Return to the Valley

At an international conference on Kashmir held in Washington this July, in which I had participated, everyone spoke of the violation of human rights by Indian security forces. No one mentioned anything about the violation of human rights by the terrorists. No one mentioned the atrocities committed against the Pandits. Mine was the lone voice!

The dominant view was that there isn’t any terrorism in J&K, only a freedom movement! One Kashmiri went to the extent of asserting that, under international law, indigenous people have a right to take up arms against the occupiers! These are the voices of Kashmiris who are highly intelligent and educated, but were forced out of the Valley by Delhi’s politics in the ’80s. They are extremely bitter about the governments in Delhi and Srinagar, and it is their bitterness that makes them violently anti-Indian.

Mufti Mohammed makes a very significant observation: “When people defeated Omar Abdullah in his bastion, they began to gain confidence that it was them and not Delhi who were responsible for his defeat. This feeling is growing in people that they — and not Delhi — can make and unmake governments.”

Along with the steps to rehabilitate the Pandits, the Mufti should appeal to those Kashmiris who left because of their political activities — those who were not involved in any criminal or terrorist activities — to come back to Kashmir and be a part of Kashmiriyat.