B. K. Ganjoo, also known as Bal Krishna Ganjoo, was an Indian telecommunication engineer and a Kashmiri Hindu, who was subjected to cruelty against Kashmiri Pandits and was killed by militants during the mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus in 1990 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Wiki/Biography
B. K. Ganjoo was in his 30s during the time when he was shot dead in 1990. He had a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication engineering from Regional Engineering College, Srinagar (now, National Institute of Technology, Srinagar) He lived in Chota Bazar, Kanikadal, Srinagar. At the time of his death, he was a government employee in the P&T department and was stationed in Kashmir.
Family
B. K. Ganjoo belonged to a Kashmiri Pandit family.
Parents & Siblings
His father’s name was Dina Nath Ganjoo. He had a brother whose name is not known.
Wife & Children
He was married to Vijay Ganjoo and had a daughter with her.
Caste/Ethnicity
Kashmiri Pandit
Death
He was shot dead on 19 March 1990 at his house in Chota Bazar, Kanikadal, Srinagar by Mohd. Salim Zargar. Reportedly, Ganjoo was coming home during the curfew relaxation period. His wife noticed that he was being followed by some terrorists. As soon as he entered his home, his wife made him hide in a barrel of rice in the attic of the house. As expected, the terrorists barged into their house to kill Ganjoo. Reportedly, at first, militants couldn’t find Ganjoo at his home, and they decided to leave the house; however, one of Ganjoo’s neighbors informed them of his hiding location. The militants searched him again in the house, and they reached the attic, where they shot Ganjoo dead while he was still hiding in the rice barrel. There are two legends about this incident. According to one, Vijay Ganjoo, the wife of B. K. Ganjoo, asked militants to kill her too after her husband was brutally shot dead: however, the militants told her that they were sparing her to let her cry over her husband’s corpse. According to the other legend, Ganjoo’s dead body was lying on rice, and the blood-soaked rice was forcefully fed to his wife and children. In a similar story, it is said that while leaving the house, the terrorists said,
Let the rice soak in your blood and let your children eat it. Ah, what a tasty meal would it be.”
In contrast to these two legends, a media report says that the actual incident was far less climatic. According to that news article, when Ganjoo was shot in the attic, his wife slumped down to the floor after listening to the sound of shots being fired. It is reported that the killers left without a trace of remorse, paying no attention to Ganju’s paralyzed, grief-stricken wife.
Facts/Trivia
- There is a park named after B. K. Ganjoo in central Delhi named Bal Krishna Ganjoo Memorial Park.
B. K. Ganjoo Memorial Park, Delhi
- After the horrific incident in Kashmir, Mrs. Ganjoo relocated to Delhi, where she was offered a job in her husband’s department. It is reported that she retired from the job in 2014.
- In an interview, the wife of Ganjoo’s colleague, Reeta Parimoo, disclosed that the revolters suspected that Ganjoo was leaking their messages to the central government and even Ganjoo had a hunch that he was on their list of suspects. She also revealed that the terrorists fired a total of six bullets into the drum in which Ganjoo was hiding.
