World should break its silence on the Kashmiri pandits issue: Pandit

Mumbai, Nov 6 (UNI) Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, himself a displaced Kashmiri Pandit, has opined that it is high time that the world polity broke its silence on an issue that has created mayhem in the lives of 320,000 strong minority group in the Muslium-dominated Kashmir valley.

Thanking the jury of 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) for lending a platform to the cause of the community in the form of screening his documentary in the non-feature film section of Indian Panorama, Mr Pandit said exodus of Kashmiri Pandits must have been the first case in the history of world politics where people of a country lived a life of refugees in their own country.

''My documentary is a reflection and reaction to the mayhem I had witnessed,'' he added.

Speaking about his documentary 'And The World Remained Silent,' the filmmaker said Kashmiri Pandits have suffered physical and mental trauma for over a decade. This community with its distinct ethnicity and ethos is at the verge of falling apart because it has been discarded from its natural habitat.

''Pandits in the refugee camps stay in absolute inhumane conditions. They do not deserve such cruel conduct,for something that they have not done. What one is anxious to know is if this, presumed to be a temporary phase or is it even going to cease,'' he added.

He said dispute and struggle have invariably seen attention from media, political forces and other such bodies. ''On January 19,1990, 320,000 Kashmiri pandits were forced to leave their homeland. It is a documentary which portrays the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, who are native inhabitants of the Valley because of militancy. It expresses the hurt and anguish suffered by the community while the Human Rights Organisations around the world and across the country remained silent. Nobody came forward to take up their cause,'' he regretted.

''Kashmir is blessed with unrivalled and picturesque natural scenery, sweet and crystal clear waters of springs and beautiful lakes and snow capped mountains. These cherished assets of Kashmir makes it a heaven on earth. But, the proclamation of superiority of Islamic state by the then Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto started a strategically orchaestrated killing of Kashmiri Pandit leaders and sticking posters all over the valley, asking the Pandit leaders to flee their homes which had made everyone in the community traumatized,'' he added.

The systematic killing of the leaders of the displaced community started in early 1989-1990 followed by mass killings, molestation and rape of their women. This forced an exodus of Pandits and ''ethnic cleansing'' continued vehemently from the Valley, he recalled.

''I was in Kashmir during the exodus. It was the bleakest period of Indian history where Indians were thrown out of their own homeland. I could not fathom that when such a mass exodus was on, all that the Indian government did was to maintain a stoic silence.

It was beyond understanding that a country that was like a mother to refugees from other countries turned a blind eye to the condition of its own people,''he said.

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