Refugees of Jammu & Kashmir - History and Way Forward (Part 2)
And the world remained silent! Since late 1989 J&K has been in the grip of a vicious movement of Islamist extremist terrorism. Thousands of lives have been lost in this conflict over 2 decades of a sub-conventional war that has inflicted enormous suffering on the people of the State. Among the worst victims of this conflict are the Kashmiri Pandits, descendants of Hindu priests and among the original inhabitants of the Kashmir Valley, with a recorded history of over 5,000 years. The Pandits have been the targets and victims of one of the most successful, though little-known, campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the world. Pogroms of a far lesser magnitude in other parts of the world have attracted international attention, censure and action in support of the victim communities, but this is an insidious campaign that has passed virtually unnoticed, and on which the world remains silent. Between February and March 1990, 140,000 to 160,000 Pandits had fled the Kashmir Valle...