Kashmir Files: 'Ganjoo was hiding in a rice drum, they shot 6 bullets'

A lot has been said and discussed about Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri's movie 'The Kashmir Files' in recent days. The film may have set the cash registers at cinema halls ringing but its larger impact is being seen in public discourse. Wounds have reopened and the political blame game is unrelenting. 

The Opposition, including the Congress party and National Conference, has claimed that the film depicted half-truth while the BJP asserts that it had exposed the horror that Kashmiri Pandits had to face. 

Also Read: The Kashmir Files: The 7 exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits

To get a sense of the brutality that was meted out to Kashmiri Pandits in the late 1980s leading up to March 1990, Asianet Newsable's Anish Kumar reached out to a family who had been witness to carnage and forced exodus. 

Retired school teacher Reeta Parimoo's husband was an employee in the Post and Telegraph department. Back in 1989 when Pakistan-sponsored terrorism was at its peak, government employees were seen as the spies of the central agencies and most of them were on the terrorists' radar. 

Reeta recalls how her husband Ravi's colleague, BK Ganjoo was shot dead by terrorists. His killing has been documented in Agnihotri's film. In the film, it is shown how the terrorists shot Ganjoo point-blank through the rice container he was hiding in and forced his wife to eat the blood-soaked rice. Reeta corroborates this version. Ganjoo's murder prompted her family to leave the Valley behind in March 1990. Here's her account:

Childhood days in Kashmir 

Back then, Hindu girls usually did not use 'dupatta'. During my college time, some Maulvis had come from Pakistan. If they found any girls without 'dupatta' they used to beat them with sticks on their heads. 

During those times, wearing tight slacks was the fashion among girls. A Maulvi used to stand at the Women's College gate and those who came wearing slacks, he used to hit them on their legs. This incident went on till I was teaching in a school. 

What happened in 1989?

They started raising slogans across the Kashmir Valley. You know what those slogans were... Raliv, Galiv, Ya Chaliv (convert, die or flee). Kashmir will become Pakistan, without Hindu men, with Hindu women). They started killing the Kashmiri Hindus. The slogans were against India, Kashmiri Hindus and women. Even Muslim children were brainwashed into shouting slogans like, 'hum kya chahte, Azadi' (We need freedom). 

Days before the mass exodus 

My husband had to go to Jammu for some work. So he asked me, 'what will you do here alone? So go to your brother's house since the situation is not good'.

I was waiting for the bus at the stand and I saw a huge crowd coming from back in Karan Nagar shouting slogans against India and Hindus. After travelling for some distance, we had to deboard the bus as we were not allowed to proceed further. My child was in my lap. I was stuck in between the huge crowd and they all were sloganeering. 

Somehow, an autorickshaw agreed to drop me at my brother's place in Rainawari. I had left hope thinking either I or my child would be alive at the end of the day. But somehow I reached there.

In Rainawari, an announcement was being made from a nearby mosque in the night that 'do not drink the water as it has been poisoned'. Curfew was imposed for three days across the Valley. 

After arriving from Jammu, my husband came on his scooter to take me home early morning. When he knocked on the door, we were scared; we thought terrorists had come.

We had just reached near Lal Chowk while returning to our home in Karan Nagar when the firing started. My husband sped up his scooter. I do not remember how we reached home. 

'Central government employees were spies' 

My husband was working in the P&T department in Srinagar. The terrorists used to suspect the central government employees as spies for the government and security forces. 

On January 19, 1990, we were having our dinner when thousands of Muslims came onto the street. 'Allah Hu Akhbar' slogans echoed all around. Our door was continuously knocked on. Hindus were being taken out. My husband told us, 'I am going out and if in case you all feel any kind of problem get into our Muslim neighbour's house'.

We were worried; he had not returned for hours. They were announcing through loudspeakers -- 'if you want to save yourselves, leave your wives here and flee'. 

My husband and other Hindu men were taken away to be used as shields when security forces open fire. My husband somehow managed to escape from there. 

So on January 19 night, many Kashmiri Hindus left the Valley out of fear. My brother-in-law also left. My husband stayed there since he was a government employee. Many of them were killed by the Muslims. 

BK Ganjoo's killing

One day, my husband went to the office and I was at home since my school was closed. He used to come before 4 pm every day, but on that day he did not come. I waited for a long time, but he did not come. I started worrying. Then I saw an Army jeep stop in front of my house. I was wondering why the jeep stopped at my house. I saw my husband coming out of it. 

I asked him, 'What happened?' He said they have killed my colleague, Ganjoo. He said three to four back, the terrorists had threatened Ganjoo that they will kill him. They suspected that Ganjoo was leaking their messages to the central government.

The terrorists had also threatened others who would participate in his cremation or share the grief with his family members. How could we have left them? He had a one-year-old child and wife. 

(Reeta chokes and tries hard to hold back her tears) 

Ganjoo even requested the government to send a vehicle so that he can get out safely. But no one listened to him and around 10 am the terrorists knocked at his door. Ganjoo's wife made him hide in a big rice drum. The terrorists could not find him. While they were going back someone told them he is hiding in the drum. The terrorists fired six bullets into the drum, killing Ganjoo.

Leaving Kashmir and reaching Jammu

Around March 20, 1990, my husband asked me to leave the city. Our neighbour, who knew an autorickshaw driver called him and around 3 am we left our house for Srinagar airport. We reached the airport at 5 am and saw thousands of people standing there. Till 12 noon, my child had eaten nothing. Around 1:30 pm, we boarded the plane for Jammu with just one bag. 

In Jammu, we were lucky that we stayed at my brother-in-law's house. Most of us were staying in tents. After some months, we came to Delhi and we both struggled a lot. Now, we are fine. 

Response of local Muslims

They had a negative approach towards us. Their attitude had totally changed. They were of the view that the next morning, Kashmir will be a part of Pakistan. This was their attitude. Some of them were good and that is the reason why we stayed two months more.

Also Read: Censoring 'The Kashmir Files' is attack on freedom, says New Zealand's ex-Deputy PM

Also Read: The Kashmir Files: ‘Come to Srinagar and you will be murdered’