‘It Is Never Over, Never Escaped’

"It is never over, never escaped"
Mrs. Singh this tittle best depicts the plight of Kashmirs who are still left in Kashmir valley. It does not potray the plight of people like you and me who left either for greener pastures or for safer havens. I left Kashmir in 1993 when my husband was picked by Indian security forces during a routine crackdown. On inquiring about his whereabouts,we were asked to identify him among some dead bodies at a local police station. I was defiant and refused to see the bodies and demanded that he be released alive. At last he was let go at a local boder security forces headquaters in Sanat Nagar. where we lived. I still have chilling memories of the day not knowing whether I will ever see him again. This is the story of countless wives and Kashmiri mothers, whose loved ones were taken by Indian security forces and disappeared in custody. What would you call it " State terror". For Kashmiri's it is never over yet . You may be having nightmares but Kashmiri's are living the nightmares of oppression, death and destruction and rape at the hands of 700,000 security forces.

Ms. Singh has greatly exaggerated her suffering, but that is what minority syndrome is all about. I have seen Hindu terrorism in the heart of Hindu land, Benaras. I have witnessed what Hindus did to their Muslim neighbors after the demolition of Babri masjid and other countless acts of communal violence. Kashmiri Pandits owe gratitude to Muslim majority in Kashmir who pampered them. Even under stress of Amarnath Yatra fiasco, the orthodox Muslim leadership ensured that no Kashmiri Pandit or Indian Hindu was harmed. The Hindu yatris received food from Kashmiri muslims when the road to Kashmir was blocked by Hindu zealots in Jammu. I have not seen the muslims run away from Bihar, UP, Gujrat, Andhra, MP and other places when thousands were butchered. I see too many Hindu laborers and beggars in Kashmir earning cheap money and running drug/intelligence cartels. They did not leave for fear of their lives. How come Kashmiri pandits left? Let their be truth and reconciliation commission, the facts will come out regarding the exodus of Kashmiri pandits. I saw what Indian brutal forces do to the lives of ordinary Kashmiris. Kashmiri Muslims are educated lot and will not buy the crap in the shape of a nice imaginative story woven around a child in Kashmir. Ms. Singh, if you get nightmares once a while in New York, we get nightmares every night in the safe environs of Washington DC- imagine what the Indian brutal forces have done to us.

Seems like Kashmirinationalist really want to emphasize on his points that is why you submitted them three times???.

And I hate to think in term of Kashmiri and Indian, Indian and Pakistani, Hindu and Muslim. But you like thinking in term of Indian and Kashmiri, then someone will like to think terms of Baramullaian, Khrewian, and Rajouriian or in terms of different village identities also.

Police records hmmm do you know what statistics police gave about custodial deaths, disappearance also? So Pandits left for ideological reasons not because of fear of death. You might be right. I know 4 Kashmir originated Muslims families who left Kashmir around 1992-1995 periods. Reason might be same for them also that is ideological difference. Right? Unfortunately as per them separatist were threatening and harassing them for money and they were having nothing so they left. That seems to be the real reason behind KPs departure also. Until unless there is no threat to life for not supporting any ideology no-one will leave well established life. But threat was there. Separatists were threatening them either support ideology or face consequences. Either our way or highway as some put this. This highway was in two forms, highway which goes out of Kashmir or highway which goes out of world. People choose first one.

Same vast country is there for you also. So many Muslims from Kashmir (atleast four families I know) welcomed by this country with full heart. Religion is not an issue in India, proof is more then 15 Crore Muslims are leaving without any problem. Actual issue is somewhere else and points forwarded by Mr. Salim in one of his post seems to be accurately describes Kashmir problem.

But I see lots of the hope. One day Kashmiri people will come out of the dis-illusion created by kursi monger leaders (leaders at both places Delhi as well as Srinagar ) and fanatics. Fanatics no matter what faith they follow are bad for society and for progress. I agree that the forces might be committing accesses in Kashmir, they do it everywhere. Whenever you deal with forces experience is bad only, even just for a minor FIR to be registered one have to struggle a lot and mostly need to pay no matter which corner of India you are. But why forces are having so many rights in Kashmir because of terrorists only. There were daily murders, blasts. Have you ever thought of how many Muslims killed by separatists in the charge of being police agents or for money? Forces are there for them only. And I believe once conditions have improved forces will have to decrease from Kashmir.

One little fact check for Newsweek. The time Ms Singh is talking about
is 1989, 90, when USSR was in the process of breaking apart, with
Afghan war precipitating the collapse of the empire. Guess what these
`dastardly, despicable terrorists' were called at the time? The
Mujahideen. Contributing their mite to win cold war for US and engaged
in holy jihad from Afghanistan to Kashmir. And they were, know what?,
moral equivalents of the American founding fathers. Who said this?
President Reagan. Really? Newsweek should know it.

