Figure 5: Map of the
Kashmir region.
Area: 85,807 square miles
Languages: Kashmiri, Gojari
Location: Northern India, bordered by Pakistan on the
west and China on the east
Kashmir was a Hindu nation until 1339; for a century later there was a struggle for supremacy in the region between various rulers of different ethnic and religious background; the Muslim period stretched from about 1561 to 1819, at which time Sikhs gained control over the region. Sikh rule spanned from 1819 to 1846. The Dogra (Hindu) kings ruled from 1846 to 1947. Modern Kashmir has been claimed by both Pakistan and India, and after their partition in 1947, Kashmir, which was then ruled by the Dogra king Hari Singh, joined the Indian Union after Pakistan’s regular forces and militias invaded the border and sought to seize the kingdom.
According to the Kargil Review Committee Report, the former princely State of Jammu & Kashmir has a total area of 85,807 sq. miles[xciii]. Of this, 30,160 sq. miles is under the occupation of Pakistan, of which 2,000 sq. miles in the Shaksgam Valley was ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963 as part of a boundary settlement (which India does not accept). Approximately 14,500 sq. miles in Ladakh is presently under Chinese occupation. The old princely state is now comprised of five regions: Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh, the so called Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and the Northern Areas, with the latter two comprising Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). Kashmir is administratively divided into six districts with an area of 6,157 sq. miles and a population of just over four million. The main language is Kashmiri with Gojari being spoken to a lesser extent. Most Valley Muslims are Sunni with concentrations of Shias in certain areas.
The Jammu region also consists of six districts with an area of 10,151 sq. miles and a population of 3.6 million. Here, Hindus comprise 66.3% of the population but Doda, Poonch and Rajouri districts have a Muslim majority, and Zanskar district has a Buddhist majority. Ladakh, which includes the districts of Leh and Kargil, has an area of 37,337 sq. miles and a population of 171,000. Buddhists enjoy a small overall majority in the region (51%) whereas in Kargil, Muslims, mostly Shias, constitute a majority of around 78%.
In Pakistan‑Occupied Kashmir (PoK), there are five districts (Muzzafarabad, Mirpur, Kotli, Poonch and Bagh) with an area of 5,134 sq. miles and an estimated population of 3.5 million. The people of PoK are mostly Sunni Muslims speaking a mix of Punjabi, Pahari and Pushto. There are virtually no Hindus left in PoK. The Northern Areas have a Shia majority population with significant numbers of Ismailis and Nurbakshis (a Sufi sect). Shia‑Sunni tensions have frequently run high here and there have been periodic riots.
The overall population in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir was estimated in 1981 at 7.7 million with Muslims (64.3%), Hindus (32.1%), Sikhs (2.16%), Buddhist (1.17%) and others, including Christians (0.26%). The Indian Constitution, which came into effect on January 26, 1950, gave special status to Kashmir through Article 370.
More
than 300,000 Hindus were driven out of the Valley between 1989 and 1991 by
Islamist militants logistically and militarily supported by Pakistan, and some
say that the more realistic figure is nearly 400,000.[xciv] Confirming the violent dispensation in that
region, two prominent Asian security experts have visualized the area west of
India comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia, emerging as
a zone of chaos by 2030.[xcv] The events of September 11, 2001 have made
the problem of Islamist fundamentalism inspired terrorism more urgent in the
area. The Pakistan‑Afghanistan
area continues to be the hub of Islamist terror networks, fundamentalism, drug
trafficking, illicit trade in small arms and international terrorism.[xcvi]
Islamist militants threatened to kill Hindus if they return to the Kashmir Valley after escaping the start of the bloody insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir nearly fifteen years ago. “There is a complete ban on the return of Pandits (Hindus),” said a joint statement from four Kashmiri Muslim militant groups—some based in Pakistan. “They will be allowed to return only if they accept India’s rule over Kashmir as illegitimate and tyrannical, and participate in the freedom struggle with full fervor. (If) they do not accept these conditions, we will have the right to avenge blood with blood.[xcvii]”
As people struggled to rebuild their lives after the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, terrorists slaughtered nine members of two Hindu families in Bedhal tehsil in the border district of Rajouri. The militants raided the house of Munshi Ram and separated the male and female members before slitting their throats one by one. Sources say the militants murdered Ram’s two sons in front of him prior to murdering Ram. Ram’s brother and nephew were also killed. Soon after, the same militants reached the Gabbar village and killed four members of Kartar Singh’s family with sharp-edged weapons. Singh along with his three sons were killed while his fourth son was critically injured. Security forces have launched a search for the militants[xcviii].
