Terrorism and Tourism cannot Walk Together

 

April 22, 2025 saw another massacre of 28 Hindu tourists and injuring many at Baisaran, Pahalgam, Kashmir, base camp of Sri Amarnath Yatra and a tourist hub. A group of Jihadis, supported by locals, stormed a huge gathering of tourists holidaying in Pahalgam and killed many of them. As per an eye witness, "Jihadis came out of the forest near an open small meadow and confirmed the religion of young tourists before pumping bullets in them, leaving their helpless young partners wailing and weeping." As per a reliable source, the Jihadis had a plan to abduct the grieving young ladies with the support of locals, but the timely arrival of Para-military forces saved the ugly situation. It has been also reported that some of the critically injured have succumbed to injuries and the death toll has gone up. Local Muslim fundamentalists, Jihadis who have joined the ranks with the foreign Jihadi war groups have played very important role in sustaining and promoting terrorism in Kashmir. Actually, Jihadis need logistical, informational and ideological support, also they need to eat, stay, and hide somewhere, these all are provided be locals. Muslim fundamentalists have played a dirty role in promoting terrorism in Kashmir, in spite of the fact overall development by Government agencies ushering prosperity in all spares of life in last decade. Un-precedent flow of tourists in the valley has brought by and large, riches and luxury to Muslims, since all sectors of tourism are owned and managed by locals only. We recall, how mercilessly Muslim fundamentalists have treated Kashmiri Hindus during early nineties and forced them to leave their ancestral Homeland. The perpetrators of gross Human Rights violations, Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus have not been punished so far. The Indian political class assumed complete silence over the death and devastation the Jihad wrought in Kashmir on minority community of Hindus. The Ethnic Cleansing of the Hindus of Kashmir in 1990 is one of the few episodes, which occurred after the Second World War, and in which a whole community of people was subjected to Genocide and driven out of its natural habitat. Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is a process of political violence which has specified political commitments aimed to separate Jammu and Kashmir State from India and secure its annexation to Pakistan. In fact, it is a low cost proxy war declared by Pakistan against India to grab Kashmir. The terrorist violence with which the Muslim Jihad in Kashmir commenced in 1989 was aimed to achieve a number of military objectives which the terrorist regimes and the Jihadi war groups considered to be essential for the liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian occupation. The ethnic extermination of the Hindus was one of the primary objectives, the Jihad aimed to achieve. The Hindus formed the frontline of the resistance against the separatist movements in the J&K State, which the Muslim separatist forces carried on for decades with the support of Pakistan. The Hindus have always supported accession of the state to India. They have, undeniably, formed the most powerful support base for India in Kashmir. They were always in the forefront of the struggle against secessionism, communalism, and annexation of the State to Pakistan. "The terrorist violence raging in Jammu and Kashmir is another 'Direct Action' that Pakistan and Muslim secessionists inside the State have launched to force a second partition on India. The campaign of terror spread in Jammu and Kashmir follows the same pattern which the 'Direct Action' followed in 1946; Genocide of Hindus, their Ethnic Cleansing by forced exodus from the Muslim majority provinces of India and the destruction of their religious identity. The Jihad which Pakistan launched in Kashmir in 1990, to liberate Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian hold, mounted its first attack on the Hindus in Kashmir. The terrorist assault on the Hindus in Kashmir commenced in the fall of 1989, and by the summer of 1990, more than seven hundreds of them had been assassinated in cold blood. Among those killed were people from all section of the Hindu Society; teachers, lawyers, political activists, media men, intellectuals, and men of small means. The massacre of the Hindus was accompanied by a widespread campaign of intimidation and threat to drive out the Hindus from the Kashmir province, burn their temples and religious shrines and homes and loot their property." (Bitter Truth by Dr. M.K.Teng and C.L.Gadoo)

Massacres of Hindus and Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir:

The JKLF Jihadis were the first to wage war on the Kashmiri Hindus. Its cadres operating from the precincts of mosques and the first killings were resorted, by the same outfit. Selective killings were incited to create fear in Hindu minority community. To start with prominent Hindus like S/Sh.Tika Lal Taploo, B.K. Gangoo, Navin Sapru, Ashok Kumar Qazi, Prem Nath Bhat, Sarwanand Koul Premi, T.K.Razadan, Nila Kanth Ganjoo were brutally massacred. The brutal killing of Sarla Bhat who was a nurse on the staff of the Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar was also the handiwork of JKLF. Shri Jagmohan in his book 'Shaping India's New Destiny' states; 'On July 13, 1989, Tikka Lal Taploo, an advocate and vice president of BJP, waş shot dead near his house. Judge N.K. Ganjoo, who had sentenced Maqbool Butt, was killed on November 4, 1989, in broad day light at the busy Hari Singh Street. Pran Nath Butt, a noted journalist was done to death on December 29, 1989. The murder of these three prominent leaders of the Kashmiri Pandit community was in line with the terrorist policy of killing one and frightening one thousand. The objective was 34 to secure exodus of the Pandits from the Valley No one was arrested and tried for these crimes. MASS Massacres were carried out at different places in the Kashmir: On March 21, 1997 seven Kashmiri Hindus were gunned down in Sangrampura village of Budgam district. (Daily Excelsior, Jammu March 23, 1997) 23 Kashmiri Pandits including 10 men, 9 women and four children were huddled together in dark cold night of 26 January 1998 at Wandhama village in Ganderbal and mowed down by the Islamist terrorists. (Times of India January 27, 1998) At Anantnag, twelve Bihari labourers were killed in July 1999. At Chittisinghpura village thirty-six Sikhs were killed in March 2000. At Pahalgam thirty-two Hindus, including twenty-nine pilgrims to Amarnath were killed in August 2000. In February and March 2000, four Kashmiri Pandits, including an eight year old girl, were gunned down in Anantnag district of Kashmir forcing the remaining 18 families out of their centuries old habitat. On March 24, 2003, 24 members of the Kashmiri Pandit community were massacred at Nadimarg in Kashmir valley On May 23, 2004, 30 people including 19 BSF personnel, killed in IED explosion near Qazigund on Srinagar-Jammu highway. 13 civilians including 2 school children and 3 CRPF officers killed and over 100 injured after an explosives laden car blew up in Pulwama, on June 13, 2005. Five pilgrims killed while returning from Amarnath at Ganderbal on July 21, 2006. Seven Amarna the pilgrims killed and 21 injured at Anantnag on July 10, 2017.

