The atrocities committed against Kashmiri Hindus and their forced exodus from the Valley coinciding with the rise of militancy in the 1990s are part of the general conversation again across the country. The release of the film The Kashmir Files last week has put the issue on the front burner.
In a recent report, ‘Seven Exoduses And The Ethnic Cleansing Of Kashmiri Hindus’, research think tank Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies (CIHS) has published a graphic list of select documented cases of murder, rape, and violence against the community in the Valley from 1989 until 2003.
March 14, 1989: Prabhavati from Nawagari, Chadoora in Budgam district was killed at Hari Singh High Street, Srinagar, J&K.
September 14, 1989: Renowned Kashmiri Pandit social activist and advocate Pandit Tika Lal Taploo was shot dead in his house in Habba Kadal, Srinagar, J&K.
October 31, 1989: 47-year-old Sheela Koul Tikoo, from Dalhasanyar, was shot in the chest and head.
November 4, 1989: Justice (Retd) Neelkantha Ganjoo was shot at close range and killed at Hari Singh Street market near High Court in Srinagar.
December 1, 1989: Ajay Kapoor, a resident of Maharaj Gunj, Srinagar, J&K, was shot and killed by terrorists in full public view.
December 27, 1989: 57-year-old advocate Prem Nath Bhatt of Anantnag was killed in full public view.
January 15, 1990: ML Bhan, a government employee from Khonmoh, Srinagar, was killed. The same day, Baldev Raj Dutta, an operator in Lal Chowk, Srinagar, was kidnapped, and his brutally tortured body was found four days later, on January 19, 1990, at Nai Sarak, Srinagar.
January 25, 1990: Squadron leader Ravi Khanna and his colleagues were waiting at the Rawalpura bus stand for an Indian Air Force bus to take them to the airport when a Maruti Gypsy and a two-wheeler carrying four to five JKLF terrorists surrounded them and fired a hail of bullets from AK 47s. Khanna and 13 other IAF men fell to the ground. Three died with Khanna, and ten were injured. Yasin Malik has admitted to this killing in an interview with Tim Sebastian. He was the area commander of JKLF, working under chief commander Ishafaq Wani.
February 1, 1990: Krishen Gopal Berwa, a central government employee, and Romesh Kumar Thussu, a state government employee of Trehgam, Kupwara, were gunned down in full public view.
February 2, 1990: Satish Kumar Tickoo, a young Kashmiri Hindu (Pandit), was shot at point-blank range by a group led by Farooq Ahmad Dar (alias Bitta Karate).
February 13, 1990: The director of Doordarshan, Lassa Kaul was murdered when one of his colleagues allegedly leaked information about his movement. On the same day, Rattan Lal of Rawalpora, working in military engineering service (MES), a civilian organisation, was also killed.
February 16, 1990: Anil Bhan was killed by Farook Ahmed Dar, aka Bitta Karate, who’s responsible for killing thirty-four Kashmiri Pandits.
February 23, 1990: Ashok Kazi was accosted, harassed, and shot in the knees, kicked into the drain, and urinated upon. As he waited for his agonising death, a few more shots were fired to kill him.
February 27, 1990: Naveen Sapru was shot near the Habba Kadal bridge in Srinagar, J&K. The murderers then danced around him, and as he lay breathing his last in full public view.
March 1, 1990: PN Handoo of the information department was killed, and Tej Kishen of Badgam was hanged to death by Islamist terrorists.
March 18, 1990: RN Handoo, the personal assistant to the Governor, was killed outside the gate of his house at Narsinghgarh, Srinagar.
March 19, 1990: BK Ganju was killed when his Muslim neighbour revealed his hideout to the terrorists.
March 20, 1990: AK Raina, deputy director of Food and Supplies, was murdered in his office at Srinagar in front of his subordinates.
April 10, 1990: HL Khera, the general manager of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), was shot dead by terrorists in Srinagar.
April 19, 1990: Sarla Bhat was gang-raped by several Muslims, stripped naked, and murdered brazenly. Her body was thrown on the roadside in full public view.
April 24, 1990: 45-year-old Bansi Lal Sapru of Gulab Bagh, Srinagar, was accosted by his neighbours, shot and killed from a close range.
April 24, 1990: Ravinder Kumar Pandita of Mattan, Anantnag, was shot dead at close range on his way back home. His killers danced over his body in glee.
