New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Kashmir is not only a majority Muslim province of India, it is also home to a distinct community called the Kashmiri Pandits & Sikhs who have been exiled from their land by forces from across the border, said Global Kashmiri Pandit diaspora in a statement on Saturday.
It said that Kashmir is home to a community which has seen the horrors of genocide, brutal assaults, and targeted killings since Oct 22, 1947.
The Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD) Thailand Chapter held an event at Bangkok on Saturday to discuss how minority communities of Kashmir have been continuously targeted from across the border. The event was held under the leadership of D.K. Bakshi, GKPD Chapter Head, who held the day 22 Oct in 1947 as a black day in the history of Kashmir. Around 50 participants from Thailand, Thai Indians and Indian Community joined the event physically and others virtually.
Sharing his personal agony and pain associated with the mass exodus, Bakshi said that the minority communities of Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs have been continuously targeted from across the border.
“The turning point in the history of Kashmir came on Oct 22, 1947 with invasion on the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir by ‘Tribals from Pakistan with Pakistani soldiers’ which opened up a chapter – the bloodiest, most brutal ethnic cleansing in South Asia’s modern history, which unfortunately continues to this Day”, was the view of the speakers at the GKPD.
The prominent speakers who joined virtually includes Kiran Bedi who expressed solidarity with Black Day on 22nd Oct 1947 and said that Kashmiri Pandits and Sikh Community have been victims of genocide for decades.
