Attacks on Minorities
A deliberate campaign of targeted brutalities against members of the minority Kashmiri Pandit Community in 1990 led to the mass exodus of more than 350,000 people, in a bid by the terrorists to change the very demographic profile of the Kashmir Valley. This is reflected in various sections of these pages. Thereafter, thousands of their homes have been destroyed and put to the torch. This is not all. However small the members of other minority communities, their members and even their schools, have been subjected to threats, violence and killing. All these show a pattern of how fundamentalist extremism has been used for the terrorist agenda.
Killings of Kashmiri Pandits
Case No.: 1
Name: Tej Krishen Razdan (Age:30s)
Resident of: Yachgam (District Budgam)
Profession: Central Govt. Service
Date of Killing: 12.2.1990
Razdan was posted somewhere in Punjab. He had come to Srinagar on leave to see his family. An old colleague of his - a Muslim - who had been working with him while he was in Kashmir - came to pay a visit on the fateful day. Both of them boarded a mini-bus bound for Lal Chowk. When the matador (mini van) halted at Gao Kadal, Razdan's companion suddenly took out a pistol and shot him in the chest. Not content, he dragged the still breathing Razdan out of the vehicle and ordered other passengers to kick the dying man repeatedly. His body was then dragged through the street like sweepers drag a dead dog. Taken to the nearest mosque, the dead body was put on display for hours before the police came to take control of the body.
Case No.: 2
Name: Ashok Kumar Qazi (Age: 30s)
Resident of: Shashyar, Srinagar
Profession: Worked in the Handicrafts Deptt
Date of Killing: 24.2.1990
A group of three terrorists accosted him on the fateful day in Zaindar Mohalla locality while he was going for shopping. They shot him on the knuckles. He fell down and cried in agony for help. None among the passers by or the shopkeepers responded. They just looked the other way despite the fact that they knew the man as he belonged to their locality and was an energetic social worker. In their sadistic frenzy, the three murderes tarted a death dance around the helpless Qazi. Theyy pulled his hair out. They slapped him continuously and they spat on his face. One of them even unfastened his trousers and urinated on him. Dying and profusely bleeding, the militants did not kill him immediately but enjoyed the writhing and twitching of his body. They wanted him to die by inches. The siren of a distant police van, however, mercifully ended his agony as, in panic, the terrorists pumped bullets into his stomach and chest leaving his dead body on the frozen road.
Case No.: 3
Name: Navin Saproo (Age:30s)
Resident of: Habba Kadal, Srinagar
Profession: Central Govt. Service
Date of Killing: 27.2.1990
He was returning from his office when, near Kanya Kadal, terrorists sprayed him with bullets in broad day-light and in full view of the passersby; he fell down but was still breathing. A Hindu woman, who happened to be there, frantically pleaded with the terrorists to spare the young man's life. She was pushed back. Dancing around him in glee, they shot at him over and over again avoiding any vital organ just to prolong his agony bleeding profusely. For the terrorists, the sadism was yet to come. As the wailing relatives of the young man took away his body in a police van - yes in a police van - the terrorists followed in a truck right up to the cremation ground, dancing and singing all the way. The singing and dancing continued till his body was reduced to ashes.
Case No.: 4
Name: P. N. Kaul
Resident of: Bijbihara, District Anantnag
Profession: Shopkeeper
Date of Killing: 22.3.1990
He was skinned off alive and left to die. His putrified body was discovered three days later.
Case No.: 5
Name: B. K. Ganjoo (Age:30s)
Resident of: Chota Bazar, Srinagar
Profession: Central Govt. Service
Date of Killing: 22.3.1990
Ganjoo, a telecom engineer, was coming home during the curfew relaxation period. He never suspected that he was being followed by the terrorists as he had no reason to be a suspect. When he reached the vicinity of his house, his wife, however, observed that he was being pursued. As Ganjoo entered his house, she quickly bolted and locked the door. But the terrorists were undeterred and crashed through. The pursued man ran up to the third floor of his house and hid himself in a rice bin. The terrorists ransacked the entire house and were ready to leave as they could not locate their victim. But the fate willed otherwise. Ganjoo's muslim neighbors, who had seen Ganjoo hide himself in the bin, called the militants back and pointed towards the container. Out they pulled him, pumped him with bullets and left him bleeding on the rice. While leaving, they shouted, "Let your blood be soaked in the rice and let your children eat it. Ah, what a tasty meal it would be".
