Girija Tickoo

Some Lesser Known Facts About Girija Tickoo

• Girjia Tickoo was an Indian librarian, ^[4]Instagram- Sidhi Raina who lost her life during the 1990s exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley of Kashmir.

• As per some media sources, she used to work as a lab assistant at Government Girls High School in Trehgam, Jammu and Kashmir.

  

• In the 1990s, Girija, along with her family, moved to Jammu after the Jihadi militants started threatening the Kashmiri Pandits, who were living in Kashmir.

• In June 1990, she received a call from one of her colleagues to receive her paycheck. Her colleague assured her that the situation in Kashmir was better, and there was no such danger to her life. After receiving the paycheck, while she was returning to her home, a group of five militants including one of her colleagues kidnapped her in a taxi. She was then gang-raped by the five men, and after that she was cut into two halves under the carpenter’s saw (she was alive at that time) on 25 June 1990. Later, the militants threw her body near the road.

• After a few years of her death, it was found that there were several other Kashmiri Pandit women, who were brutally tortured by the militants.

• In 2022, Girija’s niece Sidhi Raina shared an Instagram post in which she described the tragedy that happened with Girija during the 1990 exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits. She wrote,
  

  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.”

  She continued,

  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.”

• Later, Girija’s family moved to the US.

  

• In 2022, inspired by the tragedies of the Kashmiri Pandits, the Indian director Vivek Agnihotri released a Hindi film titled ‘The Kashmir Files.’ In the film, Girija’s role was played by the Indian actress Bhasha Sumbli under the character name Sharda Pandit.