The Kashmir Files movie has resonated with the hearts and minds of millions of people around the globe. It has finally ended the denialism and blatant falsehoods that had surrounded a dark chapter of our nation’s history.

Out of the thousands of Kashmiri Pandit victims of the targeted killings and terror that swept Kashmir from the mid 1980s onwards, a few names stand out the most because of the sheer barbarity of what they suffered. One such name is Girija Tickoo.

This is what Girija’s niece had to say on Twitter about the movie, what happened to her aunt and how it affected her family:

The Kashmir Files has released worldwide. This film shows the horrifying nights not only my family went through but what every Kashmiri Pandit family went through.

TW (Trigger Warning): Rape, Torture, Murder
My father’s sister, Girjia Tickoo, was a librarian at a University who had gone to collect her paycheck, on her way back the bus she was traveling from was stopped and what happened next still leaves me in shivers, tears, and nausea. 

My bua was then thrown into a taxi, with 5 men (one of them being her colleague), who tortured her, raped her, and then brutally murdered her by cutting her alive with a carpenter saw. 

Imagine being the brother who had to recognize his Babli, who wasn’t at fault in this gruesome battle of total hypocrisy. Till this date I’ve never heard anyone from my family speak about this incident. 

My father tells me every brother lived in such shame and anger that they nothing had been done to receive justice for my Babli Bua.

I am fortunate enough to be part of @KOAYouth @KOAorg where I am connected to youth from the Kashmiri Pandit community where we can share our past. 

This is my plead to ALL of you to watch the Kashmir Files and take your friends and family with you @vivekagnihotri @KashmirFiles @AartiTikoo @sunandavashisht @hindusamata @hinduoncampus 

A message from Girija’s sister was shared by Dr. Sheenie Ambardar, a Hindu-American clinical psychiatrist & psychotherapist:

There are hundreds of such stories and reactions coming out from those who watched the movie. Even other Hindu communities who have undergone similar religious cleansing and displacement such as Sindhis, Bengalis, Punjabis have found their long-suppressed trauma rising to the surface as their stories find resonance with what the Kashmiri Hindus suffered.