Though I have not lived in Kashmir ( my wife did, and speaks fluent Kashmiri ) since my ancestors migrated from Kashmir about 200 years ago, I am proud to call myself a Kashmiri, and I regard Kashmiri Muslims as my blood brothers and sisters. Our DNA is the same. Whenever Kashmiri Muslims meet me, they feel they are meeting one of their own. When Kashmiri law students used to come from Kashmir to Delhi they would often come to my Courtroom in the Supreme Court as they felt one of their own is a Supreme Court Judge, and I used to invite them to my residence and interact with them. So I have no enmity with Kashmiris, as that would be enmity with myself.
What I have to say with regret, however, is that my Kashmir, which was Sufi Kashmir, has been radicalised and converted into Wahabi Kashmir, and I hate Wahabis, just as I hate all intolerant religious fundamentalists, including Hindu fundamentalists like Adityanath, Pravin Togadia, Sadhvi Prachi, etc.
Kashmir had an old tradition of Rishis, who included Muslim sufis
These Kashmiri Rishis taught tolerance, brotherhood and compassion, like all Sufis.
In my Kashmir Muslims and Pandits used to live in harmony like brothers and sisters, as my wife and her relatives and others tell me.
But all that has changed. After the Pandits were killed, terrorised, and hounded out of the valley from 1989 onwards ( and many Kashmiris who were not even born at that time have been brainwashed into saying that Jagmohan did it, which is false ), my Kashmir has gone with the wind.
The Kashmir of today is no longer Sufi Kashmir but has become Wahabi Kashmir. The Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, that feudal buffoon, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, is a hardcore Islamic fundamentalist, and so are most of his associates.
Many Kashmiri Muslims now express their love for the Pandits, and shed crocodile tears about their departure from the valley, but where were Geelani and his ilk in 1989 ? Did they ever raise their voices against the atrocities on Pandits then ? No, a lock was placed on their lips at that time, when loudspeakers blared from mosques telling Pandt males to convert or get out of the valley, but leave their women behind, when notices were pasted on the houses of Pandits to the same effect, and when Pandits were selectively massacred in many places, often being identified to the killers by their Muslim neighbours. Now of course they are in a denial mode.
The present azadi agitation in Kashmir is being led by such Islamic fanatics and bigots, while the rest of the Kashmiri population is like mindless pawns being used by their chess masters, and the international forces behind them.
That is why I am so sad. My Kashmir has gone with the wind
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