Dhrubo Jyoti - 30 years of Pandit exodus: Night of terror that prefaced years of exile
Around 9 pm on January
19, 1990, Sanjay Tickoo sank into his favourite chair in front of the
television in his house in Srinagar’s Habba Kadal area. It was a cold evening
and most people in the neighbourhood had retired to their homes early. He had barely switched
on the television to the Doordarshan Metro channel when the loudspeaker in the
mosque near his house began to blare. Over the next few hours, the
announcements grew shriller, and the Tickoo family more scared.
“There were slogans
asking Pandits to leave the Valley and for Azadi (freedom). They also asked
Muslims to come out on the streets. By 11pm, it had reach fever pitch. And,
there was very little communication in those days,” said Tickoo, one of the few
remaining Pandits in the Valley. Around two kilometres
away in Downtown, a 46-year-old man was frantically dialling his contacts in
the state government as the din rose outside the lattice-patterned window of
his two-storey house – but to no avail. “We were told Ralive-Tsalive-ya Galive
(Convert, leave or perish). It felt like we had been cut off, abandoned, “ said
the man, who refused to be named.
As the night
progressed, more people came out on the streets in a city already smarting over
the disputed 1987 assembly election and the surprise appointment of
controversial bureaucrat Jagmohan as the new governor, hours before. The
elected government, led by Farooq Abdullah, was furious and rumours swirled of
a breakdown in administration. And, there was also
the fast-rising militancy led by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) that
was fighting for the province’s independence.
“It was a scary time
and people’s fears were exploited by terrorist elements. I remember none of us
could sleep that night. It seemed the message was: tonight, our fate will be
decided,” said Aasha Khosa. The morning brought
worse news for the Pandits, a prosperous and close-knit community of
350,000-odd caste Hindus with deep roots in the Valley, many of whom held
white-collar and government jobs....read more:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/night-of-terror-that-prefaced-years-of-exile/story-KN8vb0fimfWA6wr0l3lmxO.html
see also
We
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Mansoor Anwar on Comrade Abdul Sattar Ranjoor
Mansoor Anwar on Comrade Abdul Sattar Ranjoor
Samar
Halarnkar demands justice for the victims of Pathribal
Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, CPI(M) MLA, J&K: ‘Serious dialogue need of the hour’
Sanjay Tickoo: ‘Given the political backlash in Kashmir, no Pandit can or will return to Valley’Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, CPI(M) MLA, J&K: ‘Serious dialogue need of the hour’
What is to be Undone
