Srinagar:
In an incredible story of hope from the Kashmir Valley, a Kashmiri Pandit woman won the Panchayat elections in Wusan, a village in North Kashmir where 98% voters are Muslims.
45-year-old Asha's victory is particularly significant as this is the first time in 33 years that a Kashmiri Pandit has been elected to a Panchayat in the Valley.
''Muslims supported me. My Muslim contender lost. A Pandit woman has won,'' she says.
The villagers in Wusan are a happy lot.
"We can give our blood for her," says Halima, a resident of Wusan Village. Another one adds, "Muslims voted for her and she won with a good margin."
Asha's is among the five families that weathered the worst of the Pandit-Muslim strife in the 90s but did not join the mass exodus. Her win, Asha says, is a vindication for Pandits who chose to stay back .
''All Pandits should come back. First, I am asking my neighbours to return. I have shown you how well our Muslim brethren are treating us. Look at what they have done for me. My opponent was their Muslim sister,'' she says, appealing Pandits to return to the Valley," she says.
Asha's name translates into hope and her victory sends a larger message that the centuries-old bond between Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits is still alive.