Kashmiri Pandit who helped stranded Kashmiri Muslims After Pulwama. By Betwa Sharma
NB: This young woman has shown that love is a higher power than hatred. I salute her courage and spirit of human solidarity. We owe her and her family thanks. DS
Sagrika Kissu, a 26-year-old journalist was on her way to celebrate Shivaratri with her parents and grandparents in Jammu city, where they have lived since Kashmiri Hindus, most of them Pandits, fled Kashmir in 1989-1990. Shivaratri is one day when politics takes a backseat and a feeling of bonhomie descends on her family. They decorate earthen pots with images of Hindu gods and eat walnuts soaked in water.These, however, are troubled times. With the exception of a few arguments over the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s performance, the house was quiet.
Sagrika Kissu, a 26-year-old journalist was on her way to celebrate Shivaratri with her parents and grandparents in Jammu city, where they have lived since Kashmiri Hindus, most of them Pandits, fled Kashmir in 1989-1990. Shivaratri is one day when politics takes a backseat and a feeling of bonhomie descends on her family. They decorate earthen pots with images of Hindu gods and eat walnuts soaked in water.These, however, are troubled times. With the exception of a few arguments over the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s performance, the house was quiet.
“We did not really
talk to each other,” she said. “They were perturbed about the Facebook messages
abusing me for helping Kashmiri Muslims. They did not know how to react.” Last month, Kissu, a
reporter with NewsClick, went out of her way to help Kashmiri Muslims caught in
the backlash after
the deadly attack in Pulwama on 14 February. A 19-year-old Kashmiri rammed a
vehicle filled with explosives into a convoy of security personnel, killing 40
soldiers. On 7 March, three weeks after the Pulwama attack, Kashmiri dry fruit
sellers were beaten
up in Lucknow.
'In solidarity with all Kashmiri students': An appeal by a group of Kashmiri Pandits
Posts by Sanjay Tickoo
As students were
landing in Delhi from states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Haryana, Kissu
found safe places for them to stay. Kissu helped 18 students who had left the
cities of Ambala, Dehradun and Jaipur. When she was not arranging lodging and
transport for the students, Kissu spent time with them. Kashmiri students
tweeted, thanking her for taking care of them. “She made everything possible n
sent us home. Will never forget… Kashmir is seriously incmplt (incomplete)
without pandits,” Raashid Ashraf tweeted,
with the hashtag #Kashmiripandit and #family. Another Kashmiri
student thanked Kissu for a “teary eyed family reunion.” Sheikh Zada Suhail tweeted,
“she treated us like family, we never felt homesick in your presence.
#kashmiripandit, #family, #kashmir.”
For all this, Kissu
was hit with a volley of vile messages, slander and abuse on social media. A
post on Facebook, written by a Kashmiri Pandit, called her a “female,” who “is
offering to help those Wahhabis who kicked out her family in 1989 out of
Kashmir.” HuffPost India has decided against repeating the
messages containing abusive language, but readers can gauge the kind of
backlash she has faced from the following: “Lot among us are suffering from
Stockholm syndrome,” “she is a rotten apple,” and “it’s all about sex.” This was not the first
time that Kissu was targeted on social media. In 2016, she was criticized for
uploading a photograph with Khurram Parvez, a prominent human rights activist
in Kashmir. She removed the photograph.
In March, last year,
she was bashed for reporting that
Rohingya Muslims did not attack a Republic TV journalist as he had claimed.
A Facebook post, with photos of her with author Arundhati Roy and
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid, said she was seen with
“anti nationalists.” “We Kashmiri Pandits were always nationalists and will
remain nationalists come what may,” the post said. Last month, Kissu felt
a “little scared” about her safety, and worried about a backlash against her
family, but she believes helping the Kashmiri Muslims was the right thing to
do.
Many were appalled at
the forcible expulsion of Kashmiris from states like Uttarakhand and Haryana.
There were others who said - “What about Kashmiri Pandits in the nineties?” This whataboutery
defies logic. Kissu wondered whether she really had to explain why one is
naturally inclined to help someone in trouble. Still, Kissu gave an
answer. “I’ve come to realize
that what Kashmiri Pandits went through was not because of Kashmiri Muslims but
because of the conflict in the Valley. It is the same conflict that is killing
Kashmiris right now,” she said. “What happened to Kashmiri Pandits was
horrible, but what is happening to Kashmir Muslims is also horrible.”
75,000 Kashmiri Pandit
families - 3,25,000 people - lived in Kashmir prior to 1989, according to
Sanjay Tickoo, who heads the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti based in
Srinagar. Tickoo, who did not
leave in the mass migration, estimates there are 808 families - 2,867 people - left in Kashmir. A survey conducted by
his organization in 2008 found that 399 Kashmiri Pandits were killed after the
insurgency erupted in 1990, most of them in the first year. This figure is
higher than the official death toll of 219, but lower than the 1,200 figure
suggested by Panun Kashmir, an organization of displaced Kashmiri Pandits,
which observes Kashmiri Hindu Holocaust Day every year on 19 January.
Tickoo believes the
exodus was the result of the Indian state’s inability to protect Pandits
against Islamist radicals. “I would say 60
percent of Kashmiri Pandits were saved by their Kashmiri Muslim neighbors and
colleagues. Otherwise, there would have been maximum killings. The government
and the army failed to protect us,” he said… read more:
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/this-pandit-helped-stranded-kashmiri-muslims-cue-tears-and-trolls_in_5c862a28e4b08d5b78635308?mx&utm_hp_ref=in-homepagesee also
Posts by Sanjay Tickoo
'In solidarity with all Kashmiri students': An appeal by a group of Kashmiri Pandits
