Divided on Kashmir, war videogame unites NC’s Omar, Hurriyat’s Mirwaiz

Though they did not know till this reporter told them, their favourite game happens to be the same — Project IGI, the aim of which is to unravel the plot at each level of the game, and in the process kill opponents and blast through the opposition.

At various levels of the game, the player has to fight in different terrain — mountainous regions, snow-bound peaks, and so forth. But the resemblance of the terrain and the fighting in the game to Kashmir today has nothing to do with their love for the game, they both say.

‘‘It has nothing to do with the conflict,” says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman Hurriyat Conference. ‘‘It is the challenge that drives me to play the game.”

He has succeeded in breaking six of the 14 levels of the game. Once a player cracks the plot of a level, the game doesn’t allow him to play at that level again — it moves him to a higher level, at which he plays till he cracks the new plot.

‘‘It is challenging to break the plots; you have to have great presence of mind to bust a plot. It gives sense of achievement,” says the Mirwaiz.

On learning that the Hurriyat leader is at Level 6, Omar Abdullah of the National Conference says, ‘‘He (Mirwaiz) is way ahead of me.” Now at Level 4, he says he plays the game only to relax.

Both have some things in common, except for their political views: both are from the same school, Burnhall in Srinagar, and were in the same batch. Both find the game ‘‘helps to ease pressure” in the hour or two they spend on the game daily, as their schedule permits.

‘‘But, at times it takes me little longer in the night when I find it hard to break the plot,” confesses the Mirwaiz.

peeradaashiq@expressindia.com