Chinkara gazelle or Kashmiri Hindu? by Lalit Kaul(Rediff.com)

(http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/dec/19guest.htm)

December 19, 2007A Chinkara gazelle is killed in Rajasthan in 1998. The alleged killer, actor Salman Khan, is charged and the prosecution is under process.
Many Kashmiri Pandits are killed in Jammu and Kashmir [Images] in the late 1980s and 1990s. The killers, who have admitted the killings, roam free and have not even been charged yet.
Anything wrong with this picture?
Not if you ask the ministry of home affairs (Kashmir division), government of India.
Using the privilege available under the Right to Information Act, Kashmiri Hindu youth filed a petition (click here to see the petition) to get the status of the pending cases against Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate.
Bitta Karate started his terror career as a Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front member. During the early days of terrorism in the Kashmir valley, he killed many innocent Kashmiri Hindus.
After waiting for two weeks, these youth got a reply from the director and central public information officer at the ministry of home affairs (Kashmir division), government of India (click here to see the official response).
The following was the stock response:
'...The information you have asked for is not available in the Kashmir Division of Ministry of Home Affairs...'
Not only are terrorists not charged and prosecuted, but the Kashmir division of the ministry of home affairs actually claims not to have any records about these killers and killings.
Am I convinced? Hell, No! Should you be convinced? Hell, No!
This ministry of home affairs has a separate Kashmir division within its ministry and it does not have any information about these merciless killers? Who is fooling whom?
Bitta Karate admitted the to the killings in a television interview. Please click here to see for yourself.
Common people like me have access to these videos and transcripts but the Kashmir division of the ministry of home affairs does not. What a shame!
Bitta Karate spent many years in Indian jails but was eventually released by a TADA court on bail on October 23, 2006. While granting bail, the presiding officer of the TADA court, N D Wani, observed that the court was aware of the fact that the allegations leveled against Bitta Karate are of a serious nature and could carry punishments of death or life imprisonment. The fact is that the prosecution (read the government of Jammu & Kashmir and India) has shown total disinterest in arguing the case, which is in complete violation of Article 21 of the Constitution.
And now Bitta Karate, who admitted killing scores of Kashmiri Hindus, is not only roaming free but is now playing the role of a politician on the Kashmir political scene. It is not inconceivable that there soon might be a day when he will become a state minister in the government of J&K, maybe even chief minister.
Do you feel it is okay for government agencies to let these terrorists roam free and be more concerned about Chinkara gazelles? Please do not get me wrong. I don't have anything against Chinkara gazelles and I do not advocate the killing of these endangered animals. But if I am ever given a choice between saving a human being and a Chinkara gazelle, you know what my choice will be. So where are the government's priorities?
How come terrorists are not being prosecuted as per the laws of the land? What is preventing the law enforcement agencies from implementing the laws and putting these killers behind bars so that they cannot harm any more innocent civilians? Isn't providing security to its citizens the first and foremost responsibility of any government? Am I missing something here?
While pseudo-secular human rights activists continue to scream about the Gujarat riots and clamour for face time on Indian 'progressive' media outlets, they have their lips sealed and pens dry about the horrendous ethnic cleansing of 400,000+ Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir.
I guess gone are the days when journalists used to stand up against injustice and fight for the rights of ALL human beings, irrespective of the religion they belonged to. These days, it seems they get their stories handed over to them by their politician masters who only care about their kursi and 'votes' that get them that kursi. After all, it is a kissa kursi ka.
All I can say is that if there is life after death, I wish to be reborn as a Chinkara gazelle. At least, I will be assured that I am protected by the Indian Wildlife Act and wildlife activists who will fight for my survival.

Lalit Koul is the editor and publisher of Kashmir Herald, an online news journal available at http://www.kashmirherald.com/. He can be reached at editor@kashmirherald.com

Godhra Carnage Vs. Pundits Exodus

By J. N. Raina

Syndicate Features

On-again, off-again nature of talk about 2002 Gujarat riots, on the heels of Godhra carnage, is preposterous. It is outrageous and disgusting to raise such issues, rendered irrelevant with the passage of time, to tarnish the image of India, booming with economic activity. It is disrespectful to the nation of one billion people.

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The so-called ‘Tehelka expose’ has, in fact, exposed the hollowness of pseudo-secularists, who flourish on such ‘gossip’. Such loose discussions, brought to the fore repeatedly, should be put to an end once for all. The drum-beaters of secularism are deliberately orchestrating of what they call ‘sting operation’, when the Assembly elections in Gujarat are approaching. It is the height of stupidity to claim that the ‘expose’ just ‘coincided’ with the announcement of the Assembly poll in Gujarat.

