Stories of Genocide

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Stories of Genocide

Pandit Tika Lal Taploo

A Fearless Advocate for Kashmiri Hindus Pandit Tika Lal Taploo was a senior advocate, a dedicated nationalist, and a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kashmir. A staunch believer in democracy and secularism

Pandit Swarnanand Premi

A Poet, Philosopher, and Social Reformer andit Swarnanand Premi was a renowned scholar, poet, and Gandhian thinker who dedicated his life to the spiritual and literary development of Kashmir. An accomplished writer

Pandit Prem Nath Bhat

A Voice for Kashmiri Hindus Pandit Prem Nath Bhat was a renowned journalist, lawyer, and social activist who played a pivotal role in raising awareness about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits. As a fearless writer he frequently wrote

Smt Sarla Bhat

Lab Assistant Girija Tickoo was a simple Kashmiri Hindu woman who returned to Bandipora in June 1990 to collect her salary, trusting assurances of safety. Instead, she fell into the hands of militants who abducted her, subjected her to brutal gang-rape, and then committed the unthinkable by sawing her alive on a machine. Her horrific death remains one of the most chilling symbols of the cruelty unleashed on Kashmiri Pandits, a wound that continues to haunt the conscience of humanity.

Smt Girja Tickoo

In June 1990, Kashmiri Pandit lab assistant Girija Tickoo returned to Bandipora to collect her salary, trusting assurances of safety. She was abducted, gang-raped, and then sawn alive into two pieces on a saw machine—one of the most barbaric crimes of the insurgency, remembered as a symbol of the terror inflicted on Pandit women.

Pandit Satish Tickoo

“When a Kangri Faced a Gun — The Untold Story of Satish Tickoo’s Final Fight.” In the winter of 1990, as fear gripped the Valley, Satish Kumar Tickoo stood tall as a protector and provider. A hardworking Kashmiri Pandit businessman, he cycled across Srinagar to run his medical trade, sat at his father’s shop in Habba Kadal, and became a lifeline for the poor—helping families marry off their daughters and shielding young girls from exploitation. His courage was such that even those who opposed him feared his presence.

Justice Nil Kanth Ganjoo

The Judge Who Sent a Terrorist to the Gallows — The Courage of Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo In an era when terror cast its shadow over Kashmir, one man’s pen proved mightier than the gun. Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, a fearless Kashmiri Pandit judge, presided over the trial of separatist leader Maqbool Bhat, the founder of the JKLF. With unwavering courage, Justice Ganjoo delivered the verdict that few dared to imagine—sentencing Bhat to the gallows for his crimes against India.

Shri Bal Kishen Ganjoo

Hiding in a Drum of Rice, Killed by Betrayal — The Story of B.K. Ganjoo In March 1990, as terror gripped the Valley, telecom engineer Bal Krishan (B.K.) Ganjoo rushed into his home with militants on his trail. His wife bolted the doors in panic, and he climbed to the attic, hiding himself in a large drum of rice, praying the danger would pass. At first, the gunmen searched and left, unable to find him. But then came the unthinkable—his own neighbour betrayed him, revealing his hiding place. The militants stormed back, raised their rifles, and fired into the rice drum, killing him instantly, his blood soaking the grain that once symbolized life.

Shri Naveen Saproo

On the morning of 27 February 1990, Srinagar’s old quarters stirred as usual. For Naveen Saproo, a young government employee from Habba Kadal, it would become the last walk of his life. At twenty-nine, with a steady government job and the hopes of his Kashmiri Pandit family resting on him, Naveen embodied the quiet resilience of ordinary men trying to live through extraordinary times.

Shri Tej Krishan Razdan

A hard-working, family man, who had dedicated his life to upholding the law of the land, met a gruesome end at the hands of a terrorist, whom he once considered his friend. The story of Tej Krishan Razdan is the story of his community, betrayed at the hands of those whom they had been trusting for life. On 12 February 1990, the winter air in Budgam carried an unthinkable betrayal. Tej Krishan Razdan, a Kashmiri Pandit and CBI Inspector posted in Punjab, had returned home on leave, quietly hoping to bring his family to safety amid surging violence. He was a man dedicated to service, carrying the burdens of duty and love for his homeland.

