New Delhi, Mar 28: In light of the national public euphoria and debate created by the release of The Kashmir Files and bringing international spotlight on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits with respect to their en-mass single dark night flight on January 20, 1990 from the valley of Kashmir, their home for more than a millennia and the debate of their genocide; AIKS (All India Kashmiri Samaj) the apex organization of the exiled community held a Community meet on 27th March at YMCA Hostel to debate the issue threadbare and evolve a collective community response to the situation and demand a punitive action against the culprits and perpetrators of the crimes against humanity. The meeting which was presided over by AIKS president Dr. Ramesh Raina was attended by a large number of community leaders, thinkers and members from all walks of life from all over India and Delhi NCR, called in unison for the Reversal of Genocide and punishment under genocide and Crimes against Humanity laws as an initial step towards meaningful CBMs and way forward for the Restitution, Return and Rehabilitation of the exiled community back to Valley.
Pursuant to the release of AIKS Vision document on January 23, 2022 and its stamp of approval by the community through Chandigarh declaration-2022 asking the apex organization to take the vision paper to its logical conclusion and now post the release of a very well made film documenting the atrocities and genocide inflicted upon the beleaguered Kashmiri Pandit Community in 1990 forcing us to leave in one dark night AIKS organized the well-attended displaced Kashmiri Pandit Community Meet.
Setting the ball rolling Dr. Ramesh Raina President AIKS, while thanking Shri Vivek Agnihotri for the powerful celluloid depiction of our exodus and genocide, said in his opening remarks that Truth ultimately triumphs, it may take time to unravel itself, but it does come out and prevail, that our authentic story was never allowed to be brought to light but all attempts made to be buried under the debris of history. He added that wheels of natural Justice though move slowly but grind heavily. In our case too it has been a protracted campaign for AIKS and its affiliate organizations to keep the issue alive and bring to the fore the atrocities inflicted on the KP Community through brute and barbaric means and methods. He expressed his gratitude to Vivek Agnihotri, his team and all the Kashmiri Pandit organizations both within India and abroad for having unravelled the true picture and brought the facts as they were before the national and international audiences and awakening the conscience of a mass of humanity across the globe about the pain this community has gone through not only on account of gory incidents in valley but continued political apathy and missing media space for our miseries, adding that the artistic creativity had shown that all. He continued that with this movie a new National narrative is gaining momentum to bring the culprits of KP Genocide to Justice by appointing a Commission of Inquiry to probe the circumstances under which KP’s were forced to flee following their large scale killings. He added that AIKS in this regard had already filed a Civic writ petition in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in 2006 which was later transferred to J&K High Court in 2016 and in the light of changing political narrative, he called for its speedy adjudication. He also apprised the community that AIKS’s Vision Document stood vindicated by The Kashmir Files, and the apex organization will take it to all across its affiliates in India.
Condemning Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s remarks about the Movie, Dr Raina terming it as highly irresponsible as it amounted to showing no sensitivity to the pain of all those people who are the victims of the physical and psychological injuries inflicted by the mad skulls because of whom the community is on the verge of extinction. He also expressed his gratitude to all those States who gave tax exemption for the TKF movie which would encourage every Indian of any economic strata to watch the movie.
The other speakers included Prof. SudhirSopory, Sh. M. L. Malla, Sh. Ramesh Bamzai, Ms.Geeta Bamzai, young social activists India4 Kashmir, Ms. Alka Lahori and Ms .Manorama Bakhshi. Sh. Vinod Pandita the anchor of the programme gave a detailed account of the AIKS future activities in the light of the fresh energy infused to the KP activism by the TKF movie. Punishing the culprits of the Genocide is important in the overall Justice for Kashmiri Pandits which has eluded them for all these Thirty two years, he said.
Dr. Manorama Bhakhshi concluded with the remark that the Restitution, Rehabilitation and non-refoulment constituted the core of AIKS policies in this regard which indeed shall be pursued with a great vigour in the days to come. She termed it as being consistent with the AIKS Vision Document.