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling regional political party in Jammu and Kashmir, is actively deleting evidence of a historical Hindu presence in the valley by referring to Hindu holy sites such as the revered Shankaracharya Hill as Sulaiman Taing and Hari Parbat as Koh-i-Maaran. Kashmiri Hindu leaders are outraged at the name change of these two very ancient symbols of Hindu civilization.[xcix]
Despite India’s secular Constitution, Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir have been constant targets of violent Islamist militants. Article 15 prohibits discrimination “against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.” Life and personal liberty are protected by Article 21, which maintains, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” Clearly, lives and liberties of the Hindus in the Kashmir Valley have in no way been protected or preserved by the Indian Government. Militants in the Valley have ruthlessly murdered Hindus, and the continual threat of death hinders their return to their homeland. Article 38 states, “The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life.” Once again, the Indian Government has failed to secure the promise of Article 38. Neither have the Hindus in Kashmir been protected nor have the Hindus who have fled the region been provided with adequate support or security. The approximately 350,000 individuals who have fled the Kashmir Valley live in refugee settlements dispersed throughout India with abysmal conditions. These Kashmiri Hindus are living as refugees in their own country despite a constitutional promise to protect their welfare, rights, and liberties.
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution provides Jammu & Kashmir with special status thereby allowing the State to retain its own Constitution thus effectively creating a country within a country. Jammu & Kashmir was permited to have its own flag, emblem, and Head of State, although the latter right was lost in the 1960s.[c] Moreover, it restricted the Indian Parliament’s legislative power over Jammu & Kashmir to defense, foreign affairs, and communications.[ci] Thus, in order for the Parliament to apply other laws to Jammu & Kashmir, it required the State’s concurrence.
India’s accession to the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) occurred on July 10, 1979 and its ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination took place on March 2, 1967. Once again, the Indian government upholds neither of these UN covenants. Most importantly, Article 27 of the CCPR, which protects the rights of “ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities…to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise (sic) their own religion, [and] to use their own language” has been violated time and time again in the Kashmir Valley as Hindus have been all but completely driven out of the region.
As HAF noted last year, the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the Kashmir Valley is almost complete, and therefore, the attacks against specific Hindu targets are more difficult to report. Hindus forced from the Valley are settled in refugee camps throughout Northern India and the decrepit conditions of these communities remain a tragic abuse of fundamental rights to shelter and dignity. The fate of these nearly 350,000 people is in limbo as the Indian government strives to end the insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir. The status of Jammu & Kashmir as a “disputed area” will continue to affect the condition of Kashmiri Hindus. The fate of Hindus of this region remains in abeyance - paralyzed by the Government of India’s reluctance to rehabilitate Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir, and a recalcitrant Pakistan unwilling to stop Islamic terrorists from carrying out attacks in the region. The inflammatory rhetoric of Islamist terrorists based in Pakistan only vitiates the atmosphere further and perpetuates a dangerous terrorism that continues to claim Muslim and Hindus lives in the region. It is incumbent upon the Pakistani Government and its autocratic ruler, President General Pervez Musharraf, to immediately cease moral and tangible support to all terrorists in the Kashmir Valley and increasingly, all of India. India must create an atmosphere in the valley conducive to the return and safe resettlement of Hindus in their original homes throughout Jammu & Kashmir, and further dialogue with Pakistan must be predicated on this return of original Hindu residents.