Opinion-‘The Kashmir Files’ showcases humans being cruel against fellow humans
Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ has taken the nation by storm
HIGHLIGHTS
- ‘The Kashmir Files’ is a brilliant, brutal narration of the harsh truth of Kashmiri Pandits by director Vivek Agnihotri that took almost 32 years to come out.
- The movie is based on video interviews with first-generation Kashmiri Pandit victims of the Kashmir Genocide & was originally slated to be released on January 26, 2022.
- The article will only give you glimpses of the brutal incidents depicted in the movie but actually, the worst has happened in reality.
‘THE KASHMIR FILES’ TURNED OUT TO BE A HISTORIC BLOCKBUSTER DESPITE LIMITED PROMOTIONS & MARKETING
The movie is about a story of a student who was not aware that his Kashmiri Hindu parents were actually killed by Islamist militants – and not in an accident as told to him in his childhood. The film has received middling reviews from mainstream critics – more than one called it “exploitative” – but it soon set off a heated debate not only on social media but everywhere. The director of the “The Kashmir Files” was even given ‘Y’ Security amid a row over the film.
KASHMIR – THE NEVER-ENDING CONTROVERSIAL & SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN INDIA
The movie delves into the history of Kashmir, including the restive region and India’s border with Pakistan which has long been a sensitive subject since forever now.
It is the true story of brutal sufferings endured by Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, during the Kashmir insurgency based on video interviews of the first-generation victims of The Kashmir Genocide of the Kashmiri Pandit Community. The film’s heart-wrenching narrative of the pain, sufferings, and trauma of Kashmiri pandits questions eye-opening facts about democracy, religion, politics, and humanity.
Read more- Kashmir Files Row: Kashmiri Pandits shared Gut Wrenching stories on Quora!
LET US TAKE YOU BACK TO 1989 WHEN A HUGE CONFLICT ERUPTED IN KASHMIR WHICH FORCED HINDUS TO FLEE FROM THE VALLEY
According to the multiple estimated reports, about over 100,000 of the valley’s total 140,000 Kashmiri Pandit inhabitants had migrated between February and March 1990 with more of them fleeing in the years that followed until just around 3,000 families remained in the valley by 2011.
ATTACK ON THE HIGH COURT JUDGE, SRINAGAR
The movie showcases a frightened scene of the Hindu community of the Kashmir Valley following the killing of a Srinagar High Court judge in the broad daylight. This is from November 1989 when the terrorists had shot Kashmiri Pandit, retired Judge Nilakanth Ganjoo in a broad daylight in Maharaj Bazaar, Amira Kadal.
WARNINGS VIA NEWSPAPER AL-SAFA TO HINDUS TO LEAVE KASHMIR IMMEDIATELY
Read more- The Kashmir Files hits the theaters: People walked out with teary eyes
Threats were received by the Hindu community to leave the Kashmir valley and Hindu women were deliberately harassed by the Muslim ladies and kids. Hindu communities were not provided any basic survival needs like food, and water, and no grocery shops allowed the Kashmiri Hindu women to enter and purchase food items. Those who tried to help or arranged the grains for the community were either killed or threatened to leave.
In the movie, a small boy is also seen chanting slogans to get rid of the Hindu community in the movie. “Al Safa, Hindu Dafa”, as he shouts in front of one of the diplomat’s (played by Mithun Chakraborty) car while Hindu women cry out their torture. The scene is said to be a real incident from the year 1990 when the Srinagar-based newspapers Aftab and Al Safa published the warnings of the Islamist organisation Hizbul Mujahideen threatening all the Hindus to leave the valley within hours if they wanted to save their lives and honour.
KILLING OF 4 (IAF) INDIAN AIR FORCE OFFICERS
On 25 January 1990, Yasin Malik fires 40 rounds at the Indian Air Force personnel who were identified as Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna, Corporal DB Singh, Corporal Uday Shankar, and Airman Azad Ahmad while they were waiting at the Rawalpora bus stand. In total, four Indian Air Force personnel were killed and 10 other IAF personnel were seriously injured during this attack. According to the reports, the shots were fired in the presence of 1 head constable and 7 other constables of the (J&K) Jammu and Kashmir Police post, who did not even react.
