Current Affairs
This Powerful Speech On The Suffering Of Kashmiri Pandits Is A Must Watch
Mayuresh Didolkar
Jul 15, 2017, 10:09 AM | Updated 10:09 AM IST
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In a powerful and moving speech given at a prayer meeting for the victims of Amarnath terror attack, well known columnist and editor of MyIndMakers, Sunanda Vasistha laid to rest many myths surrounding the issue of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir.
“What happened in Amarnath is not new. It is neither the first nor the worst attack in Kashmir” Sunanda reminded the audience as she narrated how on the night of January 19th,1990, her 70 year old grandfather stood guard for the night as places of worship around them threatened the Pandits.
The grandfather was prepared to kill his daughter and granddaughter in case the terrorists came for them. “That night my childhood was taken away from me, I would never be a little girl again” Sunanda said. Describing the horrors of those days, she also described how Ganjoo, an engineer, was betrayed by his own neighbour and how Ganjoo’s wife was forced to eat rice soaked in her husband’s blood. “There was no government in Kashmir” Sunanda said while speaking about those harrowing few months in 1990.
Over the last 27 years, dozens of pilgrims have been killed by Islamic extremists in Kashmir. But still it has not deterred devotees from visiting. “These nameless, faceless people are the real heroes” Sunanda added.
In her speech, Sunanda also talked about the deliberate efforts of Islamists to erase the history of Hindus from Kashmir. From renaming Shankaracharya hill and Anantnag to stopping pilgrims from visiting Kausarnath because they would “be an ecological disaster”, and from the lie that the Amarnath temple was discovered by a Muslim shepherd to not giving even 99 acres of space to construct temporary shelters for the devotees, no effort has been spared in erasing the true culture, history of Kashmir.
“This is where you can help, this is where all of us can help. When page 8 of a newspaper carries such (false) news, I would like you to bring them to the fore. Because these are our stories, this is how our past is being erased”
Sunanda concluded by calling Kashmir the laboratory of Islamic terrorism and said if Islamic terror is defeated in Kashmir, it will be defeated across the world.
You can watch the powerful speech here
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The writer is a investment services professional and novelist. His latest novel The Dark Road was published by Juggernaut Publications.
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