"I am a member of the minority Hindu community from Kashmir valley in India, victim of the worst ethnic cleansing witnessed in independent India," said Sunanda Vashisht. (File photo of Dal Lake, Srinagar: Reuters)

Columnist Sunanda Vashisht on Thursday recalled the horrors suffered by Kashmiri Hindus in 1990 as she testified at a US Congressional hearing on human rights.

"I am a member of the minority Hindu community from Kashmir, victim of the worst ethnic cleansing witnessed in independent India," Vashisht said. "I speak here today because I am a survivor."

She then proceeded to describe in heart-rending detail the fate that had befallen victims.

One of them was a young man, an engineer named BK Ganjoo, who she said hid in a rice container in his attic when terrorists came for him.

"He would have been alive today had his location not been disclosed to the terrorists by his own neighbours....The terrorists shot him through the container and forced his wife to eat the blood-soaked rice," Sunanda Vashisht said.

'SCRAPPING OF ARTICLE 370 A RESTORATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS'

Vashisht said at the hearing, organised by the Tom Lantos HR Commission in Washington, that the recent abrogation of Article 370 was "a restoration of human rights".

"Today I am delighted that Kashmiris have the same rights as Indian citizens. If something as serious as a woman’s right to own property and granting of LGBTQ rights...to choose...amongst many others, has been accomplished through abrogation of Article 370, then it is safe to assume that restoration of Internet in few remaining districts of Kashmir is not too far away," she said.

"I am a proud daughter of Kashmir," she added. "Terrorism has uprooted me and snatched my home from me. I hope my human rights are restored too someday, and the human rights of my community."