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In the first instance, such ‘exposures’ are politically-motivated. The ‘power hungry’ Congress politicians know when and how to operationalise their ‘mischievous designs’, how to indulge in dirty tricks and how to mould public opinion. They raise the bogey of Gujarat riots, without bothering to mention about Godhra mayhem, in which 58 Hindu Kar Sevaks were roasted alive while they were traveling in the Sabarmati Express. The reaction to Godhra was Gujarat riots.

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The question is what was the need to reopen healed up wounds. If it was needed at all, why ‘publicity’ was not given to these killings six months earlier? What was done is done; cannot be undone. No sane person will gloat over the killings or justify them.

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But raising such issues repeatedly cannot be justified. More so since the secularists across the country did not bother to talk about the gruesome killings of nearly 1200 Kashmiri Hindus in early 1990 and later in sporadic incidents of ethnic cleansing. These killings and the resultant mass exodus of 5, 00,000 Hindus from Kashmir Valley are a blot on the Indian democracy.

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Hardly 15,000 Hindus are left in the valley now. Have they no right to live in their land of birth? Have they no democratic rights? The Human Rights organizations and the Amnesty International are just feigning ignorance about the apathetic conditions of the Kashmiri Hindus. So far the Indian Government’s internal policy priorities are concerned human rights of Kashmiri Pundits have been locked in the boot.

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Since there is so much talk about post-Godhra carnage by secularists, may I ask them why they are not equally strident in the case of Kashmiri Hindus’ plight. Why don’t they pause for a while to wonder what was the fault of the Kashmiri Hindus to be marginalised and neglected in their own country? What crime had they committed against the majority Muslim community in the Valley?

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After the mass exodus, their houses were looted and set on fire. Temples and other places of worship were burnt down. The Hindus were compelled to dispose off their properties at throwaway prices, so that they don’t dare to return to the Valley. Is this secularism? Is this democracy? No eyebrows were raised about the pogrom of the Kashmiri Hindus.

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For Kashmiri Hindus, secularism has been buried in the graveyards of Kashmir. The moderate Muslims were helpless as the radicals are holding the sway. And they just advised the ‘Hindu brethren’ to leave for lack of security.

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To cap it all, some maverick writers believe that killings of Muslims in Gujarat, as exposed by Tehelka, should not be suppressed. Does it mean, what has happened to Kashmiri Hindus and non-Kashmiri Hindus, who had also settled there for decades, should be suppressed? It is shameful. Why was not any commission set up to go into the killings and forcible exodus of Kashmiri Hindus?

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Why are there one-sided sting operations? Is it not a new weapon in the hands of the secularists to divide the society on communal lines, keeping in mind the vote bank policy?

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The authorities in Godhra, soon after the mayhem, had made an unsavoury statement that those who had burnt alive the karsevaks were “uneducated, without jobs and poor. Most of them, called Ghanchi Muslims, live in poverty and have no economic activity” How amazing? The Godhra officials were forced to make confusing statements to suppress the truth about Godhra.

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These tactics are sure to boomerang and destroy the age-old residual communal harmony. They should realize such exposures will retaliate on them, just like terrorism has boomeranged on Pakistan. Dr Sachidananda Sinha has well said: “Where there is no vision, the people perish”.

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Maverick writer Farzana Versey argues that the cause of Kashmiri Hindus has been romanticized. In a recent news paper article, “Fission Kashmir” (September 7, 2007) she remarks: “Unlike the 140 terrorist groups, the Pandit lobby is strong. It can organize itself. Displaced Pundits are now demanding reservations in the Jammu and Kashmir legislature and government jobs, as well as setting up of three townships in the Valley for their rehabilitation”. What is wrong in making these demands?

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Unlike Versey, some Pakistan journalists appear to sympathise with Kashmiri Pundits. They visited the migrant camps in Jammu and saw things for themselves. They have taken up the cudgels for speaking the truth. For the past 17 years, the Pundit community has lost its cultural moorings. They have lost their identity as an ethnic group, and are unable to preserve their traditions and customs.

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Some Indian journalists are talking about ‘nailing the guilty of Gujarat’. Their response is based on Tehelka’s investigations, which, according to them, has ‘provided evidence on tapes ‘of stories relating to the Muslims’ killings by top functionaries of the BJP and Sangh Parivar.

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Well, if that is indeed the case, what about nailing known JKLF activist Bitta Karatay, who, in a recent TV interview had claimed responsibility for killing scores of Hindus, with many more on his hit-list. He was in jail for 16 years on the charge of murdering a score of Kashmiri Hindus.

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The Supreme Court has released Karatay recently for ‘want of evidence’.

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Courtesy: Asian Tribune