Shri B.L.Misri

In Peer Bagh, Srinagar, B.L. Misri was known as a quiet, disciplined man, the kind of person who carried the rhythm of family life with steady devotion. As a government employee, his days were marked by the routine of office work and the ordinary joys of returning home in the evenings to family conversation, meals, and small neighborhood gatherings. He represented a generation of Kashmiri Pandits who believed in education, service, and the dignity of hard work.

Smt Usha Koul

The Silent Morning of Sehyar – The Story of Usha Kumari Koul Usha Kumari Koul, born on 13 June 1949, lived with her husband Rathinder Koul in Sehyar, Ali Kadal, Srinagar. A devoted wife, a caring mother to her 10-year-old son, and a hardworking woman employed at the Watch Factory in Zainakot, she lived a life of quiet resilience, holding her family together with dignity. Their household also cared for her elderly father-in-law (79) and mother-in-law (68), embodying the strength and grace of Kashmiri Pandit families.

Shri Dwarika Nath

By the spring of 1990, however, those routines no longer guaranteed safety. The insurgency that had begun to consume Kashmir turned ordinary people into targets. Pandit families, even those who had no political involvement, lived under the weight of fear. For Dwarika Nath, this fear became reality on 30 April 1990, the day he was assassinated. His death was recorded in the Panun Kashmir documentation, one more entry in a list that should never have existed.

Smt. Sheela Koul (Tiku)

On the evening of 31 October 1989, Sheela had gone to visit her brother in Shivapora, Srinagar. As dusk settled, she began her walk back home, crossing the Habba Kadal bridge, a place that had long been an ordinary part of her route. That evening, the ordinary became brutal. Sheela was fired upon, shot in the chest, her head also injured. The assailants were identified as members of the JKLF, part of the rising wave of terror that was beginning to target Kashmiri Pandits indiscriminately.

Sh. Pushker Nath Razdan

The night of 12 October 1990 in Khonmuha, Pulwama, should have been an ordinary one. Families were winding down, lamps glowing in courtyards, conversations dimming into sleep. But for the Razdan household, the night shattered into horror when masked men forced their way in. They came with intent, and there was no time for words. Pushker Nath Razdan, son of Tika Lal Razdan, was struck down and dragged outside, the panic in his family’s cries echoing through the village. His wife, only forty-three at the time, clutched at her children two young sons, twenty-three and twenty, and a sixteen-year-old daughter, powerless as terror unfolded in front of their eyes.

Shri. Chand Ji Kher

At just eighteen years old, Chand Ji Kher of Vessu, Anantnag, carried on his frail shoulders the weight of a world already too cruel. He was not the son of privilege, nor did he have wealth to shield him. Poverty was his inheritance, a stretch of land his only anchor, and survival his only dream. When others his age thought of studies, friendships, or the uncertain hope of youth, Chand Ji thought of how to keep his mother and sister afloat. His father, Dina Nath Kher, was gone, and with him went the stability of their home. What remained was a boy forced into manhood too soon, trading his adolescence for toil and sacrifice.

Shri Raj Nath Dhar

But peace was denied to him. On 30 June 1990, his home in Qutub-ud-din Pore, Alikadal, Srinagar, became the stage for terror. Armed men forced their way inside and fired at him, ending his life not with the natural stillness of age but with violence that was swift, cruel, and senseless.

Shri Zinda Lal Pandita

On 6 October 1990, the world he relied on was ripped away. Militants of the JKLF found him one evening, kidnapped him from his own residence, and led him to a nearby orchard, an isolated place once known for its beauty, now turned into the setting of brutality. There, Zinda Lal was strangled with steel wire, his life extinguished in a cruel, intimate act. The killers left no room for mercy, their actions as cold and calculated as the steel that ended his breath.