Case No.: 6
Name: Bhushan Lal Raina (Age: 29 years)
Resident of: Ompora, District Budgam
Profession: Worked in Sher-i-Kashmir Medical Institute, Soura
Date of Killing: 28.4.1990
Scared by the terrorists' violence in the valley, Raina had finally decided to leave Kashmir along with his mother. He wanted to leave on April 29 and started packing his belongings a day earlier. While he was busy, a group of terrorists gate-crashed into his house. Seeing them, the aged mother of Raina implored them to spare the life of his son as he was about to be married. "They could kill her instead if kill they must", she pleaded. But they would not listen to her. With a sharp pointed iron rod, they pierced his skull. They dragged him out and nailed him to a tree after stripping off his clothes. They killed him by inches while he begged to be shot.
Case No.: 7 and 8
Name: Sarwanand Kaul Premi (Age: 64 years)
Virender Kaul (Age: 27 years) - Son
Resident of: Soaf Shali, District Anantnag
Profession: Retired Teacher, Central Govt. Service respectively
Date of Killing: 30.4.1990
Premi was a well-known Kashmiri poet and a scholar. Even though his family requested him to leave the village in view of the mounting terrorist activities and unabated killings of his community members, he refused, believing in the "secular traditions" of his beloved Kashmiri. He was deeply religious and also deeply liberal. He thought he was respected widely in the area predominated by the Muslims. And this faith was ultimately shattered when in the evening of 29th April, three terrorists entered his house and ordered the entire family to collect in one room. The terrorists ordered that they should collect all their valuable - gold, jewelery, cash, pashmina garments, saris, shawls etc. - in the room. The other gold women and the men were wearing was torn off their bodies. Packing all these in an emptied suitcase, they asked the frail and soft-spoken Premi to carry the suitcase and follow them. "We mean no harm to him and he will return", the terrorists told the wailing and weeping family members. Then fate intervened and Virender Kaul, his son, volunteered to accompany his father so that he could lead the old man back in the dark night. "Come on you too, if you so desire", they told Virender. Both, the father and the son, were herded out of the house.
What followed would put to shame even Hitler's secret agents. When the dead bodies were found after two days, the scene was apalling and nauseating. The place in between the eyebrows, where Premi used to apply the sandal wood mark commonly known as "Tilak" was found pierced by an iron and skin peeled off. The entire body bore the marks of cigarette burns. The limbs were found broken and eyes of both father and the son gouged out. They were later hanged and to be doubly sure shot too.
This, to a man, in whose house a rare manuscript of the holy Quran was found placed with reverence in his prayer room.
Case No.: 9
Name: Dina Nath Mujoo (Age: 75 years)
Resident of: Rawalpora, Srinagar
Profession : Retired Govt employee
Date of Killing: 7.7.1990
An educationist, a social worker and deeply religious man, Mujoo lived in his Rawalpora house along with his wife. He refused to leave Kashmir in spite of the pleadings of his doctor son in Delhi. Mujoo believed in the philosophy of J. Krishnamurthy who, whenever he came to India, would find Mujoo attending his lectures. Of late, he had been attending the discourses of the world renouned authority on Kashmir Shaivism, Swami Lakshmanjoo, in his ashram near Nishat.
This, perhaps, proved to be the old man's undoing. And on the night of July 7, a couple of terrorists entered his house scaling the wall by using a ladder. It was dead of night and the old couple was sleeping. They were, however, shaken out of their slumber and the murderers repeatedly stabbed Mujoo till he breathed his last leaving his old wife soaked in the blook of her husband.
Case No.: 10
Name: Girija Tickoo (Age: Late 20s)
Profession: Teacher
Date Or Killing: 25.6.1990
Girija had left the Valley in the wake of mounting terrorism and spate of killings of minority community there. She was in Jammu when someone told her that she can collect her pay at Bandipora where she was working in school before fleeing the valley. She was assured that she will come to no harm as the conditions had started returning to normal. She left for Srinagar snd then for Bandipora in north Kashmir from there. She never returned. Her body sawn into two, was found on the road-side on 25th June, 1990. From examination of the body, it was found that she was first-raped and then cut into two pieres not by a mechanical saw, but by a carpenter's saw - yes by a carpenter saw. The agony is hard to imagine. A living human being sawn by a carpenter's saw by barbarians claiming to be the fighters for freedom.
Case No.: 11 and 12
Name: i/ Prof K. L. Ganjoo
ii/ Mrs K. L. Ganjoo
Age: i/ Late 40s
ii/ -do-
Resident of: Sopore
Profession:i/ Lecturer
ii/ Teacheress
Date of Killing: 7.5.1990
Ganjoo, a lecturer at the Agricultural College at Wadors near Sopore, had returned from Nepal after attending a conference along with his wife. Two officials of the college were sent with a jeep to receive him. And receive they did. Dragging him and his wife out of the vehicle, right in the middle of the bridge at Sopore, they shot at him. They threw the wounded man into the river Jhelum to die. A young nephew of the couple, who was also with them, was given a choice-either to jump into the river to which his uncle had been consigned or watch what they were going to do with his aunt. They counted "3" and the boy jumped into the river. The bullet riddled body of Prof Ganjoo was found some days later on the banks of river Jhleum. His nephew, a non-swimmer, somehow survived and managed to escape. What happened to Prof Ganjoo's wife is not exactly known, there being conflicting reports about her. According to official reports, police has not been able to trace her out so far. But some newspaper reports say that she was gang raped by the terrorists and then killed in a gruesome manner.
