Kashmiri Pandits Beseech Goddess For a Peaceful Return

[Guest guest]

Jammu, INDIA (June 4, 2006): Thousands of Kashmiri Hindus, who fled

an Islamic insurgency in the Himalayan state years ago, gathered on

Sunday at a holy shrine in the strife-torn region to pray for an

early return to their homes.

 

More than 250,000 Kashmiri Hindus, known as "Pandits," left their

burning homes in droves when a revolt broke out against Indian rule

in Kashmir in 1989.

 

Since then, thousands of migrant Pandits gather every year on this

day at the white marbled shrine surrounded by huge green chinar

trees and shimmering streams, chant hymns, and walk barefoot

carrying marigolds, rose petals and earthenware lamps.

 

Hundreds of gun-wielding policemen and soldiers guarded the

Kheerbawani temple, the holiest shrine of Kashmiri Hindus in the

disputed region, as the pilgrims prayed.

 

"Oh Goddess! Return peace to mother Kashmir, so that we return

back," 75-year-old Mautharaji Koul cried in front of the temple. "I

want to die here," Koul said as tears rolled down her eyes.

 

Koul was visiting Kashmir for the first time since the outbreak of

the revolt that has killed more than 45,000 people.

 

While some Kashmiri Hindus have made their way to New Delhi and

other parts of the country, thousands of bitter and disillusioned

Pandit migrants live in abysmal conditions in the state`s winter

capital, Jammu, with families of five to six packed in a room.

 

"The shade of the chinars, the cool breeze of my Kashmir. These

memories bring tears and make us feel quite nostalgic most of the

times," said Bansi Lal, a 45-year-old government employee. "From the

past 16 years we have lived in a pathetic condition in Jammu."

 

The National Human Rights Commission puts the number of migrant

Kashmiri Hindus at 300,000, the largest migration since the 1947

partition of the subcontinent into mainly Hindu India and Islamic

Pakistan.

 

Kashmiri Hindus, most of them teachers and government employees, and

Muslims had lived in harmony since the 13th century when Islam first

became the majority religion in the region.

 

Although Kashmir's moderate separatists and the government have been

repeatedly urging them to return for some years now, many young

Pandits remain sceptical.

 

Separatist militants have said they would not allow the minority

Hindus to return to their ancestral homes in Kashmir and have

attacked those who stayed back.

 

"I do not want to die here like my father, I still remember the

horrible day when two terrorists came to our home, killed my father.

He was writhing in blood, I was too young to help him," said

Rajkumar Bhat, 23.

 

"I will never return to this place," added Bhat who along with her

mother and sister now lives in the Hindu-dominated area of Jammu.

 

In one of the bigger and more brutal attacks, guerrillas shot dead

24 Pandits, including 11 women and two children, in a remote hamlet

in 2003 provoking outrage across India.

 

SOURCE: Garavi Gujarat Publications Ltd and Garavi Gujarat

Publication USA Inc

URL: http://www.gg2.net/viewnews.asp?

nid=1783&tid=top_stories&catid=Top%20Stories

[Guest guest]

Nothing is going to happen. No goddess is going to come and help them, they need to learn to defend themselves. This problem will never end until Islamic terrorists are wiped out.