It was heart-wrenching to see pain of refugees in Jammu (PN Special)

My kites, my memories

We can’t imagine what kinds of the trials and tribulations Hindus in Bangladesh are going through these days. A section of the Indian media has prominently carried stories of rapes, hangings, tortures and other violations in Bangladesh. The social media is full of such stories though some videos on the platforms like X may be fake or exaggerated. Nevertheless, the situation in Bangladesh is continuing to be grim.

From a far distance, I can feel the pain of Hindus, who are facing violent attacks in Bangladesh. This is because I have seen very closely the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and west Pakistani refugees in Jammu after they were forced to migrate.

Those were the dark days in the Kashmir’s history as the winter of 1990 turned very harsh on minorities. The Kashmiri Pandits started getting threats on daily basis. Within days, their killings also began. JKLF militants have already killed Tika Lal Taploo, a BJP leader in the Valley. Once the killings began, the exodus of Hindus from the Valley also started. Nearly one lakh Kashmiri Hindus left the Valley within months.

The whole community was living in fear in the Valley as Pakistan-back terrorists were roaming freely in the streets of Srinagar and elsewhere. Who can forget the scary pictures of Lal Chowk where Pakistani flags were seen everywhere with loud chants of “Aazadi”.

As the migrants started arriving in Jammu in droves, they were provided dingy tents in different parts of Jammu city. Within few days, the small camps in Muthi were swarming with Kashmiri Pandits. They came whatever they could bring with them.

I was working in PTI Jammu at that time. The first day when I went to Muthi, the life of the people was very miserable.

The cries that I heard in the camps of Jammu are also unforgettable.” Please save us from militants. They have killed my husband, son, or father.  I don’t want to live. I want to die,” such types of shrieks were coming from all nooks and corners.

Being a cub reporter, I was finding it very difficult to make a story because I also felt very bad after seeing the ordeal of Kashmiri Pandits. Anyhow, I continued to send my reports based on interviews of Kashmiri pundits, who narrated their horror in the Valley.

Similarly, I have also done a couple of stories on the condition of West Pakistani refugees in Jammu. These refuges were denied citizenships in Jammu and Kashmir for 7 decades after the 1947 partition under the Article 370.

West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs) are those who migrated from areas in the West Pakistan in the wake of partition in the year 1947 and settled in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, mainly in Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts of Jammu Division. The 5,764 migrated families were not treated as Permanent Residents in Jammu & Kashmir. Though the WPRs are citizens of India and have the right to vote in parliamentary elections, they did not have the right to vote in the assembly and local body elections. They did not have the right to purchase property there. The children of these WPRs could not take admission in the technical and professional institutions of J&K. After the abrogation of the Article 370, all the rights of these refugees have been restored.

(For our esteemed readers, we are starting a new column under my kites, my memories from today. Under this column senior journalist Shishir Prashant will share various anecdotes in a story form. We hope you would like this column.)