INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR VICTIMS OF TERRORISM: KASHMIR’S SILENT WOUNDS

On 21 August, the world observes the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. It is a day meant to recognize not just the immediate loss of lives but also the long-lasting scars carried by survivors, families and entire communities. While terrorism has scarred many parts of the globe, the tragedy of the Kashmiri people stands out as one of the most enduring and painful stories. To speak of Kashmir in the context of this day is to shift the focus from political debates and territorial disputes to the human beings who have borne the heaviest costs of violence.

For decades, Kashmir has been described in terms of a conflict between India and Pakistan. The valley has been the subject of endless negotiations, border talks and military engagements. Yet, what often gets pushed aside in these discussions is the lived reality of its people, people who have grown up and grown old amidst a climate of fear, uncertainty and loss. The victims of terrorism in Kashmir are not faceless statistics; but men, women and children whose lives were disrupted in ways that no numbers can fully capture.

The 1990s marked one of the darkest chapters in the valley’s history. The mass displacement of Kashmiri Pandits, driven out by targeted killings and the fear of persecution, remains an open wound. Families were uprooted overnight, leaving behind centuries-old traditions, temples and a cultural legacy that is now remembered more in exile than in the land of its origin. Their story is one of dispossession, where the loss was not only of lives but also of homes, roots and identity. Alongside them, Kashmiri Muslims too have endured an unending cycle of violence. Ordinary citizens, from teachers to shopkeepers, farmers to clerks, have been killed in bomb blasts, crossfires or targeted attacks for reasons as cruel as refusing to obey extremist diktats. For every terrorist attack, there are families who continue to live with an empty chair at the dining table, with photographs garlanded on walls instead of laughter in the room.

This is the grim reality of terrorism: it spares no community. It does not discriminate between Pandit, Muslim or Sikh. The valley’s tragedies belong to all its people. A schoolboy who never returned from class after being caught in crossfire, a young bride who lost her husband to a sudden explosion, an elderly farmer silenced on his way to the fields—these are the stories that rarely make it to policy discussions but continue to define the human experience of Kashmir.

Statistics are often cited as a way to capture the magnitude of terrorism, but numbers flatten what is deeply personal. They count the dead but not the generations displaced. They list injuries but not the psychological trauma passed on to children who grow up with the sound of gunfire and the sight of soldiers as a part of daily life. Weddings, festivals, even the simple act of gathering for prayer, have all been overshadowed by the possibility of violence. And perhaps the cruelest impact is the silence that follows. Families avoid revisiting their trauma, women carry invisible scars without acknowledgement and children learn too early that grief is something to be borne quietly.

On this International Day for Victims of Terrorism, the world owes it to Kashmir to remember that these lives matter beyond the narrow frame of geopolitics. Terrorism in the valley has produced victims who deserve dignity, recognition and justice. The United Nations, by instituting this day, has tried to affirm that victims must not be forgotten, but the global conversation on Kashmir has too often been limited to ceasefires and treaties. Rarely does it center the voices of those who have lost the most.

To honor the victims is not just to look back at what was lost but also to commit to preventing its repetition. For Kashmir, this means an approach that goes beyond military security. It requires acknowledging the pain of all communities without selective remembrance, because healing is possible only when every victim’s suffering is respected. It requires creating systems of psychosocial support, especially for women and children who bear long-term trauma. It requires ensuring justice and accountability for families who still wait for answers about their loved ones. And it requires the global community to see Kashmiris not merely as subjects of conflict but as individuals with rights, aspirations and dignity.

The International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism is, at its heart, about memory. To remember is to resist erasure. For Kashmir, memory is both painful and necessary. It ensures that those who died are not reduced to footnotes, that displacement is not normalized and that suffering is not forgotten in the noise of political debates. To remember the victims of terrorism in Kashmir is to acknowledge that peace cannot be measured in agreements between states alone but in the healing of wounds left in homes and hearts across the valley.

As the world marks this day, the responsibility is clear. If we truly honor the victims of terrorism, we must commit to giving voice to those silenced, dignity to those displaced and hope to those who still live in fear. Kashmir’s story is not just about conflict; it is about human beings who deserve remembrance, justice and peace. Only by standing with them can the world claim to stand with all victims of terrorism.