April 27, 1990: Brij Nath Shah was kidnapped from his home in Sadhu Ganga, Kupwara. He was found dead two days later. He was tortured, and his lips were stitched shut.
April 30, 1990: Sarwanand Koul `’Premi’ and his son, Virender Koul, were abducted from their home, and two days later, their bodies were found hanging, with their limbs broken, hairs uprooted, and portions of their skin slit open and burnt.
May 1990: Shyam Lal of Chiragam, Anantnag had his hands and feet chopped off and skull battered after being kidnapped. His remains were stuffed into a sack and deposited on the threshold of his house.
May 2, 1990: Professor KL Ganju had six bullets pumped into his body. His corpse was kept in the local mosque for the night and then thrown into the river. According to one of the assassins who was arrested later, Mrs Ganju, too, was ruthlessly killed and her corpse was tied with a stone and thrown into the Jhelum. But since her body was never found, one can never be sure about what exactly happened to her.
May 2, 1990: 23-year-old Surinder Kumar Raina, son of Jia Lal Raina, working as a liftman in the SKIMS, Soura, was kidnapped in front of cheering and dancing onlookers and then killed on Ali Jan Road.
May 13, 1990: 27-year-old Ashok Kumar, son of Bhasker Nath, from Pulwama, was kidnapped by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists, who broke his hands and feet, dragged him to the main crossing of the town, plucked out his eye-balls with iron rods, and killed him with a burst of bullets in the presence of hundreds of cheering onlookers, one of whom was chanting “Islam is glorious and great”. On the same day, in another part of the Valley, Veer Ji Bhat, son of DN Bhat, a junior engineer in the state irrigation department posted at Shopian, was sprayed with bullets. Despite bleeding profusely, he caught hold of one of the terrorists when the other terrorists, armed to the teeth, sprayed more bullets on him before making their escape.
May 16, 1990: Bushan Lal Koul, son of Shridhar Koul, a government employee and a resident of Amnoo village, not far from Kulgam, Anantnag, was kidnapped by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists and strangled with a steel wire.
May 18, 1990: Twenty-seven-year-old Manmohan Bachloo, son of Janki Nath Bachloo, of Qazihama, Baramulla, an assistant in the postal department of Karnah, had come home on holiday. A childhood friend asked him out for tea and led him to a shop where his other accomplices shot him at point-blank range.
May 19, 1990: Dilip Kumar, son of Mohan Lal, hailing from Mujamarag, Shopian, was dragged out of his home by Muslim terrorists. Dilip’s teeth were hammered out, and twelve bullets pumped into him. His body was hanged from a tree with a letter pinned on his chest, daring anyone to lift it and get a prize of one lakh.
May 27, 1990: Prem Nath of Uttarsu in Anantnag district was kidnapped and subsequently impaled by being nailed on the chest and feet.
June 4, 1990: Girija Tickoo in Bandipora was abducted and blindfolded. Then four men took turns raping her. Finally, when she identified one of them by his voice, the men fearing identification took her to a wood processing unit and mechanically sawed her alive. Sometime later, almost a similar fate befell Kumari Babli and her mother Roopwati of Pulwama.
June 1990: Ashwani Kumar, injured by terrorists’ bullets, was refused a vehicle to transport to the hospital. When he was finally rushed to the hospital, the doctors refused to treat him, and he succumbed to his injuries.
June 22, 1990: Balkrishen Tutoo of Habba Kadal, Srinagar, an officer in the agriculture department, was critically wounded by terrorists who had barged into his house to abduct and kill his brother. On the same day, 52-year-old Makhan Lal Raina, a medical resident posted at a dispensary at Khan Sahib in Badgam district, hailing from Kharyar, Srinagar, was picked up from his dispensary, tortured, and finally shot dead. His body was said to have been chopped into pieces. The mutilated body was eventually recovered from Dardpora in Badgam.
June 24, 1990: 25-year-old Ashwani Garyali, son of Shambu Nath Garyali from Chhatabal, Srinagar, was shot by five masked terrorists after they labelled him an informer. He died upon being denied medical care by local Muslim doctors.
June 30, 1990: 59-year-old Raj Nath Dhar, son of Dina Nath Dhar, from Qutub-Ud-din Pora, Alikadal, Srinagar, was shot at and killed.
