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Pandits’ body urges Centre to set up SIT to probe ‘genocide’
Vishwa Kashmiri Samaj urged Centre to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate “genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits”
The Vishwa Kashmiri Samaj (VKS) — a leading organisation of the internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits, on Wednesday urged the Centre to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate “genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits” and take all such cases of killings and gang rapes perpetrated upon the community to their logical conclusion.
The demand comes close on the heels of a criminal application filed against former terrorist-turned Kashmiri separatist Farooq Ahmed Daar, alias Bitta Karate, in a Srinagar court on Wednesday.
“We will do our job but we demand that the Government of India must immediately constitute an SIT under a retired Supreme Court justice to investigate genocide and ethnic cleansing of Pandit community and all the cases of killings, rapes and gangrapes be investigated and take to their logical conclusion,” said VKS convener Kiran Wattal.
He said he has also asked the legal cell of the VKS to obtain police records of such killings, gangrapes and other violence against nationalist people, including Pandits, from all the police stations of Kashmir.
“From 1988 onward, the killings of Pandits had started in the Valley and then many women of the community were gangraped, killed and dumped in the Jhelum river. Though all the nationalist people in the Valley, including Muslims and others, were targeted by the terrorists, Kashmiri Pandits bore the maximum brunt,” said Wattal.
He recalled how four to five months before the mass exodus of the Pandit community, selective killings of prominent Kashmiri Pandits like high court judge Neelkanth Ganjoo, advocate Tika Lal Taploo and advocate Prem Nath Bhat created an atmosphere of fear among the community.
“Many Pandit women were gangraped, brutally killed and dumped in the Jhelum river. According to our estimate, there are over 1,000 such cases, which need to be re-opened and investigated,” said Wattal.
“Our legal cell has been activated and we will seek data from police before moving the court of law to reopen all such cases and punish the guilty. The government at that time was itself involved in the ethnic cleansing of the community. The then CM (Farooq Abdullah) was part of the conspiracy and at the Centre (in VP Singh government) the home minister was from J&K (Mufti Mohammad Sayeed), and for the release of his daughter dreaded terrorists were freed,” said Wattal.
He also referred to an interview of Bitta Karate in 1991 wherein he openly admitted that he had killed 30 people.
In the interview Karate, now a leader in the banned Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), admitted to killing dozens of Pandits, including Tickoo, during the insurgency in the Valley that led to the community’s exodus.
He later said he did not kill anyone and claimed his statement had been made under duress.
Hope Karate gets exemplary punishment: Kavinder Gupta
A criminal application was filed on Wednesday against Farooq Ahmed Daar, alias Bitta Karate, in a Srinagar court requesting a status report on all FIRs, or first information reports registered against him, including one in connection with the murder of Satish Tickoo, a member of the Kashmiri Pandit community.
The criminal application was filed by an advocate, Utsav Bains, on behalf of Tickoo’s family.
“The Kashmir Files movie has uncovered many things and has shown the tragedy that had befallen on Kashmiri Pandits in 1989-90. The mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits was a big conspiracy. In his interviews, Bitta Karate had made tall claims that he had killed many people and committed other crimes. Such people can’t roam freely. It is not good for the civil society and such cases should be re-opened,” said the former deputy chief minister.
Gupta further said, “It is good that such cases are being re-opened. Dreaded terrorists like him, who executed killings and created fear that subsequently caused a mass exodus of Hindus and Sikhs in their own country”.
He regretted that governments at that time didn’t take cognisance. “But today such cases are being re-opened and justice will be delivered to the victims and their families. I hope that court awards strict punishment to the guilty of such heinous crimes,” he said.
