Srinagar: Sampat Prakash, a Kashmiri Pandit, and a veteran trade union leader whose recent interviews on the most controversial subjects -The Kashmir Files, the killing of Kashmiri Pandits during 90s and on the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir- created a political storm in the region, has passed away due to cardiac arrest on Saturday.
Known for his fearless statements, Prakash died at the age of 86; he was the first kashmiri pandit who spoke against the ‘communal propaganda” of the controversial film, Kashmir files. He had said the movie showed all the Kashmiri Muslims in bad light.
“Whether it is the majority community of Kashmir including Shias, Sunnis, Gujjars and Bakarwals or the Sikhs, everyone is suffering here in this dark era of Kashmiri civilisation that has been marked by death and destruction. Thousands of young men (from the majority community) have died or disappeared so far. Custodial deaths and crackdowns continue,” he had said in an interview.
“The film was creating a communal atmosphere, the movie should have included Kunan Poshpora, Chattisinghpora, Wandhama and Gawkadal tragedies as well.”
He also rebutted the genocide claims of Kashmiri Pandits in 90s, saying: “It’s true that over 200 Kashmiri Pandits were selectively killed. They were targeted. But thousands of Kashmiri Muslims also died during the same time.”
Against political and communal divide, he used to hail the communal harmony between Pandits amd Muslims in Kashmir.
In an interview, he said: “I have been observing for the past several years when a member of non-migrant Kashmiri Pandit community dies in Kashmir, it is the members of the majority community who — going against the tenets of their own religion — not just mourn the death but also carry the body on their shoulders and cremate it as per Hindu rituals. How could the filmmakers ignore such facts?”
He was also a rare voice from the pandit community who was against the abrogation of Article 370 and deemed 370 as the supreme identity of the Kashmiri Nation.
In 1967, Prakash called for the first employees strike in the valley that paralysed the administration and forced them to yield to their demands.