The Sunday Telegraph - 11.08.2019

The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 11 August 2019 *** 15

Kashmiri exiles plan ‘rightful’ return

By Joe Wallen in Delhi and

Ben Farmer in Pakistan

ROHIT KACHROO can still remember

flinging open his back door and playing

on the banks of the Jhelum, the vast

river dissecting the city of Srinagar, the

capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

But recollections of his home town

stop at the age of four, when he had to

flee to Delhi with three generations of

his family as brutal mobs from the Mus-

lim majority ran riot. “I hope that no

child in the world has to see what I

have seen,” Mr Kachroo said.

The 33-year-old is one of many Pan-

dit Hindus now mobilising for the

“rightful” return home after Narendra

Modi revoked Kashmir’s special status,

tearing up rules that had barred outsid-

ers from owning land there. Yet fears

are growing that Mr Modi, whose

Hindu nationalism won him an ex-

traordinary re-election in May, is ex-

ploiting the plight of the Pandits to

encourage Hindus across India to fol-

low suit – leading to a Palestinian terri-

tory-style occupation.

Across the border in nuclear-armed

Pakistan, President Imran Khan has

warned of ethnic cleansing in Kashmir,

while militants are already plotting a

renewed insurgency.

For now Kashmir lies in darkness af-

ter Mr Modi ordered an unprecedented

militarised lockdown, curfew and com-

munications blackout as tensions

threaten to boil over.

Mr Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Ja-

nata Party (BJP) ended self-rule in Kash-

mir for the first time since 1947 on

Monday. He scrapped Article 35A that

banned non-permanent residents of

Kashmir from buying land and property

or seeking employment in the state.

In a rare interview with Western

press by a BJP official, Ram Madhav,

the party secretary, told The Sunday

Telegraph the government was already

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Heirs to Mussolini’s fascists on

the march into government

By Nick Squires in Rome

WITH Italy mired in political chaos,

the heirs to the country’s fascist past

are poised to play a key role in the likely

next government.

A general election appears imminent

after Matteo Salvini, deputy prime

minister and head of the hard-Right

League, announced this week that the

14-month-old coalition with the Five

Star Movement was irrevocably broken

because of policy differences.

Fresh elections could be held as

early as October – a prospect which has

the extreme-Right Brothers of Italy

party rubbing its hands with glee.

Fratelli d’Italia, as the party is known

in Italian, takes its name from the first

line of the Italian national anthem.

It is nationalist, nativist, deeply Eu-

rosceptic and even further to the Right

than Mr Salvini’s League, which has tri-

umphed in opinion polls with its clos-

ing of Italy’s ports to asylum seekers

rescued in the Mediterranean.

A hard-Right government consisting

of Brothers of Italy and the League

would “carry out important and politi-

cally incorrect reforms that Italy

needs”, the party’s leader, Giorgia Mel-

oni, told Corriere della Sera.

“On immigration, the economy, se-

curity, family, relations with Europe,

the vision between us and Salvini’s

party is perfectly compatible.”

Ms Meloni said her party’s economic

policy was “Trumpian” – they advocate

“a fiscal shock”, which means spending

by the State to stimulate growth, as

well as “the defence of Italian compa-

nies and products”.

“They are pretty far to the Right, but

they are the presentable, institutional

face of the far Right,” said Federico

Santi, an analyst with the Eurasia

Group, the political risk agency. “They

don’t necessarily want to bring down

the whole system and are not openly

advocating authoritarian measures.”

The Italian fascist movement since

the Second World War began with the

Italian Social Movement, which lasted

from 1946 to 1995, succeeded by the

National Alliance, which lasted until

2009, then Brothers of Italy.

Ms Meloni has said she has “a serene

relationship with Fascism” and called

Benito Mussolini “a complex person”.

The party has a Mussolini in its ranks,

Rachele Mussolini, a granddaughter of

“Il Duce”, who was executed as he tried

to flee Italy at the end of the Second

World War.

The League is now hovering around

38 per cent in national opinion polls,

Brothers of Italy at around 6 per cent.

If an election is held, Mr Salvini will

probably become prime minister.

And by his side, will likely be the in-

heritors of Italy’s disastrous experi-

ment with fascism.

World news

Trump claims Kim

apologised for missiles

US President Donald Trump said

yesterday North Korean leader Kim

Jong-un had apologised over a spate of

missile tests and wants to resume

denuclearisation talks when US-South

Korean military exercises end.

Mr Trump, hours after North Korea

carried out the fifth such test in two

weeks, tweeted that Kim made these

statements in a letter to him and that

he looks “forward to seeing Kim Jong

Un in the not too distant future!”.

The exercises began on Monday and

are due to last another week.

WORLD BULLETIN

Taxi driver questioned

over missing Briton, 15

Police in Malaysia have questioned the

taxi driver who brought the family of

missing British 15-year-old Nora Anne

Quoirin to the resort where she was

last seen on Aug 3.