July 7, 1990: Gopi Nath Raina, son of Govind Ram Raina, of Manigam, Ganderbal was labelled an informer and shot dead in his shop by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists. On the same day, Dina Nath Mujoo, a 70-year-old theosophist who contributed immensely towards educating the Muslim youth of Fateh Kadal, was stabbed ruthlessly by terrorists who barged into his house in the dead of night and decapitated him.
July 15, 1990: Shiban Kishen Koul, son of Radha Krishen Koul of Ashmuji, Kulgam, Anantnag, was slaughtered by his close neighbours. His father was slaughtered the next day, July 16, 1990, in the same manner.
July 26, 1990: Sixty-one-year-old former serviceman Autar Singh, son of Fateh Singh, of Saimnoo in Kulagam district of Kashmir, working with Hindustan Petroleum in Pulwama, was labelled an informer and shot dead by armed Islamic terrorists.
August 13, 1990: Babli Raina of Sopore, a teacher by profession, was gang-raped in her house in the presence of her family members.
August 17, 1990: Chand Ji Kher, the teenage son of Dina Nath Kher, and a resident of Vessu, Anantnag, was killed after he went out of his house on being called by his Muslim friends.
October 6, 1990: Professor DP Khazanchi, son of Damodar Khazanchi of Kani Kadal, had three bullets pumped into him, killing him on the spot. On the same day, Zinda Lal Pandita, son of Prakash Ram Pandita of Bagatpora, Handwara, was kidnapped from his residence and strangled with a steel wire in a nearby orchard by JKLF assassins.
October 7, 1990: Jagan Nath Pandita, son of Ganesh Nath Pandita of Bagatpora, Handwara, was kidnapped from his house and taken to his orchard, where he was strangled with a steel wire. His killing occurred during the intervening night of October 7-8, 1990.
October 12, 1990: 47-year-old Pushker Nath Razdan, son of Tika Lal Razdan, a resident of Khonmuha, in Pulwama district, was killed by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists who barged into his house and shot him at night.
October 15, 1990: Maheshwar Nath Bhat, son of Zana Bhat of Hazuri Bagh, Srinagar, was killed when armed terrorists barged into his house seeking his son-in-law who had hid in the house.
January 2, 1991: Omkar Nath Wali, son of Parmanand Wali from Chak-i-Rajwati, Vessu in Anantnag district, was an assistant sub-inspector of police, posted at district police lines, Anantnag. He was kidnapped and shot dead by his colleagues in the police department, who hatched a conspiracy for his murder in connivance with the terrorists of JKLF.
June 16, 1991: Rajinder Tickoo from Batpora, Shopian, who worked in the accounts department of Shopian Hospital accounts, was shot with four bullets. His disconsolate father himself cremated his body as no priest was available.
June 1991: Brij Lal Kaul and his wife Chhoti from village Harman, Shopian, were tied behind a jeep and dragged and then shot dead. Their mangled bodies were recovered some 10 kilometres away from Harman.
August 8, 1991: Asha Koul was abducted from Achabal, Anantnag, and taken to an abandoned house of a Kashmiri Pandit in Srinagar where she was gang-raped for many days and then tortured to death. Her body was found later in a decomposed state in that very house on August 26, 1991.
August 26, 1991: 22-year-old Surinder Kumar Koul of Batagund, Handwara, was kidnapped by his friends, tortured, and shot to death at Langet in Kashmir.
October 18, 1991: Kanya Lal Peshin, son of Kanth Ram Peshin of Pazalpora, Bandipora, a poor farmer who barely managed to survive on his measly income, was kidnapped from his house at 9 pm and taken three kilometres away from his village where he was subjected to torture. Pins were driven into his nails and, finally, a metre-long piece of cloth was stuffed into his mouth to stifle him to death. His body was later found at Ajar, Bandipora.
March 31, 1992: Bimla Braroo of Nai Sarak, Srinagar, and her daughter, Archana were raped in the presence of her husband, Sohan Lal, before all three were killed.
March 21-22, 1997: Seven Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) were massacred during the night at Sangrampora village in Budgam. The terrorists dragged them out of their houses and gunned them down.
January 25, 1998: Twenty-three Kashmiri Pandits were shot in cold blood in Wandhama Village, including women and children.
March 24, 2003: Twenty-four Kashmiri Pandits, including infants, were shot dead in Nadimarg Village.
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