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

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4 years ago

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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.”

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Crime

CBI arrests proclaimed offender in Bengal gold trader’s murder in 2007

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1 hour ago

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July 14, 2026

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New Delhi, July 14: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested proclaimed offender Shibu Kumar Singh, one of the accused in the 2007 Sukanta Ghosh murder case, an official said.

He was arrested from his hideout at Raiganj Road in Gorakhpur’s South Gandhi Ashram, where he was living under the assumed name Akhilesh Kumar Shahi, the CBI official said in a statement.

The case was registered on the order of Calcutta High Court delivered on August 27, 2009.

After investigation, the CBI filed charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet on December 31, 2010, and November 14,2011, respectively, against Shibu Kumar Singh and three others, the statement said.

Absconding for several years, Shibu Kumar Singh was declared a proclaimed offender on September 15, 2016.

The accused was apprehended using human intelligence and technical inputs, the CBI said.

After obtaining a transit warrant, the accused will be taken to Kolkata for production before the competent court on Wednesday, the CBI added.

Barrackpore-based gold merchant Sukanta Ghosh was murdered on July 6, 2007.

The police found his body lying in a pool of blood with 18 stab wounds in Jawahar Kunja of Latbagan.

The police, after initial investigation, found that there was suspicion of the involvement of some goons allegedly working under the patronage of a Left legislator and his brothers.

The investigators found that the victim was murdered for refusing to pay protection or extortion money to the local mafia linked to the MLA.

During the investigation, the High Court had even directed the CBI to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the murder.

Justice Samapti Chatterjee had instructed the CBI to frame the SIT to reinvestigate the case that had initially been probed by the state police.

The High Court had directed that the SIT should be led by a CBI officer of the rank of Joint Director who would be responsible for providing updates to facilitate a court-monitored probe.

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Crime

Delhi Cyber Police bust mule bank account racket, arrest four in courier scam case

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3 hours ago

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July 14, 2026

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New Delhi, July 14: The Cyber Police Station of North-East District, Delhi, has busted a mule bank account racket and arrested four persons in connection with a fraud case involving cheating of Rs 2.47 lakh on the pretext of a courier delivery company.

The arrested accused have been identified as Md. Arbaz Daniyal alias Labbu (20), Jimmy Bathla (41), Abdul Wadood (27), and Aniket Verma (25). Police said the accused were allegedly involved in operating and supplying mule bank accounts used to receive and transfer money obtained through cyber fraud.

According to the police, a case vide e-FIR No. 00194/2026 dated 16.06.2026 under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered at Cyber Police Station, North-East District, on the complaint of Satender, a resident of Babarpur, North-East Delhi, who works as Deputy General Manager (DGM) at Delhi Transco Limited (DTL).

Police said the complainant received a call from a fraudster impersonating a courier executive regarding the delivery of a parcel. The caller allegedly convinced him to dial a number and activate call and message forwarding on his mobile phone. As a result, incoming calls and SMSs, including banking OTPs, were diverted to numbers controlled by the fraudsters, allowing them to fraudulently withdraw Rs 2.47 lakh from his bank account.

During the investigation, police analysed financial transactions, technical evidence and field intelligence to trace the money trail. Investigators found that Rs 80,000 of the cheated amount had been transferred to a Nainital Bank account belonging to the accused Md. Arbaz Daniyal alias Labbu.

Police said further investigation revealed that the account was allegedly opened and operated as a mule account for receiving proceeds of cyber fraud. A dedicated team conducted raids in Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand and Lucknow, Mirzapur and Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, leading to the arrest of all four accused.

“Investigation has exposed a well-organised network engaged in procuring and supplying mule bank accounts to cyber fraudsters for laundering cheated money,” Delhi Police said.

During interrogation, police said Md. Arbaz disclosed that he had opened the bank account on the instructions of Jimmy Bathla in exchange for Rs 50,000. Jimmy allegedly handed over the account to Abdul Wadood for Rs 1 lakh.

Police further said Abdul Wadood allegedly supplied the Nainital Bank account details to Aniket Verma, who then provided the account information to cyber fraudsters operating through Telegram for use in online financial frauds.

Four mobile phones, one from each accused, have been recovered during the investigation. Police said analysis of the seized devices revealed transaction details linked to the alleged cyber fraud network.

The arrests have provided important leads about the larger interstate cyber fraud syndicate, and efforts are underway to identify other members, trace additional fraudulent transactions and recover the remaining proceeds of crime.

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Crime

Pune Police arrest six interstate gang members accused in 20 criminal cases

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5 hours ago

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July 14, 2026

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Pune, July 14: Six members of an interstate criminal gang who were preparing to commit a dacoity were arrested in an operation by a joint team of the Pune Rural Police’s Local Crime Branch and the Otur Police Station, officials said on Tuesday.

During the operation, police seized weapons, ammunition, a stolen vehicle and other items collectively valued at Rs 14.87 lakh.

Officials said interrogation of the accused led to the detection of 20 serious criminal cases across Maharashtra and Telangana, while the six accused are collectively linked to more than 50 criminal cases registered in different states.

According to the police, a jeep, which had been stolen from the Loni Pravara area of Ahilyanagar district, was spotted in Kolwadi village of Junnar taluka on the morning of July 12.

During the search for the stolen vehicle, Vignesh Subhash Gholap, a relative of the owner, confronted a group of suspicious individuals.

Police said an argument broke out between Gholap and the suspects. When he raised an alarm by shouting “Thief! Thief!”, local villagers rushed to the spot and confronted the accused. With the help of the villagers, two of the accused were caught at the scene, while the remaining four managed to flee.

After receiving information about the incident, teams from the Local Crime Branch and Otur Police Station immediately reached the area. With assistance from local residents and Police Patils of Aalme, Ballalwadi, Kolwadi and Dingore villages, an extensive search operation was launched across the surrounding hills and valleys.

Officials said the search operation continued for nearly six hours, after which the remaining four absconding accused were also traced and arrested, completing the operation successfully.

The accused have been identified as Sonusingh Kapursingh Tak (30), Jilusingh Shersingh Dudhani (40), Karansingh Gagansingh Tak (27), Pankajsingh Kalusingh Shikalgar alias Dudhani (40), Papisingh alias Krishnasingh Sahebsingh Tak (18), and Mangalsingh Mayasingh Dudhani (58).

During interrogation, the accused allegedly confessed to their involvement in 20 criminal cases registered in Maharashtra and Telangana.

According to police, these include two cases of dacoity, one case of attempted dacoity, two robbery cases, 13 housebreaking cases and two vehicle theft cases.

As part of the operation, police recovered property and equipment worth Rs 14,87,820.

The seizure included a country-made pistol, live cartridges, other sharp-edged weapons, the stolen jeep and several other articles believed to have been used in criminal activities.

According to the Pune Rural Police, the six accused already have more than 50 serious criminal cases registered against them in Maharashtra, Telangana and other states.

Officials said all the accused will be produced before the court, where police custody will be sought to facilitate further investigation into the gang’s activities and possible involvement in other crimes.

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