Maha Sivaratri is the most important festival of the Kashmiri Pandits in India. The famous festival brings Muslims and Hindu pundits together.

According to The Hindu, Muslims have cleaned up and organized a Puja and 1,000 specially designed 'Hearth' greeting cards have been published. These Sivaratri Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims are bonding strongly, and social media is providing the platform o relieve old memories.

For the first time since 1990, in the face of raging militancy, the villagers of Sumbal village in Bandipora have converged on the on the Nand Kishore temple, early in the morning. They carried brooms and water containers.

NDTV has reported an ancient Shiva temple in Bandipore's Sumbal hasn't had devotees on Sivaratri for years. Not after Kashmiri pundits fled the town 25 km from Srinagar during the peak of the militancy in the early nineties.

To celebrate the biggest festival of Kashmiri pundits, Kashmiri Muslims living in the town turned up the temple to celebrate Shivaratri. A local contractor Imtiaz Ahmed has led the prayers after dozens of young men scrubbed the temple floor clean.

The report has stated that hundreds of Muslims are standing in the temple gate with placards. They asked the pundits to come back home. After that, they also offered fruits and sweets.

However, the Sumbal area has witnessed a growing militant activity this year, with nearly six reported encounters so far. Scores of Muslims citizens in the valley greeted pundits on the occasion.

The resident of this area said," they are a part of our body and soul, which has been snatched and separated from us". He urged the Hindu pundits to come back and stay in happy life.

Meanwhile, this is the first time the Muslims had come together in favor of Hindu Pandits in Kashmir. They have decided not to let any political party divide them.

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