Home > 2004 Issues > October 10, 04

Debate Renaming to change reality? From Our Correspondent After forcing out minorities from the Valley of Kashmir, the fundamentalists have changed the names of many places including those of the towns, villages and even that of the roads. These towns also include Anantnag which has been renamed as Islamabad; in Baramulla, the Ranghat mohalla has been given the name of Sayeed Karim Sahib; while Post Office Road of Baramulla has been given the name of Shah Masal Market and so on. According to reliable reports, the names of over 300 villages in the Valley have been changed. Intriguingly, in many cases, even official recognition has been given to the changed names. The process of changing the names of places and even those of the rivers had started from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where the Kishan Ganga river was renamed as River Nilam and Krishna Ghati was given the name of Vade-e-Nilam; Sharda Peeth has been renamed as Daras-Gah-e-Sharief and so on. Not to say of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Valley of Kashmir, even in Jammu city several such names have been given to various localities. In Janipura, a locality has been given the name of Ramzanpura and another one as Hyderabad; in Bathandi area a locality has been named as Firdousabad and a colony in Narwal area has been given the name of Qasim Nagar. Similarly some such names have been given to the newly established educational institu-tions. It is understood that all this is being done to establish what they refer to as Nizam-e-Mustafa and to Islamise the whole region.

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