Life In Exile

When innocent got killed, others left, Beyond the hills to unknown lands, Escaping death that chased foot prints, With nothing, just the empty hands. Helpless *Pandits, became homeless, Feet on ground and sky over head, Horror and fear gripped their minds, Their heart was alive but soul so dead. Loaded guns, kept looking for them, The torment they couldn't withstand, And even in sleep, they would weep, As they dreamt of their native land. Empty tents, to call their new home, At times blew away in wind and cold, Years went on, in absolute darkness, Many shattering stories never got told. Nothing has changed culprits are free, Tears have dried in twenty-six years, With no return, life in exile goes on, Still the bitter past, haunts and scares. March 18, 2016. Political Ordeal - Poetry Contest Sponsored by: C T *Pandits are the aboriginal minority of Kashmir (India). Kashmir, God's own land on earth, is the motherland of Kashmiri Pandits. The year 1990, saw a mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their own soil due to threat to their life and, brutal and barbaric killings by the separatists. More than 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to abandon their homeland. Even today after twenty-six years of their mass exodus, their ordeal continues. The new Modi Government in India has made many promises to them, but so far nothing has been done for their resettlement . Their life in exile continues........