Several Kashmiri Pandits visit Kheer Bhawani mela, many skip it due to fear

Kashmiri Pandits participated in the annual Kheer Bhawani mela at the famous Ragnya Devi temple at Tulmulla in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district. However, the number of devotees was less due to the recent targeted killings in the Valley and the atmosphere was sombre.

Most of the pandits living in Jammu didn't attend the festival. The mela was organised after a gap of two years due to restrictions related to Covid-19.

"My heart is in pain as this place looks deserted compared to how bustling it used to be. We are scared of every passerby and biker on the road, who may brandish a pistol or weapon any time and kill us," said Meenakshi, a Kashmiri Pandit, who lives in Srinagar.


Even though the J&K administration, central university, Ganderbal degree college, J&K Bank and Wakf board had installed refreshment stalls, there were very few devotees to use the facilities. The officials from the administration and Wakf board and members of different political parties, including BJP and Congress, also visited the temple.

A pandit at the temple said "nobody other than the majority Muslim community could be the saviour of the minorities here". Another devotee said: "Many people haven't come here as there is an atmosphere of fear and threat."

The residents of the migrant Kashmiri Pandit colony in the Wessu area of Qazigung wrote a formal letter to the administration informing about the boycott of the festival. "We are being killed and nobody is feeling safe," read the letter. A resident of the colony said the administration has locked all the transit accommodations of Pandits across the Valley so that they don't come out to protest.