Fifth Migration The Afghan Rule (1753-1820 AD) was ruthless and atrocious. The period under two upstarts, namely, Lal Khan Khattak and Faqir Ullah was extremely tyrannical Khattak was given to insane rage and sometimes got the entire family killed on mere suspicion. He got hundreds of Hindus killed because he suspected his father had been killed at the instance of a Kashmiri Hindu noble, Kailash Dhar, who was killed in broad day light in the court of the Shia Governor, Amir Khan Jawansher, at the instance of Fazal Kanth, the diabolical son of Faqir Ullah, who was then Chief Minister. The episode left Hindus alarmed, panicked, helpless and desperate resulting in their flight to safe shelters in Poonch and Kabul. The misrule touched lowest ebb under the Governorship of Haji Karim Dad Khan and Asad Khan. For minor offences people were tied in pairs and thrown into river. Women were sexually abused. The despotic Asad Khan got the belly of an outside surgeon cut, for failure to set right his eye, to verify his threat. Asad assumed the title of Nadir Shah II in 1784 AD. Atta Mohd, another Afghan Governor, persecuted Hindus relentlessly and earned notoriety for his insatiable lust for beautiful Kashmiri women. Apprehensive Hindu parents got the good looks of their daughters sullied to evade attention of Governor’s agents. Anand Kaul Bamzie records in his book ‘The Kashmiri Pandit’, Jabbar Khan, the last Afghan Governor who got killed at Shopian on july15, 1819 AD, was once told by some one that it was a common notion among the Pandits that snow falls invariably at the Shivratri night (13th day of the dark fortnight Phagun). To test this, he ordered that the Pandits should not observe this festival in Phagun (February-March) but in Har (June-July). Accordingly, it had to be observed on the corresponding night in the latter months. It so happened that even on that night flakes of snow, preceded by a heavy rainfall which had rendered the atmosphere very cold, fell. The bard then, mocking at him sang : ‘Wuchhton Yi Jabbar Jandah Haras ti karun vandah’ (Look at Jabbar, the wretch, even Har he turned into winter)”.

The capture of Kashmir by Sikhs marked the deliverance of the Kashmiri Hindus from the barbarous Afghan Governors. Pt Birbal Dhar’s political maturity paved the way for Maharaja Ranjit Singh to establish Sikh Rule (1820-46 AD) in the Valley. The sounds of bells again started emanating from the temples. The Sikh rule was an era of peace for all. Some stray instances of harshness by the Sikh rulers apart, they were not cunning, cruel and fanatic religious zealots as their Muslim predecessors. Young husband; a British Political Resident in Kashmir, who had travelled extensively in Kashmir and other areas around the Himalayas as also Central Asia/China; observed “ The Sikhs were no so barbarically cruel as the Afghans’ but they were hard and rough masters”.
Sixth Migration The last Governor of the Sikh Rule, Imam-Ud-Din was made to surrender the possession of Kashmir to Raja Gulab Singh in pursuance of the Treaty of Amritsar signed on March 16, 1846 AD. The Dogra dynasty lasted for a little over a century and saw four Maharajas, namely, Gulab Singh (!846-57), Ranbir Singh (1857-85), Partap SINGH (1885-1925) and Hari Singh (1925-1952). The J&K State acceded to India on October 26, 1947, but the hereditary rule of the Dogras was abolished in 1952. In the wakw of the British Government’s pervasive and decisive intervention in the affairs of the State the period could well be called the Dogra-British rule rather than the Dogra rule alone. The British pursued their known policy of divide and rule and exploited the jealousy among the newly educated Muslim youth against the well educated Kashmiri Pandits to carve out a situation to set stage for desperate Muslim youth to enact scenes of violent political agitation. The KPs became a eyesore for the simple reason of their outshining others. Sheikh Abdullah, then the most prominent leader of the Muslim Reading Room Group, minced no words to voice resentment and made provocative speeches in mosques resulting in Kashmiri Muslims repeating history of loot, arson and murder on July 13, 1931, a black day for Kashmiri Pandits, ironically celebrated by the local government and the Muslims as martyrs’ day even now. The frenzied mob went beserk and the Maharaja’s administration failed to protect the terrorized KPs, who were taken unawares. Thousands of KPs had to flee the Valley for life.
Seventh Migration The post independence period witnessed yet another spell of migration by the hapless KPs from Northern, Northwestern and Northeastern parts of Kashmir; to capital city of Srinagar in the wake of Pak raiders invasion in October, 1947 aided and abetted by the State of Pakistan ; where local zealots joined hands with hordes of savages from NWFP, except Srinagar and South Kashmir, behaving worse that their Afghan ancestors. Innumerable prominent KPs had to bid unwilling adieu to their land of birth due to ever dwindling and waning chances of livelihood despite merit, abolition of Zamindari system that reduced thousands of KP owners as paupers owing to lack of due compensation as also discrimination of KP youth in matters of admission to higher education and technical /professional institutions. The process of slow exodus was further aggravated by the events like Relic agitation (1963) and forcible abduction and conversion of a Hindu girl (1967). (Concluded)

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