Later, 30 years after the brutal killings of four unarmed officers, the TADA court in Jammu in the year 2020, framed charges against Yasin Malik and six others involved in the attacks.
HUGE SUPPORT TO YASIN MALIK BY THE ‘THEN’ GOVERNMENT
The then Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had developed contacts with the Islamist organisation JKLF and its leader Yasin Malik for retaining political power.
And despite Malik’s terror links, the erstwhile governments and the left-liberal media establishment had tried to portray him as a peace icon and messiah of the Kashmiris according to the sources and multiple news reports. Abdullah had even shared the stage with Yasin Malik in a conference held in Kashmir.
Another important piece of information that we want our readers to know is that in the year 2006, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had invited Yasin Malik to a meeting in his official residence in New Delhi and held talks with terrorists in an attempt to for his crucial outreach programme with the Jammu and Kashmir political leaders, separatists and other groups. In the pictures that went viral, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can be seen happily greeting the terrorist Yasin Malik which became one of the most dismaying images of the recent past.
WOMAN FORCED TO EAT BLOOD-SOAKED RICE
In one of the most heart-wrenching scenes of the film, a woman is force-fed rice soaked in her husband’s blood which is actually a recreation of a brutal murder from 1990. Terrorists had shot him dead by firing multiple rounds allowing the blood to flow from the container where he was hiding. The rice which was there soaked in the blood was then forcefully fed to that woman.
WOMEN WERE STRIPPED AND RAPED IN PUBLIC
The film showcases that the story of ‘The Kashmir Files’ revolves around one family and their sufferings during the Kashmir genocide. The daughter-in-law (Sharda) of a Hindu resident Pushkar Nath Pandit (Anupam Kher) was humiliated, stripped, and brutalised in front of the public including both Hindu and Muslim women.
However, in reality, many women (Kashmiri Pandit) were humiliated, stripped, and brutalised in front of the public and many were even kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Hindu women had to face horrific crimes as they were sexually abused several times by several Islamic militants during that time.
WOMAN HUMILIATED, TORTURED & THEN CUT IN HALF
One of the most horrifying scenes from the movie is when the daughter-in-law (Sharda) of a Hindu resident Pushkar Nath Pandit (Anupam Kher) was killed brutally. In the movie, it is shown that she is given away by the jihadists to the mechanical saw machine alive, cutting her right from the middle of her body.
Now, what comes as a shock is that this really happened in reality to Girija Tickoo in June 1990 who worked as a laboratory assistant in a university in Kashmir Valley. Girija received a call from someone who wanted her to collect her salary and claimed the situation was better in the valley.
Although, she was assured of safety Jihadi terrorists were tracking her every movement and when she arrived, she was kidnapped and was taken to an unknown location. A few days later, her dead body was found in a horrible condition on the roadside as it was cut in half. The autopsy revealed she was brutally gang-raped, tortured, and was cut into two pieces using a saw machine while she was still alive, right from the middle of her body. It has been reported that her family still awaits justice, just like the hundreds and thousands of other Kashmiri Pandits whose suffering has been deemed as ‘propaganda’ by the ‘liberal’ section of the media and society.
THE NADIMARG MASSACRE 2003
In yet another horrifying scene, the director recreates the massacre at Nadimarg village in Jammu and Kashmir and left viewers. In March 2003, Hindu Kashmiri Pandits which included men, women, and small children ranging from a 65-year-old to 2-year-old in Pulwama District of Jammu and Kashmir were killed by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists one by one. The killers later disfigured the bodies of the victims after taking all the ornaments from the dead bodies. The houses of the victims were also looted.
Following the rise of the controversy, the Central government in its major move provided ‘Y’ category security cover to the filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. ‘The Kashmir Files’ has received unprecedented government backing, and why not, since it is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the Kashmir valley.
However, Vivek Agnihotri’s directorial film has already crossed Rs 100 crore mark at the worldwide box office breaking all the records in just a week.
