‘We miss them’: On exodus day, Muslim neighbours yearn for return of Kashmiri Pandits

PTI

Srinagar, January 19

“A garden looks beautiful with colourful flowers. Would it look as nice if we plant only white flowers?” A frail-looking old man poses the question as he goes for Friday prayers at a mosque in Srinagar’s Habba Kadal locality.

For Mohammad Yousuf Khan, Kashmiri Pandits are the flowers that brought colour and life to the garden he calls home — Habba Kadal in Shahar e Khaas.

Stayed back

God’s best gift to mankind is life and if you feel there’s a threat, you try to run away. But we stayed back. We had the support of our local Muslim brothers. Even today, we celebrate festivals and weddings together. Sunil

Still living happily

We used to live together, eat together. In fact, we are still living here with our Pandit brothers. On the one side of this lane, there's a temple and on the other side, there’s a mosque. We are all humans. Anyone who hurts a person hurts the entire humanity. Mohammad Yousuf Khan

Khan and other residents of Habba Kadal believe the idea of Kashmiriyat is incomplete without the neighbours they lost three decades ago but still long for. “We used to eat from one plate. We will be more than happy if they return. We miss them,” says Shafeeqa, a resident.

Habba Kadal is where Khan, in his mid-60s, grew up and still lives. The locality was an example of communal harmony and brotherhood for decades. It was a place where ‘bhajans’ and hymns in temples and sermons and ‘azaans’ in mosques would rent the air.

However, in the early 1990s, the soothing music of devotional songs was replaced by gunshots as terror activities picked up.

January 19 marks the day of the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community from the region, driven out of their homeland following the outbreak of terrorism in the Valley.

Recalling the proverbial good old times, Khan says that Pandits and Muslims shared a strong bond of love and respect for each other.

“In earlier times, we would be carefree. We used to visit temples on festivals. They used to come to greet us. We really miss them,” he adds.

The exodus day is a significant day that commemorates the forced displacement of the Kashmiri Pandit community from the Kashmir valley. It serves as a reminder of the hardships and challenges faced by the community during that time.

Among a handful of Kashmiri Pandits living in Srinagar is Sunil, who stayed back on the reassurance of his Muslim neighbours. He refuses to give in to terror threats.

“I have been living here since my birth. We did not leave our motherland or migrate. I lived here, studied here, got married here and have kids now,” says Sunil, with a smile on his face.

However, the glow from his face gradually disappears when he recalls the times of mass exodus to the plains of Jammu and other parts of the country.

Sunil is optimistic that with the changing situation in the Valley, the time is not far when the displaced members of his community will return and live happily with their Muslim brethren.

Khursheed Ahmed Bhat, a local, lives next to an abandoned Kashmiri Pandit house. “I shifted here 20 years ago and since then it’s deserted. Sometimes, family members come to see their house. Once I met a family member and I suggested to him that they return but he said they are already settled out of Kashmir now and don’t see returning as an option,” he says.

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