Case No.: 13
Name: Shri Ashok Kumar
Age: 30s
Resident of: Pulwama
Profession: Not known
Date of Killing: Not available
Ashok Kumar was kidnapped by Jamat-i-lslami militants. The kidnappers broke his limbs and then brought him to the main squnre of the town. There, he was forced to confess/being a member of the CPI(M). He was then asked to beg for mercy which he did. Even then the militants did not let him off. They gouged out his eyes and shot him dead.
Case No.: 14
Name: Ashok Suri
Resident of: Kralpora
Profession: Driver
Suri, who was a driver, used to carry newspapers to the western news stand in Lal Chowk, Srinagar. On the fateful day, he was kidnapped by the militants on his way to Srinagar. They very sevely tortured him and his body bore the marks of cigarette burns which bears the testimony of the extent to which he was subjected to. When he was almost half dead they told him that they actually wanted to kill his brother and had caught hold of him by mistake. At this stage, the militants let him off. On reaching home somehow, Suri narrated the incident to his brother, an employee of SBI, Srinagar. He beggcd of him to flee as his life was in danger. But the latter did not agree. At about midnight, the militants came again and gate crashed in his house. They attacked Ashok Suri with a sharp edged weapon cutting his neck and left him to die.
Case No.: 15
Name: Chuni Lal Shalla
Resident of: Sopore
Profession: Inspector of Police, J&K Govt.
Shalla was posted at Langate near Kupwars. He wanted to visit his family at Sopore after about six months. To avoid being identified by the Jamat-i-Islami mililants, Shalla had grown beard. A Muslim constable working under him at Langate, also accompanied him in the same bus to Sopore. On reaching Sopore, two militants came searching for him but could not recognise him. They had hardly left when the Muslim Constable called them back and divalged the identity of Shalla to them. Without waiting for him, the Constable himself took out a dagger and slashed off his entire right cheek along with the beard. Blood queshed out and the poor Shalla was in a state of shock. The cruel Constable jolted him saying "You suar (pig). I will not allow you to have Jamat-i-Islami type beard on your other cheek also. He slashed off his left cheek too. The two militants and the Muslim Constable then battered his face with hockey sticks shouting "Bastard, we won't waste a bullet on you". They fled the scene and left Shall bleeding to die.
Killed on 28.5.1990
Killed on 8.6.1990
Case No.: 16
Name: Damodar Saroop Raina (Age: 65 years)
Resident of: Dambeloo (Anantnag)
Profession: Retired Govt. employee
The terrorists came to his house at dead of night. He tried to avoid to meet them. His wife pleaded with them that he was not in the house. But they gate crashed and searched the entire house. Finding the old man hiding in a corner in the top floor room, they dragged him out, ignoring the heart rending pleas of his wife. They took no heed of her wailing. She cried for help from the neighbours but except staring stone faced from their houses, they refused to come to her aid. The old man continues to be untraced so far.
Case No.: 17
Name: B. L. Raina (Age: 35 years)
Resident of: Dambeloo (Anantnag)
Profession: Govt. employee
Date of Killing: 26.6.1990
Son of case no. 16, was out of the valley but went back on hearing the news of the kidnapping of his father. For 25 days, they waited with the security forces guarding him, his family and other relatives who had come from Jammu after hearing the news of kidnapping of Mr. Saroop. On 26th June, police told them that it was futile to wait as there was no chance of his recovery dead or alive. Accompanied by a posse of security men, the family was despatched in a vehicle to Jammu. Raina accompanied them up to Qazigund leaving behind his wife and two children in his native village. After the other members of the family were safely despatched, he returned to Anantnag and then to his village in spite of the warning of the police that there was danger and he also should move to Jammu. But he could not do so, for he had left his family at Dambeloo. Just a kilometer from his home, the vehicle was ambushed by terrorists and Raina was one of the three victims. So within a span of 23 days, two members of the family - father and son - fell victims to the terrorists. The father had already lost another son two years ago.
Case No.: 18 & 19
Name: Hridaya Nath and Radha Krishen
Resident of: Habba Kadal, Srinagar
Date of Killing: 9.7.1990
Their bodies were found with chopped heads.
