By:Mohan Lal Verma
Veteran BJP leader Mr. Shanta Kumar, two-time Union Minister and former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh has expressed shock and surprise over creating hurdles in the way of safe return of Kahmiri Pandits to their homeland after suffering starving and languishing in different parts of the country for over 25 years.
It is agonizing, he said, that those who are opposing their rehabilitation in safe and separate colonies seemed to harbor evil designs to again throw them in the jaws of death.
Mr. Shanta Kumar, who had courted arrest at the tender age of 17 with a batch of Jan Sangh from Kangra Valley in March, 1951, during the nation-wide agitation launched by the visionary founder of the party, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherji, who came all the way from Bengal and laid down his life in Kashmir Valley for the unity and integrity of motherland and whose death continues to be a mystery till now.
He said there was not even a single instance in the history of the world where lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits had been forced out from their ancestral homes in the terror-torn Kashmir valley by the Islamic fundamentalists using terror and persecution as a brutalizing weapon at the behest of Pakistan. Those committed in this heinous crime against pandits of the valley were, in fact, spearheading the hidden agenda of Pakistan separatists with a devilish motive to alter the demography of Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir Valley.
It was the most harrowing chapter in the history of brutality and terrorism when there was a total collapse of law and order and the then Chief minister of J&K Sheikh Abdullah, and the then Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru, witnessed the slaughter of Hindus with shameless silence the butchery of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley.
Shanta Kumar said a leading Pro-Pakistan Urdu Daily of Kashmir “Aftab” had published a notice on behalf of Hizbul Muzahideen of Jammat-e- Islam in 1989 to wage a Jehad for the accession of Kashmir with Pakistan threatening Hindus to “pack and leave” Kashmir or face death.
He said Hari Singh, Raja of Kashmir, had already signed the legal treaty of accession of Kashmir with India. India is paying through nose for one imprudent statement of Nehru. Top legal experts of the country are unanimous on the point that a valid legal document cannot supersede the eccentric outburst of a political leader.
In the wake of the collapse of law and order machinery in the valley the masked Pak- terrorist ran amuck and thronged freely the streets of the valley shooting Kashmiri Hindus and shouting Pro-Pakistan slogans. As many as 300 Kashmiri Pandits were slaughtered.
He alleged that a noted lawyer and BJP national executive member, Tika Lal Taploo was shot dead on September 14, 1989 and soon after Justice Ganju of Srinagar High Court was also shot dead. An 81-year old famous poet of the valley, Pandit Sarvanand Premi and his son were also done away with by brutally taking out their eyes.
As if it was not enough, he lamented, that a Kashmiri Pandit nurse working in Soura Medical College Hospital Srinagar was gang raped and beaten to death. These are only a few of the many tales of horror perpetrated in the valley by the Pro-Pak terrorists
“I wonder if any religion of the world warranted such heinous cruelties against humanity. The criminal inaction by the then Chief Minister, Shekh Abdulah and the then Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, speaks volumes about their unpardonable offence by letting the Kashmiri Pandits killed with impunity and without any fear of law” he added.
Shanta said most of the Muslims in country are nationalists and had been holding high and exalted positions since independence in all walks of life unlike in Pakistan where Hindus were being ill-treated and languishing in slavery. Let us usher in an era of brotherhood between all communities in India and Pakistan and work for their progress and prosperity without discrimination to save the two countries from ongoing chaos gripping some parts of the globe. Let us fight jointly against lunatic brainwashing of youths, butchery and terrorism for ushering in an era of happiness for all.
