agencies.

A contrast came a few months after this incident in a nearby SofiHamam locality, when militants raided the homes of Pandits in broad daylight. Almost all Pandit families had left for Jammu by then,barring a young boy. Ashok, who had stayed back for some unknown reasons. Militants believed he was helping the security forces bypinpointing targets. People literally gheraoed the whole locality and shoed the militants away. But, in the dead of night, they returned.This time, they cut off the roof of the house to drag out Ashok. After few days his dead body was found on the banks of river Jhelum.

The neighbours of the Pandits for centuries, the Muslims of KashmirValley were not particularly happy about the killings of Pandits. Onoccasions they remonstrated the militants. Even today, the full separatist spectrum consisting of hardliner Syed Ali Geelani tomoderate Yasin Malik recognise the Pandits as part of Kashmiri society. Their migration out of the Valley has disturbed Kashmiri society, they admit.

At the start of armed movement in 1989, strategists in both India and Pakistan disallowed any Kashmiri leader to take the centre-stage,which could have at least controlled the events. While India detainedleaders, militant groups at the behest of Pakistani agencies launcheda venomous campaign against them. They even resisted staunch pro-Pakistan Kashmiri leaders to ensure that the levers of control were with Islamabad and to avoid the re-emergence of a Sheikh Abdullah. Baring some honourable exceptions, this vacuum got to be filled by ruffians and street stalkers who had procured guns. They began to regard themselves as leaders and mujahids. They killed more civilians than they confronted the security forces.

Among such characters, Farooq Ahmed Dar, alias Bitta Karate, emergedas one of top leaders of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).The then Governor, Mr Jagmohan, later wrote in justification of the detention of traditional leaders and providing ascendancy to theelements in the JKLF: "I wanted to weaken the hold of the fanatics and fundamentalists, and also the pro-Pakistani groups by facilitating the ascendancy of those elements in the J&K Liberation Front who had thelatent disposition to be moderate and whom I could subsequently tackle to accept my idea of security real freedom for the Kashmiri masses, within the larger framework of the Indian Constitution.

"But, on Bitta Karate's emergence, Mr Jagmohan's policy went all wrong.Blamed by the Pandit community for a string of killings of itsmembers, Bitta Karate walked free on October 27, 2006, after 16 years of incarceration. An anti-terror court while granted him bail, arguedthat there was "no justification in continuation of his incarcerationwhen other co-accused facing the same allegations are enjoying fruitsof liberty".

Earlier, in 2001, Justice GD Sharma of the State HighCourt had ordered the transfer the cases against this notorious killerof the Pandits to Jammu.Farooq Ahmed Dar, against whom 23 FIRs -- mostly related to murder --had been lodged, was a martial arts practitioner. That gained him fameas "Bitta Karate". What earned him the wrath of Pandits was the "confessional statement" run by the official media soon after hisarrest, in which he accepted his role in the killings.

Even the separatists and the dominant JKLF faction-led Mohammad Yasin Maliknever espoused his cause, or even asked for his release for several years because of the negative image he had earned.Since then, there has been stiff opposition to his release, promptingthe Government to repeatedly slap the Public Safety Act (PSA) -- apreventive detention law that provides for detention without trial for a maximum of two years -- on him. Each time the term expired, it wasrenewed.Despite filing various cases against Karate for the killing of 30Pandits in 1990 and creating a fear psychosis, the State Government failed to file a chargesheet against him. His release may be treatedas a failure of our criminal justice system. The Pandit community,which is now thronging the streets seeking his re-arrest, failed toprovide a single witness against Karate in the court of law. There can be no excuse of lack of security, because the trial was going on in aspecial court in Jammu, where witnesses could have felt much safer.

The State Government, too, totally relied on the invocation of the Public Safety Act (PSA) rather than resorting to investigations andprocuring witnesses for convictions. For over two decades the rampant use of the PSA with ease quite dampened the investigation capabilitiesof the Jammu & Kashmir Police. It is used on all and sundry, from timber smugglers to terrorists, because the PSA is such a short-cut to the end of the troubles of the police force.

The policemen have become lazy, for no longer are demands of securing prosecution placed on them. It has not only completely shattered the investigating machinery of the State police, but the law also falls short of the fundamental requirements of justice. There is no such concept as equality before Law. The police could rest assured thatthere was no need to present an accused person before a magistrate, what to talk of looking for witnesses to examine.Bitta Karate eluded justice because the criminal justice system inJammu & Kashmir is quite dead. The State's failure to bring to justicea mass murderer and ethnic cleanser like him should not be viewed in narrow terms. It is high time the security agencies are reminded ofthe fundamental duty of their craft - to secure convictions.--

The writer is a noted expert on Kashmir issues

Screening at Center for Media Studies-Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University

We were over cautious this time around,we did not post the screening venue and date on our blog prior to the screening.We are aware that a lot of "Champions of Free Speech" are out with their arsenal ready to pounce upon and scuttle any of our screenings.We are scared of them,I must admit.Who wouldnt be!With the communists forming the core of our government even the PM has to eat the humble pie time and again.The seventh most powerful woman on the globe has to bow to the nuissance called Communists.We are small fries after all.So we were tight lipped until it would happen.