Coming to the article of Miss Singh, I hate to think in terms of Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri
Muslims. I hate to think your tragedy Miss Singh as distinct from not
merely few lakhs but millions Kashmiri Muslims. I hate to think we
are not part of the same state and its continuing run of tragedies.
I love to think that we may be religiously different but we are part
of the one common ethnicity. But Newsweek journalism perhaps mandates otherwise. The article on Kashmir carried by the publication has, perhaps, irrevocably persuaded me to think that the battle lines are sharply drawn in the world. And is it Muslims versus the rest? Otherwise, how could a tragedy of not more than three lakh Kashmiri Pandits override by leaps and bounds the curse of the five and a half lakh Kashmir Valley Muslims. The folly of the Singh???s write up is not in being untrue but exaggerating the tiny tragedy a billion fold.


And let us not forget why pandits left the Valley. Of course 209 pandits were killed ( the statistic can be independently checked from Kashmir???s police records), but so were Muslims along their side by the same so called ???jihadi, religious ( you can go on) terrorists??? . And so were some members of the minority Sikh community in Kashmir who unlike pandits didn???t leave Kashmir. Pandits left for ideological reasons. Because they didn???t believe in the movement for an independent or its accession to Pakistan. Pure and simple. Therefore why get killed alongside a struggle they had no stakes in.

And finally pandits and of course Miss Singh had atleast a vast welcoming country to run to,
the majority Muslim civilian population of the state had nowhere to go. For
Singh, only the memories of the nightmare remain, Muslim population is
trapped endlessly in this nightmare..

For me, it is really sad that I have not come across a
single pandit observer who talks of our shared tragedy. Not even, the
emancipated US read Miss Singh who has betrayed herself as a panun Kashmir zealot. There is no hope, I think.

One little fact check for Newsweek. The time Ms Singh is talking about
is 1989, 90, when USSR was in the process of breaking apart, with
Afghan war precipitating the collapse of the empire. Guess what these
`dastardly, despicable terrorists' were called at the time? The
Mujahideen. Contributing their mite to win cold war for US and engaged
in holy jihad from Afghanistan to Kashmir. And they were, know what?,
moral equivalents of the American founding fathers. Who said this?
President Reagan. Really? Newsweek should know it.

Coming to the article of Miss Singh, I hate to think in terms of Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri
Muslims. I hate to think your tragedy Miss Singh as distinct from not
merely few lakhs but millions Kashmiri Muslims. I hate to think we
are not part of the same state and its continuing run of tragedies.
I love to think that we may be religiously different but we are part
of the one common ethnicity. But Newsweek journalism perhaps mandates otherwise. The article on Kashmir carried by the publication has, perhaps, irrevocably persuaded me to think that the battle lines are sharply drawn in the world. And is it Muslims versus the rest? Otherwise, how could a tragedy of not more than three lakh Kashmiri Pandits override by leaps and bounds the curse of the five and a half lakh Kashmir Valley Muslims. The folly of the Singh???s write up is not in being untrue but exaggerating the tiny tragedy a billion fold.


And let us not forget why pandits left the Valley. Of course 209 pandits were killed ( the statistic can be independently checked from Kashmir???s police records), but so were Muslims along their side by the same so called ???jihadi, religious ( you can go on) terrorists??? . And so were some members of the minority Sikh community in Kashmir who unlike pandits didn???t leave Kashmir. Pandits left for ideological reasons. Because they didn???t believe in the movement for an independent or its accession to Pakistan. Pure and simple. Therefore why get killed alongside a struggle they had no stakes in.

And finally pandits and of course Miss Singh had atleast a vast welcoming country to run to,
the majority Muslim civilian population of the state had nowhere to go. For
Singh, only the memories of the nightmare remain, Muslim population is
trapped endlessly in this nightmare..

For me, it is really sad that I have not come across a
single pandit observer who talks of our shared tragedy. Not even, the
emancipated US read Miss Singh who has betrayed herself as a panun Kashmir zealot. There is no hope, I think.

PS. It should be mentioned that while the right wing hindu groups have caused harm to muslims, the KPs did not. The bigotry of, and violence by, the kashmiri muslims towards the Kashmiri Pandits is not excused or justified by anything the hindu fundamentalists may have done.

Now the truth comes out. THe Kashmiri muslims wanted independence, the Kashmir Pandits didn't, so the muslims started slaughtering the pandits. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist.

The untold story here is of the flat bigotry that exists on both sides. Pandits scorn the muslims just like half the world does, and the muslims hate the pandits and hindus in general in accordance with their general hatred for all potent forces in the world that have resisted or defeated islam.

