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Kashmir Files: A grim reminder of role of Pak ISI in ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits

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“Kashmir Files”, a documentary film, has opened many wounds that were never healed even after more than three decades. There is not only one but countless true stories narrating the genocide of Kashmiri Pandit Community in the Kashmir valley. The film depicts the tragedies inflicted upon the Kashmiri pandits by the deep state of Pakistan and their loyalist terror outfits.

Though insurgency in Kashmir began in 1987 when Congress was in power in the centre. But by 1983, Pakistani dictator Zia ul Haq was fully prepared for covert operations against India, first in Punjab and subsequently in Kashmir. Zia’s policy laid down the foundation of Jihad. He believed that the Kashmir dispute would be solved in the context of an Islamic government in Afghanistan, a jihad in Kashmir and an uprising in Punjab in India. The late 1980s saw Islamic fundamentalism taking roots in the valley as a sequel to General Zia’s seminal strategy which intended to incite the locals into militancy. Zia was adamant to make Kashmir an Islamic issue and his policy spurred support of Pakistan’s fundamentalist parties and their loyalists in the Pakistani army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan was an apprenticeship for its low intensity conflict in Kashmir. The cash, arms and ammunition provided by the US and channelled through the ISI found its way to the Pakistani arms market and finally to the radical organisations.

The withdrawal of the Soviet Union and later its disintegration convinced the Pakistani establishment regarding the capabilities of the well organised “jihadi” groups. Pakistan’s strategy was to engage them in a low- intensity conflict in Kashmir with rewarding results. Armed with sophisticated weapons and cash from the US, motivated through religious indoctrination and convinced about their dedication to the cause of Islam and their ultimate victory, this new breed of Islamic jihadis emerged as a new tool to execute the foreign policy objectives of Pakistani military establishment. It wanted to achieve Pakistan’s objective of inflicting damage to India. According to the Pakistani strategy, this would also succeed in internationalising the Kashmir issue and keep India under the pump.

Zia died in a plane crash in 1988 but under the tenure of Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani army and ISI kept executing its own Kashmir agenda as usual.

In his book “Shadow War: The untold story of jihad in Kashmir”, Pakistani journalist Arif Jamal gives a detailed reports about how plans were discussed in Kathmandu on January 4, 1990. While pro-jihadi participants voiced concerns over the growing influence of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) at the meeting, the founding leader of Jamat opposed direct involvement as it would destroy the organization and open it to an Indian security assault.

It was at this ISI sponsored meeting that pro-Pakistan separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani suddenly appeared and made a passionate plea for openly supporting jihad in Kashmir. According to Jamal, that all the factions thereon supported jihad in Kashmir after this decisive meeting.

After consolidation, the ISI selected terrorist organisations to promote the next agenda – ethnic cleansing in Kashmir.

The diabolic project began with the targeting of Hindus in late 1989. The first to be killed was Pandit Tika Lal Taploo, a prominent leader of the Kashmiri Hindu Pandit community. Four months later, on 4January1990, Aftab, a local Urdu newspaper in Srinagar ran a press release issued by the Pakistan based terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, proclaiming jihad and asking all Hindus to leave the valley. Walls were plastered with posters asking Hindus to leave Kashmir, Hindu homes were dotted red and Hindu women were forced to sport marks on their foreheads (tilak); masked men with Kalashnikovs roamed the streets forcing people to reset their watches and clocks to Pakistan Standard Time.

With each passing day of January 1990, the tension mounted. Then on 19 January 1990, dubbed as the Kristallnacht of the Kashmiri Hindu Pandit community, the pressure reached its zenith. As dusk approached and Hindu families, women and children included, cowered inside their homes, behind the false security of their doors, outside the spine-chilling exhortations to leave the valley became louder and shriller. The muezzin’s routine calls to the Islamic faithful from mosque tops was replaced by three taped slogans that resonated throughout the cold January night asking Hindus to convert and follow the Shariat if they wanted to stay in Kashmir or to leave their wives and daughters behind.

Grabbing just what they could carry, uprooted Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave the valley, leaving behind their ancestral homes.

All in all, according to IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Center of the Norwegian Refugee Council) 350,621 Kashmiri Pandits or 90% of the Kashmiri Pandits who were living in the valley fled Kashmir.

According to a report by Shishir Gupta, Executive Editor, Hindustan Times, “the pattern on killings of Kashmiri Pandits by terrorists shows that the bulk of targeted attacks took place in 1990 with the onset of jihadi terrorism in the Valley. Subsequent killings dramatically dropped not because of a change in the intent of the Pak sponsored terror campaign but because the adversary had achieved their strategic goal-pogrom to cleanse the Valley”.

“The Pandits were killed primarily with the sinister jihadi agenda to establish Nizam-e-Mustafa in the Valley as part of a pogrom, the majority community were mostly killed as collateral damage during maintenance of law and order, encounters with terrorists, during grenade and IED attacks in the Valley. A considerable number were also targeted for variety of reasons ranging from suspected informers, refusing diktats of terror commanders related to women, money, or property as also terrorists taking sides and settling local disputes related to personal enmity,” writes Gupta quoting a senior Kashmir police officer.

“Although the Pakistani deep state is responsible for destroying communal cohesion in Kashmir in the 1990s, it was Islamabad’s then friend, the US, which failed to recognize terrorism in Kashmir till the J&K Assembly attack on October 1, 2001. Throughout the entire 1990s, the Valley was all about human rights with the US State Department and western media and their proxies in the Valley batting for Rawalpindi GHQ in the international fora and pinning down India on so-called violation of human rights. The US definition in the Valley changed from freedom fighter to militant to terrorist after the 9/11 attacks and the December 13, 2001, attack on the Indian Parliament,” says the report.

