For the first time, Kashmiri Pandits visit tragedy site of infamous 2003 Nadimarg massacre

On the solemn day of 23rd March, Kashmiri Pandits, who have been forced to live as refugees in their own country, gathered with their kin to pay homage to the victims of the infamous 2003 Nadimarg massacre. Marking its 22nd anniversary today, they remembered their family members who were brutally killed by terrorists at Nadimarg village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district in 2003. While they commemorate their 24 victims annually in Jammu, it was for the first time that the victim Kashmiri Hindus marked the remembrance event at the site of the tragedy.

For those unversed, on the fateful night of 22nd and 23rd March, the terrorists who had disguised themselves in military dress surrounded the Nadimarg village. At gunpoint, they forced village residents to come out of their homes, after which they were mercilessly executed in an open field.

Bhushan Lal Bhat is one of those Kashmiri Hindu victim who had to flee to Jammu to save his and his family members lives. He stressed that this year, the Kashmiri Hindu community chose to return to their native village to mark the 22nd annual ceremony of the infamous Nadimarg massacre.

“We have been holding the event in Jammu every year, but this time, we decided to gather at Nadimarg. The abandoned houses here speak for themselves about the horrors of that night,” he said as quoted in The New Indian. In a symbolic gesture, many families were accompanied with their children as they wanted the younger generation to connect with their ancestral roots.

In the 1990s, when Pakistan sponspored terrorism was at its peak, the Kashmiri Pandits were threatened to leave their home while leaving behind their female family members. According to the Kashmiri Hindus, hatemongering slogans — Raliv, Galiv, ya Chaliv, (Convert, leave or die) were repeatedly given from mosques. In the backdrop of this terrorising atmosphere, most of the Kashmiri Pandits from Nadimarg fled to relief camps across Jammu. This was not limited to the area, rather it was part of the larger exodus that began in February 1990.

The dastardly terror attack unfolded at around 11 p.m. The terrorists mercilesly killed 11 men, 11 women, and two young boys with the victims age ranging from a 65-year-old man to a two-year-old child.

Also Read: 7 times the Kashmiri Pandits had to face genocide in Kashmir

The terrorists were linked to the globally banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba. They were led by their ‘district commander’ Zia Mustafa. Mustafa is elieved to working based out of PoK’s Rawalakot. He was arrested in 2003 and remained imprisoned until October 2021. That month, the security forces took him to a forest area in Poonch to weedout terrorist hideouts, it is reported that during this search operation, he was killed in an exchange of fire.