After Pahalgam Attack, Will the World Finally Hear the Cry of Kashmiri Hindus? : Rakesh Koul Social Activist

Jammu, 27-04-2025: On that dark night of 19th January 1990, the Kashmiri Hindu community was forced to flee the land they called home for thousands of years. We left behind our homes, temples, fields, and the graves of our ancestors — carrying only our torn dreams and broken hearts.

For 36 long years, we have been crying out — warning the nation and the world about the dangers growing unchecked in the Kashmir Valley. But no one truly listened. We were labelled “migrants,” our genocide was buried under political convenience, and our voices were drowned by slogans of false narratives.

Today, after the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the horror that we lived with has finally come out into the open. This time, the victims are not just Kashmiri Hindus. Pilgrims from 14 different Indian states witnessed the face of terror first-hand. They came for faith. They met brutality.

For 36 years, we have been warning: Terrorism in Kashmir is not about land, not about politics — it is about ideology, an ideology that cannot coexist with peace or pluralism. Today, those who dismissed our suffering are themselves mourning.

The recent bloodshed in Pahalgam is not an isolated incident. It is a brutal reminder of the unhealed wound of Kashmir — a wound that Kashmiri Hindus have carried silently all these years. From the massacres of Sangrampora, Chattisinghpora, Wandhama, and Nadimarg, to countless targeted killings — we were always the first targets. Our community faced extermination while the world turned its face away.

The worst betrayal was from our own system. The Supreme Court, the guardian of our constitutional rights, refused even to hear our pleas for justice, calling it “too late.” Political leaders offered only token words. No commissions, no convictions, no closure.

Today, the terror has touched pilgrims, yatris, and common citizens from across India. Maybe now, the globe will finally understand what the Kashmiri Hindu community has been shouting for 36 years — terror cannot be ignored. It grows, it spreads, it consumes.

We, the Kashmiri Pandit community, stand today with full pain and solidarity with this great nation. We deeply share the grief and anguish of the affected families who lost their loved ones in the Pahalgam attack.

Our hearts bleed with them — because we know this pain too well. As an exiled Kashmiri Hindu, I say with shame and sorrow that what happened in Pahalgam is not just an attack on individuals — it is an attack on the soul of India. It reminds us of what happened to Kashmiri Pandits in 1989-90, and we cannot allow history to repeat itself.

My humble appeal to all human rights organizations, civil liberties defenders, and above all, the Indian Judiciary, is this: Take up this matter with urgency. Deliver justice as per law, not as per political pressures or other considerations. We hope and pray that the justice denied to the Kashmiri Pandits since 1989-90 will finally see the light of day. Kashmir is not just a piece of geography.

It is an emotion, a civilization, a sacred trust — brutally attacked but still alive in the hearts of its true inheritors. The time to act is now — before more lives are lost, before more voices are silenced.