Not ‘Migration’. Not ‘Conflict’. But ‘Genocide’: A Conscious Remembrance
Some dates fade with time. '19th January 1990' bleeds . It was the night Kashmir died for us. The night our roots were ripped out. The night neighbours turned into facilitators. The night silence became a weapon. Long before that night, danger was screaming for attention; and was deliberately ignored. Warnings were sent. Pleas were made. Jagmohan (State Governor then) begged the central leadership, warning that Kashmir was “fast deteriorating… near a point of no return”. But power slept. Politics calculated. And we were marked. By 1989, the system had collapsed. Police were broken. Intelligence vanished. Courts refused to act. Terrorists walked free. The daughter of the Home Minister was ‘kidnapped’; and hardened terrorists were released in exchange. Schools/colleges shut. Elections died. Law disappeared. And then came the beginning of the ethnic cleansing . Pandit Tika Lal Taploo, Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, Pandit Lassa Kaul, Pandit Sa...