Recently there have been violence in the Kashmir Valley. People are protesting against excessive Police Raj and intrusion by Indian army on regular basis. There have been curfews since several days and protest marches have been held. People have come to street including women and childeren and have protested against Police brutalities. Police in their defense have responded with tear gas shells and even guns at times. Innocents have been unfortunately killed and there have been more protests.
The state government of Jammu and Kashmir led by Omar Abdullah is being found helpless. The other party PDP led by Mehbooba Mufti is trying to gain advantage out of this situation, however people are in no mood to listen to any of the political leaders including some hardline separatists like Sajjad Lone and Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Of course the Central UPA government led by Congress party was silent and doing nothing, of course thats more or less expected as they do not have a clue on what is to be done.
Finall, on pressure from media and opposition parties, prime minister Manmohan Singh made an appeal to the people of Kashmir to maintain peace and promised them that their needs would be met and went as far as promising limited autonomy to the region. Thus the government has bowed down to the stone throwing Kashmiri people.
So the Kashmiris have got what they wanted, atleast they have been promised and things are back to being semi normal at least for the time being. But a problem that no one has addressed and no one is willing to even utter is the problem of the Kashmiri Pandits !!
Kashmir once had more than 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits residing in it. Since 1989, more than 99% of them have been driven out of Kashmir by unleashing a systematic campaign of terror, murder, loot and arson. They have been forced to leave their ancestral home and properties and have fled to temporary makeshift camps and tents. Terrorists sponsored by the neighboring Pakistan had one main mission and that was to target Kashmiri Pandits and hence drive them out of Kashmir for the fear of their lives. In other words its called Ethnic Cleansing. Pandits have not only lost their land, houses, shops, temples, properties and other valuable assets but have lost their right to their 5000 year old motherland. They have been tortured and forced to go and live in camps. The plight of the Kashmiri Pandits today is worse than any other community in our country.
Surprisingly the Indian state has failed to do anything about it. They have not even addressed a single issue of the community. Neither the leading human rights organizations have bothered about them. The world hardly knows about this gruesome murder of a community.
BUT in spite of all this Kashmiri Pandits have been tolerant to say the least. They have not given up faith in the system, they are fighting their battle in a peaceful way and have never resorted to violence of any kind, not even stone throwing. In a world threatened with ethnic and religious strifes where various parties have invariably resorted to violence and force, to further their claims, Kashmiri Pandit is the only example who has totally rejected the violence as a means to fulfill socio-political aspirations.
One day, justice will be done to them, hopefully.
Please also read a wonderful article by @Greatbong at http://is.gd/edUhP Of Azaadi and Kashmiri and other false words
Yeh Mera India 