Amidst the bigotry, everybody claims to be the real victim. But Pakistani islamic nationalists, their pet dogs in kashmir are just as bigoted and wicked as the hindu nationalists in the RSS who killed so many innocent muslims, whether in Ayodhya or Bombay or Gujarat.

India's present day villainy towards muslims is only a pale shadow of the slaughter, oppression, and butchery that centuries of muslim rulers brought to India. Its interesting that people only complain about the villainy of others, but not of their own towards others.

I want to tell you one more story, typical of Kashmiri Pandits (please forgive me, I am not generalising, I am talking of people like Aarti, Chrungoos, and Agnishekhars). It is about a Pandit girl who eloped with a Kashmiri Muslim hunk. Before leaving with her lover, she wrote a letter to her dad saying what she felt about the boy and how it was difficult for her to resist the barriers of religion and tradition. When the father came home, his wife handed him the tragic letter. When the father read through the letter, he screamed, "that bitch, she has forgotten to put a full stop at the end of this sentence." This father's reading of the letter aptly symbolises the Pandit conundrum. They are concerned about full stops. They don't see the larger picture, THE LETTER, THE ELOPEMENT, which is that Kashmiri Muslims believe India has been occupying them with military might for past 60 years and they want a respite.

I am no master of politics and history but with my little knowledge would like to ask following questions and would like to put my points as I understand:
1. How many of you believe that India-Pakistan division was result of lust to power of Nehru and Jinnah?
2. How many of you believe that Kashmir problem is result of lust to power of Sheikh Abdullah?

Nehru-Jinnah both wanted supreme position in Congress where Nehru won with the help of Gandhi and Jinnah parted ways to create his own heaven as politicians normally do (So many examples available in politics of India-Pakistan and every country). Because secularism was mantra of Congress so Jinnah, who was an hard core secularist before this, picked up separate state for Muslims agenda as nothing else promising was available.

Problem of Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah wanted a separate state to lead, which is the root cause of all Kashmiri problems we see today. Had he decided to merge with either Pakistan or India all these problem never had emerged in first place. Was it really possible for Kashmir to be a separate state when more then 500 other states choosing either India or Pakistan? But power lust is great. Hari Singh, King of Kashmir would have gone to India quite early but friendship of Nehru-Abdullah hindered him. But finally when Pakistan attacked Kashmir he had to go for accession with India. But now Abdullah ambition heading up. After that because of on-off Nehru-Abdullah friendship, both politicians fanning public emotions both sides??? thatis Abdullah and party in Kashmir and Nehru and party in rest of India. Finally after failing in wars, divided into two and failing with supporting unrest in Punjab in name of Khalistan, Pakistan started sending terrorists in Kashmir. Before terrorism came to Kashmir, how much army was there and how much killings/rapes were there? Condition stands where we are today.

But public did not understand this game and will not understand till we all are divided fully, killed by hunger or fight among ourselves, we will keep on following them and they will keep on using us as canon fodder.

As the day stands Kashmiri mainstream parties getting funds from GOI and pocketing them while separatists getting funds from Pakistan and Arab countries and pocketing that. Who cares about common people and why should any when common people don???t care about themselves.
.

Prior to the Independence of India and Pakistan, the Muslims of Kashmir were ruled by a weak minority government. Can you imagine how docile the people have always been? All strife in Kashmir is the finds its root in the Pakistani Punjabi Muslim dominated terrorist movement that stands on the brink of international censure and annihilation. Only when this cancer is extirpated and a South Asian Union develops, will there be lasting peace

Srininewsweek has even forgotten the population of Pandits. He/she says that millions of them have been uprooted. From being 250000 in 1990 to *millions* now (according to srininewsweek) it is quite an achievement. They must be breeding like dogs!!!!!!!! in the diasporic world? No?

Had Aarti written the ???article??? in any Indian newspaper as she used to do when she was working for Indian papers, I think no Kashmiri would have responded.
There are reasons for it: When it comes to Kashmir Indian media is part of the India???s propaganda machinery. Besides, no media outlet of India would have accommodated the comments that the Newsweek is carrying in response to Aarti???s so called memoir.
It is faith of Kashmiri Muslims in the impartiality of the foreign media that has prompted so many Kashmiris to respond what Aarti Singh has written.
In fact foreign media has been by and large impartial while reporting Kashmir. That is why Aarti Singh propaganda piece has enraged Kashmiri Muslims here. Not because why she has written it but why the Newsweek has been misled to carry it.
Aarti has been writing such propaganda pieces portraying freedom movement of Kashmir as religious jihadi fundamentalism for past several years and we have never complained. Because, she can???t write objectively when it comes to Kashmir and Indian media doesn???t publish anything that goes against policy of the Indian State. But, in Kashmir people expect from the Newsweek that it should not to give space to habitual propagandists.

one wonders....even such exagerated and fictitious columns of elite kashmiri pandits find space in the magazines like NEWSWEEK...but the 70000 poor kashmiri muslims, whose lives, families and properties were destroyed by the indian occupation forces have no such availability

sri-at least pundits have been displaced or ran away as they knew they had wronged the majority -the muslims have been murdered in millions by the maniacal army that runs rabid in kashmir
and get your figures right before posting
the population of kashmir is 12 million including jammu and hindus make less then 10 percent of that even according to the figures falsely claimed by the mendacious indian authority

as for mifune he does not even comprehend he is amusing and i am bemused by him
it will be a mockery to get angry with someone so petulant and moronic
lolz

hahaha! look at all this anger and gnashing of teeth! just over a KP woman telling a story of her childhood.