Killed on 7.6.1990
Killed on 14.6.1990
Case No.: 20, 21 & 22
Name: Mujoo and two unknown
Date of Killing: First week of July 1990
All three were kidnapped and told to donate blood for the wounded terrorists. They agreed for fear of their lives not knowing that they were going to a sudden death. The barbarians drained the entire blood from their bodies till they were dead.
Killings of Sikhs
Case No.: 1
Date: 20.3.90
Place: Khandabal, Anantnag
Gajender Singh, a Central Government employee was shot dead.
Case No.: 2
Date: 22.4.90
Place: Shopian, Pulwama
Dalip Singh, a Head Constable of J&K Police (Civil) was shot dead by terrorists. A large number of Sikh families consequently migrated.
Killed on 26.7.1990
Killed on 18.8.1990
Case No.: 3
Date: 20.5.90
Place: Baramulla
Jagjit Singh, a bus driver was shot dead by terrorists provoking demonstrations by the Sikh community.
Case No.: 4
Date: 11.7.90
Place: Tral, Pulwama
Raghunath Singh, a retired Army soldier was kidnapped, tortured and subsequently killed by terrorists. Nearly 1,500 Sikhs demonstrated against the incident.
Killed on 29.8.1990
Killed on 30.8.1990
Case No.: 5
Date: 9.11.90
Place: Baramulla
Mukhtiar Singh, a tnuck driver, was shot dead by terrorists causing resentment among the Sikhs in the Valley.
Case No.: 6
Date: 21.12.90
Place: Anantnag
Man Mohan Singh, a cloth merchant, was kidnapped by terrorists and subsequently killed.
Case No.: 7
Date: 2.2.91
Place: Kakpora, Pulwama
Keeker Singh, a retired policeman was shot dead by terrorists.
Killed on 13.9.1990
Killed on 15.12.1990
Case No.: 8
Date: 23.2.91
Place: Batmaloo, Srinagar
Sukhdev Singh, a Sikh was shot dead by terrorists.
Case No.: 9
Date: 18.5.91
Place: Uri, Baramulla
Mehar Singh, a Station House Officer, Police Station, Uri, was kidnapped by terrorists and subsequently tortured and killed.
Case No.: 10
Date: 30.10.90
Place: Baramulla
Mrs. Inder Kaur, wife of a police official, was shot dead by terrorists.
Case No.: 11
Date: 8.4.92
Place: Batwara, Srinagar
Dead body of a Sikh recovered from the river Jhelum.
Case No.: 12
Date: 18.7.92
Place: Baramulla
Sheetal Singh, Dy. SP shot dead in his house by terrorists.
Case No.: 13
Date: 27.9.92
Place: Hatmura, Anantnag
Gurcharan Singh, a local Sikh, shot dead.
Case No.: 14
Date: 16.10.92
Place: Safapura, Baramulla
P.P. Singh, a Sikh ASI, JKP, Incharge, Police Post, was shot dead by terrorists.
Case No.: 15
Date: 27.11.92
Place: Naikbagh, Srinagar
Body of a Sikh, killed by terrorists was recovered from the locality.
Case No.: 16
Date: 1.2.92
Place: Jammu
Armed terrorists intruded into the house of Surjit Singh and shot him dead alongwith his wife.
Case No.: 17
Date: 22.3.92
Place: Jammu
Suspected Punjab terrorists shot dead 3 members of a Sikh family.
Case No.: 18
Date: 26.9.92
Place: Dugyana, Jammu
A JKP Sikh Constable killed by Sikh terrorists.
Case No.: 19
Date: 15.11.92
Place: Nanak Nagar, Jammu
Gurdeep Singh Bobby s/o late Tara Singh was shot dead by terrorists (Sikhs) and his seriously injured in their home.
Bomb Explosions in Christian Missionary Schools
Case No.: 1
Date: 10.5.89
Place: Lal Chowk, Srinagar
An explosive device planted in the building of Biscoe Memorial School, caused damage to the building.
Case No.: 2
Date: 17.3.90
Place: Sonawar, Srinagar
An attempt was made to set ablaze Burn Hall School, affiliated with local Catholic mission.
Case No.: 3
Date: 23.5.90
Place: Lal Chowk, Srinagar
An explosive device was hurled into the compound of Biscoe Memorial School. Earlier, the terrorists had asked the Principal to impart Arabic/Islamic education to students.
Case No.: 4
Date: 22.11.90
Place: Lal Chowk, Srinagar
Another explosion occurred in the Biscoe Memorial School premises, forcing closure of Christian missions schools.
Case No.: 5
Date: 23.2.91
Place: Lal Chowk, Srinagar
An explosion was caused near the building of Miss Melanson Girls School.
Case No.: 6
Date: 5.7.92
Place: Lal Chowk, Srinagar
An explosion occurred in the Biscoe Memorial School.