Bengaluru: While thousands of Kashmiri Pandits yearn to return home even after three decades of their exile, all owing to Islamic fundamentalism in the late 80s in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, here’s one sordid tale of how a young techie was shot to death and his wife made to eat blood-soaked rice. 

Columnist Sunanda Vashisht, a Kashmiri Hindu, testified at a US Congressional hearing on human rights last year. 

The story she narrated goes like this: There was a young engineer named BK Ganjoo. As terrorists attacked him, he hid behind a rice container on the attic. A he kept firmly ensconced there, thinking that he would be invisible to the terrorists, his own neighbours played spoilsport. They revealed his place, thereby prodding the terrorists to open fire. 

Not just that, in what appears to be inhumane, his wife also made to eat the blood-soaked rice. 

These are indeed tales of how cruelty stumps humanity! 

There were other tales too, of how JKLF members ran amok, forcing people to reset their time to Pakistan Standard Time and painted shops and offices green. Some even burnt down temples and shot people disdainfully. 

Sunanda Vashist had also added, "I am a proud daughter of Kashmir. Terrorism has uprooted me and snatched my home from me. I hope my human rights are restored too someday, and the human rights of my community."

How abrogation of articles 35A and 370 has helped the Kashmiri cause 

On the issue of abrogation, she had said, "Today I am delighted that Kashmiris have the same rights as Indian citizens. If something as serious as a woman’s right to own property and granting of LGBTQ rights...to choose...amongst many others, has been accomplished through abrogation of Article 370, then it is safe to assume that restoration of Internet in few remaining districts of Kashmir is not too far away. "