How much it burns you people to have somebody other than as kashmiri muslim tell a story of suffering in Kashmir, of suffering caused by kashmiri muslims.

Well, keep screaming. I am done here. Nothing will be settled by arguing on this board. Out there, in the real world, the reality is what it is, and I wish all of you the best of luck, because you're really going to need it.

Cheers.

Aarti Tikoo Singh is just one among the millions of Kashmiri Pundits who have been uprooted from their home land. What she said is an under statement. The truth is even more heinous. The Kasmiri Muslim terrorist is fighting for some thing more than food sheltor and secure future, his objective is Satanic Umma and elimination of every non-Muslim from the face of this earth. All the Kashmiri Pundits who are ethnic Kasmiris more than any Muslim Kasmiri has ever been have been uprooted and exiled. The Pundits never caused any harm to any Muslim, all that they wanted was food, shelter and security in their home land of billions of years. Almost 18 percent of population in Pakistan in 1947 was Hindu, and today they all have been either physically eliminated or forcibly converted. The day has come for the whole world to unite and eradicate this pest from this earth.

MERCI MAJID

YOU MADE THE POINT MANIFEST WHILE MIFUNE MUFFLES THE TRUTH AND MURDERS THE MANNERS ON A FRUM TOO-

WHATS AARTIS POINT -WHY IS NEWSWEEK NOT PUBLISHIG THE ACCCOUT OF THE SWISS JOURNALIST WHO WENT UNDERCOVER IN KASHMIR TO REPORT AS A MUSLIM WOMAN -

SHE WAS GANGRAPED AND BEATEN BY A DOZEN INDIAN MILTARY OFFICERS AS SHE WAS PRETENDING TO BE A MUSLIM WOMAN

THAT HAS BEEN FACED BY MILLIONS OF WOMEN IN KASHMIR JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE MUSLIMS

AND ARE BORN MUSLIMS

I KNOW MEN AND YOUNG BOYS WHOWERE EXECUTED FOR JUST BEING IN THEIR HOMES BY IJDIAN ARMY -WHILE THEY RAPED THEIR WOMEN

THE FASCISTS COME TO TELL THE WORLD THEY HAVE BEEN TERRORISED

WHAT A BEMUSING -ENTIRELY DESPICABLE HILARIOUS PASTICHE
NEXT ARTI WILL BE SINGING
HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SCREAMS OF MUSLIMS -
BUT I AM AM ALIVE AND WELL IN BROOKLYN
AND MIFUNE CAN COME FOR DINNER AS CUSTOM
FOR MY APARTMENT IS AS WIDE AS MY ...........

THESE PEOPLE HAVE NO LOGIC ,SHAME OR MORALITY

LEAVE THEM TO DIVINE JUSTICE BECAUSE THEY SURELY DESERVE WHAT IS COMING TO THEM SOON

MIFUNE THINKS BURNING LOOTING KILLING AND RAPING BY A MILITARY FORCE IS NOT TERRORISM -IT IS INDEED EVEN WORST

IT IS DEMONIC
AND INDEED EVEN NELSON MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST AND PROUD TO BE ONE TOO
AND HE IS MY HERO
MIFUNE WILL OBVIOUSLY MULL WITH-----MILOSEVIC

RIght. we are back to the claim that the poor innocent kashmiri muslims are merely victims and have never victimized anyone, that nobody is owed their compassion, that it is only they who are the victims of the story of kashmir, that the militants they support have never killed any innocent people.

You keep telling the truth that iNdian forces have murdered, raped, tortured innocent kashmirs. you should keep saying it because its true and it deserves to be said.

And I will keep saying that JLKF, Laskar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-mohammad, Harkat-ul-ansar, and others that the kashmiris have supported are terrorists, because it is also true and deserves to be said.

THe violence inflicted by the indian forces cannot be forgiven or forgotten. Nor can the evil villainy of the terrorists who claim to be freedom fighters of kashmir.

YOu will never get respect for your cause as long as you keep insisting that the only evil in this story is from the Indians and the Hindus, till you keep denying that Kashmiris have supported terrorists and terrorism.