This is how my mama ji (uncle) escaped a bullet from Bitta Karate and is still alive today. I have not told this story before.

Before Farooq Ahmed Dar became a psychopath terrorist, he was just another kid with a pet name of Bitta who used to play cricket in Srinagar with my family. My uncle even gave him money for school.

After Bitta returned from terror training in PoK, he was given orders to assassinate my uncle. Bitta had another JKLF terrorist watch my uncle leave his home for work, walking through an intersection in Haba Kadal. The plan was to shoot my uncle from behind at close range.

The spotter saw my uncle leave the house at 9:30 am on 16 February 1990, wearing a leather jacket. Bitta was given this information and got his pistol ready. Suddenly, my uncle remembered it was his elder brother’s birthday, so he went back home to participate in the pooja.

The spotter didn’t see my uncle turn around to go home. At the same time of 9:30 am and only a few yards from my uncle’s home, 26 year old Anil Bhan, a Kashmiri Hindu who was soon to be married, also started walking to Haba Kadal for his job, also wearing a leather jacket.

Bitta Karate saw the Kashmiri Hindu man in a leather jacket at the Habal Kadal intersection, believing it was my uncle. He walked from behind, drew his pistol and fired at point blank range. One can never forget a mother’s cries at the site of her dead son in a pool of blood.

The terrorists acknowledged to having killed the wrong person. Anil’s sacrifice is the only reason my mama ji is still alive today. But nobody––Anil’s mother or my mama ji––should have to bear such pain.

Why did I never tell this story before? Because despite speaking on behalf of Kashmiri Hindus for 30 years in the US, in Congress and to the media, I didn’t think anyone would really listen. Thanks to Vivek Agnihotri, people finally are.

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread of @rajiv_pandit)