A Kashmiri Pandit and journalist recalled the horrors her community faced in front of a US human rights panel.
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00:00My father is a Kashmiri Hindu, my mother is a Kashmiri Hindu, I am a Kashmiri Hindu
00:05and her home and lives in Kashmir were destroyed by radical Islamic terrorism.
00:30We have seen ISIS level of horror and brutality in Kashmir 30 years before the West was even
00:39introduced to the brutalities of radical Islamic terror.
00:43I'm glad these hearings are happening today because when my family and I lost our homes,
00:48our livelihood and our way of life, the world remained silent.
00:53Where were the advocates of human rights when my rights were taken away?
00:58Where were they on the night of 19th January 1990 when there were voices blaring from all mosques
01:05in Kashmir that they wanted Kashmir with Hindu women but without Hindu men?
01:10Where were the saviours of humanity when my feeble old grandfather stood with two kitchen knives
01:17and an old rusted axe ready to kill my mother and I in order to save us from the much worse fate
01:24that awaited us if we landed in the hands of terrorists on the same fateful night?
01:29My people were given three choices, flee, convert or die.
01:34Around 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus fled right after that night of horror.
01:39They survived. Those who didn't were killed.
01:43Today, 30 years later, I'm still not welcome in my home in Kashmir.
01:47I am not allowed to follow my faith without fear.
01:50My house in Kashmir is illegally occupied as those of countless others in my community.
01:56Those that are not occupied have mostly been burned down or ransacked.
02:21I am a proud daughter of Kashmir. I am a proud legatee of India's composite civilisation.
02:29Terrorism has uprooted me and snatched my home from me.
02:33I hope my human rights are restored to someday and the human rights of my community.