February 9, 1998

The killing of 23 Pandits in the Valley dashes hopes of migrants' return and may trigger yet another exodus.

By Suresh Nandi and Harinder Baweja

Their faces were familiar. He had seen them visit Motilal's house several times when they came on the pretext of taking medicines and stayed on till the crack of dawn, after which they disappeared into the caves and ravines off the Bandipora road. They came again on the night of January 25 and disappeared once again into the blackness of the night, but this time only after killing nine women, four children and 10 men.

Fourteen-year-old Vinod Kumar Dhar was the only one who lived to remember those familiar faces. Faces of the 28-odd men "with long beards", who entered the four Pandit homes and killed 23 people, including his parents, two sisters and both brothers. Killings that were significantly timed -- two days before the First National Winter Games were to be inaugurated by Prime Minister I.K. Gujral. Four days before Id and one night before the Indian flag was unfurled on Republic Day. The location, too, had a political message. Wandhama village, 26 km from Srinagar, is part of Ganderbal, chief minister Farooq Abdullah's constituency.

For Motilal and Vinod's Muslim neighbours, however, the message was tinged with sadness. Even as they busied themselves collecting firewood for the mass cremation, the thought was that Wandhama would be remembered as a village that had been "ethnically cleansed". For the Muslims of Wandhama, Id was indeed an occasion to mourn, not celebrate, for on January 25 they witnessed not just the death of their neighbours but the demise of social harmony in Kashmir.

They were happy that at least four of the 12 Pandit families had resisted the migration wave and stayed on after assurances from their neighbours that they would not let any harm come to them. The Pandits became fearful again when in March last year seven of them were gunned down in Sangrampora but had chosen to stay put. After the recent massacre, however, a majority of the 1,000-odd families which still remain in the Valley are not sure of their safety. Sadly, nor are their neighbours, for as Makhan Lal, a Pandit from neighbouring Mangam, says, "Unlike earlier, when our Muslim brothers used to say they would lay down their lives for us, they are now saying that they can't make any such assurances because they can't even guarantee their own safety."

Security for the minority community is indeed a serious issue, especially because they are soft targets and the Farooq government has been found wanting, mainly because of the stand taken by the chief minister himself. Promising to personally supervise the re-construction of Pandit homes that have been gutted and ransacked over the years, Farooq had placed the issue of the return of the minority community on top of his agenda. But when neither the homes were reconstructed nor any soft-loans given, the Pandits refused to return. Then, Farooq hardened his stand, saying, "They can suffer in their camps if they don't want to return." And after January 25, he did a quick somersault once again, saying, "it is not possible for them to return honourably."

Though in power for over a year now, the Farooq government has done little to facilitate the return of the migrants. Or provide protection to the Pandit families who stayed on even after the second wave of migration following the killings in Sangrampora. Then too, Farooq and Abdul Ahmed Vakil, minister for revenue and rehabilitation, had promised to post security personnel in villages where Pandit families were staying. Vakil had also promised to remove the encroachers who had occupied Pandit homes. A survey was conducted soon after Farooq took over, which revealed that 2,311 homes had been illegally occupied and 5,344 homes had been gutted. The promise then was that revenue officers would collect rent from the encroachers and pass it on to the rightful owners.

An entire year has gone by and the matter has remained on paper. Says state chief secretary Ashok Jaitley: "The government has now decided to take over the houses and pay the rent." For the community, however, this is just another one in the long list of unfulfilled promises. The anger and despair that have been building up are now culminating in an anti-Farooq sentiment. Daisy Kumari, a Pandit from a village neighbouring Wandhama, says: "He is now promising to give us weapons training. What is the guarantee that he is not giving weapons to the other side?" There is resentment too. While even Gupkar road in Srinagar is cordoned off because Farooq resides there, they feel little attention is paid to the grave threat they have been living under.

Farooq went ahead with his schedule of welcoming the prime minister and escorting him to Gulmarg for the inauguration of the Winter Games on January 27, but had to soon get back to the business of formulating steps to assuage the Pandits, who are now seriously considering leaving the Valley. And that, acknowledges a Farooq aide, would be serious. As Divisional Commissioner S.L. Bhat put it, "The few Pandit families that remain are a social and psychological symbol of Kashmiriyat."

Apart from the promise of providing weapons training and introducing village-level vigilance committees, the state is seriously considering moving Pandit families to safer areas, closer to towns and district headquarters to keep Pakistan from achieving its aim of communalising the situation. In the days after the killings, the administration has quietly been persuading families to shift, but their answer is the same -- if they have to move, they would rather shift out of the Valley. And now that the state is also facing a prolonged election schedule, Kashmir being the last state to go to the polls, the Pandits are scared that soon they would be targeted again.

The entire nation is with you. We will not let Pakistan succeed," Gujral assured villagers in Wandhama. But fear is giving way to their firm resolve to move out. As one of them put it, "Gujral himself is prime minister only for a short while. We have to think about our own future, especially since each of us feels that it could be our turn next." Unwilling to trust the government any further, they point out that even Farooq expressed helplessness when grilled about why the army post was removed from the village a year ago. The Wandhama killings have once again highlighted the uneasy equation that exists between the state government and the army. While Farooq says that the army shifted its garrison despite his opposition, the army reacted quickly, saying that the militants have "political links" with the village and that it was because of these links that the militants could carry out the killings with confidence. A serious charge, which is not going to keep the pandits from joining their community in Jammu and Delhi, especially since there are differences between the state Government and the Army even over the number of foreign mercenaries operating in the Valley.

Pandit organisations like the Kashmir Samiti, Delhi, Panun Kashmir and All India Kashmiri Samaj have for long been asking various forums, including the National Human Rights Commission, to ensure the security of the families in the Valley who preferred to stay on mainly because the small pieces of land were their only source of livelihood. Or they too, like the remaining 1.25 lakh, would have fled when the slogan of azadi was being blared from every available loudspeaker.

A point for the Farooq government to consider is that not only have these people refused to return to the Valley, but a majority of them have been selling their property in Kashmir, fairly sure that they may never be able to return. Says Bansi Lal Labroo, a former chief education officer in Srinagar who has been living in a rented house in Delhi since 1990: "House is a very dear word for me, but what was the point of hanging on to a skeletal structure. I sold it because even if the government places a lollipop in front of me, I will not be tempted." Adds Professor Chamanlal Sapru, who edits a magazine that highlights the problems of the Pandits: "There was a tendency among those who have landed property to return, but Wandhama has changed that."

The Wandhama killings have added to the resolve of the migrants to join the ranks of those who have already transacted their deals. A matter serious enough for both the state and the Central governments to worry about. For just as Vinod can't forget those "familiar faces" that orphaned him, the migrants can't forget the time they had to leave, ironically at dead of the night.

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