Things are changing for betterment since August 5, 2019 when Jammu and Kashmir was declared a Union Territory after article 370 was abrogated. Though the terror incidents have come down effectively but Pakistan is still trying to radicalise the local Kashmiri youth. Majority of Kashmiri pandits are still scared of going back to the valley, leaving their “settled” lives elsewhere. The Indian security agencies are on alert after the humiliating withdrawal by the US last year leaving sophisticated weapons worth billions of dollars with the Taliban in Afghanistan. There are apprehensions that the Taliban “affiliated” all Sunni Pakistani terror outfits may once again try to revive militancy in Kashmir.

“It is not the 1980s and this time Pakistan has been getting a taste of its own recipe. Baloch, TTP, ISIS all want their ‘booties, “says one intelligence officer adding, “but we can’t lower our guard.”

Crime

Thane Crime: 88-Year-Old Senior Citizen Duped By Fake Technician In Dombivli

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Thane: An 88-year-old senior citizen residing in a building opposite Bal Bhavan in Ramnagar, the busiest area of Dombivli East, was cheated by a thief posing as a technician. The incident occurred on Monday evening.

The thief entered the house under the pretence of repairing the internet connection. He then asked the senior citizen to heat some water, claiming it was needed to clean a corroded laptop pin. When the elderly man went to the kitchen to boil water, the thief took advantage of the distraction and fled with cash and a wallet, stealing a total of Rs 9,000.

The victim, Bhalchandra Shridhar Walimbe, a retired resident of Sushila Society on Chiplunkar Road, has filed a complaint at the Ramnagar Police Station. According to his statement, the thief was a man around 30 years old, who rang the doorbell and claimed to be there to repair the internet. As a technician had recently visited for internet issues, Walimbe allowed him in.

Once inside, the man pretended to check the internet connection and examined a laptop, claiming the charger pin was rusted and needed cleaning. He requested hot water to clean it. While Walimbe was occupied in the kitchen, the thief opened a compartment in the house, stole Rs 9,000 kept for regular use, along with a wallet, and escaped, as reported.

When Walimbe returned with the hot water, he found the man missing. A quick search inside and outside the house revealed that the man had fled. It became evident that he was not a technician but a thief who had tricked and robbed the senior citizen. Police Sub-Inspector Waghmode from Ramnagar Police Station is currently investigating the case.

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Crime

Maratha Reservation Protest: FIR Filed Against 8–10 Protesters After They Attempt To Storm CCI’s Premises In Mumbai’s Marine Drive

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Mumbai: Tension gripped the Cricket Club of India (CCI) at Marine Drive after a group of Maratha reservation agitators allegedly attempted to storm into the premises and threatened the security staff. The Marine Drive police have lodged an FIR against 8–10 unidentified protesters.

As per the complaint filed by Shankar Namdev Salunkhe, the incident occurred at Gate No. 9 on Dinshaw Vachha Road. Though the gate was closed, the agitators allegedly tried to force their way in. Salunkhe claimed that the protesters also issued death threats, warning security personnel, “Keep the gate open or we will return at night with more people  then you will see what happens.”

Police have registered a case under Sections 189(1), 189(2), 189(3), 351(2), 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and relevant provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act. CCTV footage is being scrutinised to identify the accused.

Meanwhile, the city has witnessed multiple flare-ups linked to the Maratha agitation. Zone 1 police registered eight FIRs during the stir day before yesterday — including two at Marine Drive, three at Azad Maidan, and one each at MRA Marg, JJ Marg, Dongri, and Colaba police stations. The investigation into the CCI incident and other related cases is ongoing.

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Crime

Thane Sessions Court Grants Bail To Man Accused Of Rape On Promise Of Marriage, Says Woman Was Aware He Was Married

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Thane: The Thane Sessions Court has granted bail to Kashimira resident Savlaram Smartharam Chaudhary, who was accused of allegedly raping a woman on the pretext of marriage. The court, in its order, observed that the woman was well aware of the fact that the accused was married and hence was equally responsible for the act.

The order stated: “It appears that the accused has not denied or disputed physical relations with the victim. However, he claims that these were consensual relations between adult persons, whereas the victim claims that she consented to such relations due to an assurance of marriage. The investigation papers show that the accused got married on July 23,2024and has a baby. The period of the alleged offence is between August 2023 and January 2025, which means the victim continued her relationship with the accused even after his marriage. She is 28 years old and deals with monetary transactions. She knows the consequences of physical relations with a married person prior to marriage. In these circumstances, the ingredients of Section 69 of BNS are prima facie not attracted against the accused.”

The prosecution alleged that the accused gave a false promise of marriage and maintained physical relations with the woman at various hotels and lodges. He also allegedly obtained Rs 8 lakh from her and committed the offence of cheating, which led to an FIR being lodged against the accused and a co-accused.

The accused, however, claimed innocence, stating that he was falsely implicated. He was arrested on July 27 and has been in judicial custody since July 31 after custodial interrogation. The accused and the victim were colleagues at an imitation jewellery shop, where their friendship eventually turned into a relationship.

The accused further argued that he did not have sexual relations with the victim under a false promise of marriage and that the allegation regarding the Rs 8 lakh was baseless. He maintained that the money was taken as a loan to start an imitation jewellery business and was subsequently repaid.

He also produced a bank statement before the investigating officer, showing that the amount had been returned. Additionally, on April 25, the accused and the victim entered into a compromise deed stating that the victim did not owe any amount to the accused.

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