 In the Jammu mass massacres were widespread and death toll heavier:

Seventeen Hindus were killed in Kishtwar during 13-14 August 1993; Sixteen Hindus were killed in Kishtwar in January 1996; Seventeen Hindus were killed in Simber, Doda in May 1996; Twenty-Nine Hindus were killed in Dakhikot Prankot, Doda in January 1998; Eleven Hindus were killed in Dessa, Doda in May 1998. Twerty nine Hindus were killed in Chapnari Doda, in June 1998; Twenty Hindus were killed in separate terrorist attacks in Chinathakuri, and Shrawan, Doda in July 1998; Seventeen Hindus were killed in Surankot Poonch in June 1999; Fifteen Hindus were killed in That’re, Doda, in July 1999; Seventeen Hindus were killed in Manjakot Rajouri in March 2001; Fifteen Hindus were killed in Cherjimorah, Doda in July 2001', Sixteen Hindus were killed in Sarothdhar, Doda in August 2001', Thirty four Hindus were killed in Kaluchak, Jammu in May 2002; Twenty-nine Hindus were killed in Rajiv Nagar, Jammu in July 2002; Seventeen Hindus were killed in Udhampur in March 2003; Twelve Hindus were killed in Surankote, Poonch in June 2004; Ten Hindus were killed in Budhal, Rajouri in October 2005; Three of a Hindu family, were killed in Chaal, Udhampur in April 2006; 57 Hindus were gunned down by LeT operatives in two separate incidents in Doda district on May 1, 2006; 30 Hindus were killed in Thana Kulhand, Doda in April 2007; Four pilgrims killed and 24 injured bound for Vaishno Devi in Reasi district on May 13, 2022. Again 10 pilgrims bound for Vaishno Devi were killed after terrorists opened fire on a bus carrying the pilgrims on June 9, 2024. Besides above mentioned attacks by Jihadis there have been numerous other attacks on Hindus and especially on security forces. One of the biggest pre-dawn attack on the Army camp in Uri near LOC on September 18,2016 which killed 18 soldiers and the other deadly attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama on Feburey14, 2019, in which 40 security personnel were killed. The Indian political class launched a widespread disinformation campaign to camouflage the portent of the terrorist violence and conceal the real purpose of the Jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. The disinformation campaign succeeded only partially to provide a smokescreen to what the Jihad wrought in Kashmir and the Muslim-majority districts of Jammu province. Yet a part of the truth was revealed by the leaders of the mainstream political parties of the State, the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, when they admitted that the basic cause of Muslim unrest was the political issue which underlined the Kashmir dispute. The truth is that the security environment in Kashmir province is severely strained and the social culture of the Muslim community has been drastically changed by the Jihad. The Hindus of Kashmir were driven out on the point of the gun because of their resistance to the Muslim separatist movements in the State. Their opposition to the Muslim Jihad assumed nation-wide proportions during the last more than three decades of their exile. They will hardly find it easy to come to terms with the conditions that prevail in Kashmir, while the religious war continues unabated. It may not be out of place to mention here that the over ground political outfits of the Jihadi war groups and militant flanks, including various factions of Hurriyat Conference, have offered to accept the return of Hindus and at the same time expressed hope that after their return they will join their Muslim brethren in their struggle for liberation from India! The Indian people must realize that history does not move on dotted line. It takes its own course. It does not forget. It does not forgive. When history gives its verdict, it is ruthless with retribution which is relentless. The Kashmiri Hindus have loved their land with greater spiritual and social commitments than the Muslims, because they are not imposters and they have been living in the valley, generation after generation, over thousands of years. They possess a greater sense of belonging, being the original inhabitants and owners of the rich ancestral heritage and have their roots in the geography of the land. They are not conquerors; they have risen from their soil

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Courtesy:  Chaman Lal Gadoo and Koshur Samachar-2025, May