16^th May 2022 – Ever since the release and successful running of the movie “The Kashmir Files”, Hindus are under severe attack from some media houses and members of the academia.

An opinion piece was authored by Shree Paradkar which was published in Toronto Star on 1^st April 2022 that titled Anti-Muslim film “The Kashmir Files” a dangerous step in India’s descent into hate

Hindu Forum Canada (HFC) has released a letter on their website which they wrote to Toronto Star in this regard. In a strongly worded letter, HFC called the opinion piece as “a blatant attempt to assault the truth”.

The letter stated that “the denial of genocide is as great a crime as the genocide itself”. As per HFC, the article attempted to distort the facts to conveniently cover-up the massacre that impacted hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus. It exposed the revisionism that was sought through this article.

Further, HFC wrote that her opinion not only distorted the central message of the movie, it also painted a distorted view of history. It could have been well researched had the author attempted to speak to the Kashmiri Hindu diaspora in Greater Toronto Area.

The HFC letter also mentioned excerpts from a well known book written on Kashmir by Walter R. Lawrence “The Valley of Kashmir” who as a civil servant during the British Indian rule administered, explored and wrote in length about Kashmir’s political and religious history.

Another important point which HFC stated is that it is beyond question that the Kashmiri Hindu Genocide happened; the only thing which remains to be discussed is the number of people who know that it indeed happened.

Kashmiri Hindus, popularly known as Kashmiri Pandits, have been living as refugees in their own country for the past 32 years. The rise of militancy and religious extremism in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to the Kashmiri Hindu genocide and exodus. At least 500,000 Kashmiri Hindus were forced to leave their homes and had to live a vulnerable life in refugee camps. On 19^th January 1990, slogans of Raliv, Tsaliv ya Galiv (convert, leave or die) were raised. The men were asked to leave the Kashmir Valley without their women. Countless were murdered and burnt alive; women raped and molested.

The HFC letter also entailed a latest letter released by “Lashkar-e-Islam” which threatens the remaining Kashmiri Hindus to leave the valley or be prepared to die. HFC has demanded that their letter be published in the same area as the Hinduphobic opinion piece in order to prove that Toronto Star is “unaffected by personal biases of journalists”.

“We are trying to get our point across to Toronto Star and are confident that they would respond positively if they truly believe in un-biased journalism” said Vishal Saini who is a Director at HFC and has been coordinating with the Toronto Star.

To read the complete letter written by HFC, please click here.

To read “The Valley of Kashmir” by Walter R. Lawrence, please click here.