Kashmiri Pandit Recounts 90s Violence

A Kashmiri Pandit and journalist recalled the horrors her community faced in front of a US human rights panel.

Transcript

00:00My father is a Kashmiri Hindu, my mother is a Kashmiri Hindu, I am a Kashmiri Hindu

00:05and her home and lives in Kashmir were destroyed by radical Islamic terrorism.

00:30We have seen ISIS level of horror and brutality in Kashmir 30 years before the West was even

00:39introduced to the brutalities of radical Islamic terror.

00:43I'm glad these hearings are happening today because when my family and I lost our homes,

00:48our livelihood and our way of life, the world remained silent.

00:53Where were the advocates of human rights when my rights were taken away?

00:58Where were they on the night of 19th January 1990 when there were voices blaring from all mosques

01:05in Kashmir that they wanted Kashmir with Hindu women but without Hindu men?

01:10Where were the saviours of humanity when my feeble old grandfather stood with two kitchen knives

01:17and an old rusted axe ready to kill my mother and I in order to save us from the much worse fate

01:24that awaited us if we landed in the hands of terrorists on the same fateful night?

01:29My people were given three choices, flee, convert or die.

01:34Around 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus fled right after that night of horror.

01:39They survived. Those who didn't were killed.

01:43Today, 30 years later, I'm still not welcome in my home in Kashmir.

01:47I am not allowed to follow my faith without fear.

01:50My house in Kashmir is illegally occupied as those of countless others in my community.

01:56Those that are not occupied have mostly been burned down or ransacked.

02:21I am a proud daughter of Kashmir. I am a proud legatee of India's composite civilisation.

02:29Terrorism has uprooted me and snatched my home from me.

02:33I hope my human rights are restored to someday and the human rights of my community.