Detectives said they had narrowed

the search area where Nora went

missing, were looking into people with

criminal backgrounds in the area and

had searched the homes of hotel staff.

In a statement, the family said Nora

“is not like other teenagers. She is not

independent and does not go any-

where alone”.

looking to set up special territories in

Kashmir for returning Hindus, adding

that all legal channels were now open.

“Someone who has the key for his

home could claim it and if someone

stalls him he could go to the police or

the court to get his property back,”

added Krishna Saagar Rao, chief spokes-

man at the BJP.

Google searches for “land rates in

Kashmir” and “plots in Kashmir” sky-

rocketed this week across India.

Women’s rights groups condemned

a deluge of social media posts from In-

dian men who celebrated the removal

of Article 35A, arguing that it was their

chance to marry a Kashmiri woman, fa-

voured for their fairer complexion.

In Pakistan, which maintains its claim

to rule Kashmir in its entirety, Pervez

Musharaf, the former president, ac-

cused Mr Modi of emulating Israeli pol-

icy by annexing land for resettlement.

Mr Musharaf said: “Establishing Hindu

settlements is a nefarious act to change

the fabric of Kashmir from a Muslim

majority to a Hindu majority.”

Kashmiris living under the current

lockdown said that tensions were al-

ready high. Residents said the strict

curfew meant they would be shot on

sight if they left their homes, adding

that many were starving as they are un-

able to access food and dying in the

streets as they were refused access to

hospitals.

Up to 500 people – including univer-

sity professors, business leaders and po-

litical activists – have also allegedly

been detained by the Indian authorities.

Unsurprisingly, emotional Hindu Pan-

dits welcomed the BJP’s policy.

Their plight is still fresh in the minds

of many. The Pandit community, which

made up 5 per cent of Kashmir’s popu-

lation, were forced to flee in the mid-

Eighties after mobs belonging to the

majority-Muslim community began

killing, raping women and damaging

their temples and properties.

For Mr Kachroo, a historical wrong

meted out to his people can finally be

righted. His mother has kept the key to

their beautiful lost bungalow ever

since they fled Srinagar. She might now

be finally going home.

Hive of activity Beekeepers in Girona, Spain, have moved

almost one million bees to 4,00ft (1,200m) above sea level

to help protect the hives from heat and pesticide.

MANUEL MEDIR/GETTY IMAGES

A policeman

struggles to detain

an activist during a

protest against

Indian government,

after it stripped

Jammu and

Kashmir of its

autonomy, in

Jammu

‘I hope that

no child in

the world

has to see

what I have

seen’

Murdered

woman’s family

fear unrest will

thwart justice

By Naomi Canton

THE parents of a Guernsey backpacker

killed in Kashmir fear the trial of her al-

leged murderer may collapse or face

interminable delays after Narendra

Modi, India’s prime minister, stripped

the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its

semi-autonomous status.

Sarah Groves, 24, a fitness instructor

who went to St Mary’s School, Ascot,

and Chelsea College of Art, was stabbed

46 times and found in a pool of blood

on her bed on a houseboat on Dal Lake

in April 2013.

She had gone to India on a round-

the-world trip in November 2012 and

fallen in love with Samir Shoda, a Kash-

miri man, who persuaded her to live

with him on his family houseboat.

Richard De Wit, a Dutch tourist stay-

ing on the same houseboat was charged

with murder. He has been held in Sri-

nagar Central Jail for more than six

years but denies the charges.

The 165th and 166th hearing of his

trial in Srinagar was scheduled for to-

morrow and Tuesday.

Victor and Kate, Ms Groves’s par-

ents, have been unable to make contact

with their legal counsel all week owing

to a lockdown where phone, cable TV

and internet services have been sus-

pended and a curfew imposed.

“We have had no contact with any-

one in Kashmir and so we can’t get any

legal opinion about what is happening

so we are in the dark,” said Mr Groves.

“We have no further dates for the fu-

ture and we don’t know if there is a fu-

ture.”

“Is the trial able to continue under

Kashmiri law? Because from now on

the laws of India have to prevail in

Kashmir. It would be so difficult to re-

start the case under the Indian legal

system because so many exhibits were

lost in the 2014 Kashmir floods which

washed away virtually everything from

the courthouse.

“Will the Indian prosecution service

consider it as a strong enough case and

think they stand a reasonable chance of

gaining a conviction? They may well

see it differently from the Kashmiris.

Can De Wit continue to be held with no

end in sight?” he said.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Of-

fice spokesman said staff were seeking

more information from the Indian au-

thorities.

Sarah Groves, a

British backpacker,

was found in her bed

on a houseboat,

having been stabbed

46 times

Modi’s revocation of status

raises fears of ethnic

cleansing as Pandit Hindus

hope to regain territories

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