Jammu, Jan 17 : The world for 70-year-old Autar Krishan Raina has never been the same place, not after he left his home in Srinagar in the aftermath of that horrifying night in January 1990.
"I never believed that old wounds could hurt so hard.
I have often been jolted out of sleep as if those frightening slogans are still going on outside my home.
"We lived peacefully among our Muslim neighbours in Aaali Kadal area of downtown Srinagar. I had grown up alongside my best friend, Afzal, who would sit beside my mother like her second son.
"My mother loved Afzal like she would have if I had a blood brother," Raina recalls the good old days walking down the memory lane to identify his home in Aali Kadal which today is a half-fallen ruin.
He now lives in Jammu city where his son and daughter grew up.
The daughter is a doctor while his son is working in Mumbai as a software engineer.
Raina lost his wife two years after the family migrated with hundreds of other Kashmiri Pandits to take shelter away from home.
"My tragedy is that I did not only lose my home and friends. I have lost faith in the goodness of humankind," he recalled with moist eyes requesting not to be pushed to relive the horror he has been through.
The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits has haunted both local Hindus and Muslims. For centuries, the two communities had co-existed with intertwined destinies. Eid and Maha Shivratri had been common festivals.
The shrine of Sheikh Humza Makhdoom atop the Hari Parbat hillock in old Srinagar city has wonderfully blend with the neighbouring temple of Sharika Devi.
Muslims and local Pandits have paid obeisance at these two places of faith to pray for brotherhood, love and mutual respect.
Their societal interests have been common. Imagining life without each other was impossible till 1990.
All that was shattered and lost during the January of 1990.
Slogans of 'Azadi' (Freedom) had achieved just one objective, Kashmiri Pandits lost their home and hearth while the local Muslims lost their innocence.
For a common Kashmiri, both Muslim and Hindu, world has never been the same after January 1990.
Local Muslims have suffered immensely at the hands of those who hated their lofty traditions and the ideals of religious tolerance.
Local Hindus have become refugees in their own country.
"We lost our homeland. Living as refugees in your own country is perhaps a tragedy only the Kashmiri Pandit has suffered. The future of my children is safe, but they have lost their roots," Raina ends his story as he closes the door of his house away from home.
Will Kashmir ever be the same as it was before January 1990? Might be it will, but the wounds in the hearts and minds of those who suffered the horror of those days and nights will continue to fester because some wounds are never fully healed.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikhqayoom@gmail.com)
--IANS
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Source: IANS
