HVK Archives: The essence of intolerance
The essence of intolerance - The Observer (New Delhi)
Dina Nath Mishra
()
March 30, 1998
Title: The essence of intolerance
Author: Dina Nath Mishra
Publication: The Observer (New Delhi)
Date: March 30, 1998
Islamic fundamentalist mindset is manifested in various forms.
Ethnic cleansing of Hindus in J&K Is the latest chapter of the
brutalities perpetrated by the paragons of Islamic expansionists.
Hatred for kafirs, resulting in treating the microscopic minority
of Hindus like slaves even today in Pakistan, is yet another
manifestation of the same mindset. The same is displayed in the
nomenclature given to Pakistani missile Hatf. This Islamic
extremism is playing havoc with Hindus and other non-Muslims for
centuries.
What happened in Parankote of Udhampur on April 17, 1998 has
happened thousands of times in history. A large number of
terrorists, including some foreigners, intruded into the village
of Parankote and stayed with prominent local political activists.
The Hindus of this village had been advised by Muslims to embrace
Islam, but Hindu families did not listen to the "friendly
advice". In the evening, these terrorists surrounded the hamlets
of Parankote and Dhakikote. The once-happy habitation had just
died and no mourners were left behind. Parankote is now a
lifeless village. Twenty-six members of four hapless Hindu
families of Parankote and Dhakikote were wiped out by the
'Mujahids', who were spearheading a 'jehad' against Hindus. They
clubbed the innocent villagers, chopped off their limbs and
brutally slaughtered the youngsters in front of their elders.
Then they also slaughtered the elders. They poured kerosene oil
on some and roasted them alive. In panic and fear, over a
thousand Hindus from the adjoining villages have left their homes
and migrated to Reasi after the massacre. The purpose of these
barbaric killings is obviously to spread terror and force the
Hindus to migrate from their homes and also to create communal
tensions and to grab their land and other properties.
In the district of Doda and Udhampur, scores of such brutal
killings of Hindus have taken place during the last few years to
force the Hindus to migrate from their homes. Earlier, it was the
same operation which resulted in total ethnic cleansing of
Kashmiri pundits. Three lakhs of them are refugees in their own
country. J&K chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, has made a number
of promises that conditions would be created so that Kashmiri
pundits can come back to their homes. But the situation is far
>from receptive for Kashmir pundits to return. But Islamists
never allowed such returns in history. If Kashmiri pundits
return, it would certainly be a new beginning. After 'cleansing'
the Kashmir valley through their terror tactics, Islamists are
now concentrating on Jammu region with the same-objective and
methodology. Parankote killing is the latest. Even after the
coming of BJP-led government, mass killings in Parankote have
taken place. Perhaps, strategists of fundamentalist forces, aided
and abetted by Pakistan, are testing the response of BJP-led
government.
Just 50 years back during the partition of the country, the whole
of Pakistan was cleared of Hindus. Mass killings of Hindus
followed their migration. Now Pakistan has less than half per
cent of Hindu population. In the earlier phase of the history,
the same happened to Hindus m Afghanistan. The remnants of Hindus
came to India as refugees just a few years back. Throughout
history, Islamists have been totally intolerant towards what they
call non-believers. When non-believers are non-existent, their
intolerance turns against Muslims themselves. In dozens of
Islamic countries, fundamentalists are up against Muslims
themselves. In some countries they are waging war against the
establishment.
The ingredient of 'hate non-believers in their thinking results
in yet another variety of cruelty. The weekly magazine Outlook in
its April 13, 1998 issue has published a two-page report from
London with a photograph of a pathetic-looking Hindu in chains of
Sindh area, with the heading "Pakistan - It's 16th century in
Sindh". This has continued for years, sometimes to generations of
Hindu families who stayed back in Pakistan, information gathered
over five years by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan shows. The
group has re cued more than 3,000 Hindus from slavery in recent
years, but it has produced evidence that thousands more remain in
chains in private jails of Pakistani zamindars. The Commission,
led in Sindh by Shakeel Ahmed Pathan, has handed the Sindh
administration a list of 4,074 Hindu slaves or Haaris as they are
called in Sindh. According to Pathan, of the 3,000 Haaris
rescued, almost all the women had been raped and many were
pregnant. "We found cases where the mothers were raped, and then
their daughters were raped in front of them," he says. In some
families, grandmothers, mothers and daughters had all borne
illegitimate children. "Many of these women have 10-12 children
and these children are put to work from a very young age. Young
girls grow up to be concubines all their lives."
"The administration and the political parties do not seem to care
either. I have approached every single party in Pakistan for
support against this practice but I am ashamed to say that hardly
anybody has offered us any support." Instead, Pathan complains
that "many of them call us RAW agents but it is these people who
are anti-Pakistan by letting such practices continue in our
country." On September 8, 7, a group of rescued slaves joined a
protest march in Karachi to the house of the chief minister of
Sindh. "We are sold and purchased like animals/market commodity
>from one Zamindar to the other, our women are made prey to sexual
assaults and abuse," they said in a memorandum. Asma Jehangir,
who heads the human rights group in Pakistan, led the protest
march.
Now we come to yet other dimension of the same mindset. The
Pakistan government disclosed on April 6 that it had carried out
the test of its first ever intermediate range ballistic missile,
Hatf-5 or Ghauri, which could strike deep inside India. As a wave
of nationalistic fervour swept through Pakistan, scores of
newborn children were named after the missile. Within days of the
Ghauri test, the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Dr Abdul
Qadeer Khan, announced that Islamabad was in the process of
developing a more powerful missile, Ghaznavi, with a range of
2,000 km - 500 km more than Ghauri. Pakistan President Mohammed
Rafique Tarrar upped the ante when he urged that more missiles
should be developed by the names of Muslim rulers: "Ghauri,
Ghaznavi, Babri and Abdali missiles.
Nomenclature of their missiles is not just to tease India and
particularly Hindus, but to harden the Islamist mindset of
Pakistani people. Psychologically, nomenclature almost suggests
that Pakistan ruled India. It is this mindset which results in
multifaceted manifestations, from brutal killings in J&K to
enslavement of Hindus in Pakistan.
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