It was the turn of MMM Students(Master in Mass Media ) at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University to see what this nation has turned a blind eye to.Most of the students were well informed about Kashmir and the plight of Kashmiri Pandits but the magnitude of the plight had still to dawned on them.What equally surprised them was the apathy of the Government.Bitta Karate roaming free was something that a lot of the viewers were very uncomfortable with.

The movie screening prompted a discussion session wherein students aired their views and asked questions.While most questions centered around Kashmiri Pandit exodus and their plight there were questions about the role of armed forces,human rights violations and rights of Kashmiri Muslims.

We could only share our knowledge and pesrpective on the various questions,issues,frenzy and expression of freedom.

As one left the auditorium one was left with more questions than answers.But then that is how vexed the Kashmir issue is.It is and will be RIK's endeavour to take the issue to the audiences and then let them decide for themselves as to how they view the Kashmiri Pandit exodus and their present plight.

RIK would like to thank Arunabh Sen and Pawan Atri for their help in making the screening successful.Screening pics ....we apologise for the poor quality of the pictures.We did not take any cameras with us because we werent very sure till the last minute that these"Champions of Free Speech" would not have used their CONTACTS for blocking our screening.

MORE SEPRATIST THAN THE SEPARATISTS-CNN IBN,INDIAN EXPRESS AND CSDS

Learn the art of lying from Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Kumar.A dash of spice from Sagarika Ghose and the plate of lies presented by Rajdeep Sardesai and Co.

A CNN IBN Circus presentation,showing on a TV Screen in your house.

CNN-IBN, DAWN, INDIAN EXPRESS POLL on KASHMIR/INDIA/ PAKISTAN

What about Poll results from POK and Ladakh?
by Kshmendra Kaul

Significant geographical areas that seem to have been left out in the Poll are Ladakh and what is called Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) in India.

Part of POK is referred to by Pakistan as Azad Kashmir. Contrary to the Indian position, the geographical regions of Gilgit and Baltistan are considered by Pakistan as not being a part of "Disputed Kashmir".

Unless there are some unknown developments, Ladakh is very much a part of "disputed Kashmir".

Why these exclusions? The Poll loses it's credibility by not presenting viewpoints that encompass all of the disputed "Kashmir".

What makes it stranger is that Poll results from Jammu and Srinagar are highlighted in the summaries. One would have thought that such summaries will also be presented from Ladakh, Muzzafarabad, Mirpur, Gilgit etc

Is it being suggested that Jammu and Kashmir are disputed areas but Ladakh and POK (including Gilgit and Baltistan) are not? Do the people of Ladakh and POK have no say in the "Kashmir" dispute?

What is surprising is that three Indian organisations CSDS,Indian Express and IBN-CNN have allowed this distorted representation to take place. If it is not by conscious collusion then it certainly is by ignorant enthusiasm. It only serves to strengthen the impression held by many in India that the India's English Media is "more separatist than the separatists" .

To the credit of DAWN of Pakistan, their reporting of the Poll is very balanced. DAWN covers various topics and areas of common interest and makes no derivative value judgments.

In comparison the "Indian" duo of Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Kumar are obsessively focused on the "Valley" and gleefully highlight aspects of the Poll that will feed the "separatists" .

Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Kumar are also woefully unaware of the regions they are commenting upon. The Poll has confined itself to Srinagar and yet the duo call the results as those from the "Valley". They obviously have no idea that Srinagar is only a small part of the "Valley".

Using the 2005 Electoral Rolls as a guideline, Srinagar voters account for 0.67mil (22%) out of 3.11mil in all of Kashmir "Valley". So any Poll results out of Srinagar can by no stretch of imagination be called as being representative of the "Valley".

Interestingly Srinagar voters are only 11% of the total eligible voters in all of Indian controlled J&K

In Jammu 255 people were polled and in Srinagar the number was 226, a ratio of 1:1.13. However, there are 1,058,540 voters in Jammu and 673,648 in Srinagar, a ratio of 1:1.57. The sample sizes chosen from Jammu and Srinagar have some inexplicable and certainly not credible rationale.

Similarly, with India's population five times larger than that of Pakistan, the respective sample sizes of 2030 and 1010 are askew and make little sense.