SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 20: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's unilateral cease-fire might not have made much of a difference to urban Srinagar but it has undoubtedly come as a big relief for villagers across the Valley. Peace has not returned but there are no crackdown operations, no friskings, no road-side identification parades and no questioning, pushing the civilians out of the battle.``The cease-fire has come as a big relief for me. I live in Bandipore andshuttle to and fro to Srinagar everyday for work. I had to go through helldaily,'' said Mohammad Yousuf Lone, a senior clerk in the finance department. ``At least half an hour would be wasted in frisking and identification checks. Then the security forces would order us to disembark from the buses and make us walk for at least 100 metres near their camps. After three weeks of Ramzan, it seems life has returned to normal,'' he said.Lone said life had changed at home as well. ``This is the first Ramzan in the 10 years of militancy when we regularly offered `Taravi' (special late-night Ramzan prayer) at our village mosque. ``It was impossible to come out of our homes after dusk had fallen. But now there are no night patrols inside the village and thus no fear of being taken for a militant,'' he said.Kupwara district has the highest concentration of forces, owing to itsgeographical location. At least two-third of the entire Line of Controltouches this district, making it the gateway to the state i.e for infiltrating militants. The unilateral cease-fire has changed the entire situation. ``It doesn't seem one is living in Kupwara anymore. The security personnel are everywhere and you see soldiers all around but it seems as if they don't see you anymore. Nobody asks who you are, from where you have come and where are you going,'' said Manzoor Ahamd, a chemist in Dudwan village of Kupwara.``Earlier, there were so many checkpoints and travelling within the district was so difficult that nobody could return from a 30-km distance within a day. If you wanted to visit Diwar village, for instance, your bus would cross five major checkpoints, and at each place you had to prove your identity, get frisked and then open you luggage. And if the jawan on duty smelled anything or was in a bad mood because of tough duty hours, he could detain you for questioning at his will,'' he said.A senior police officer explains why he thinks the cease-fire has brought succour to the common man. ``Who was dealing with the public? It was a jawan, who lives under tremendous strain, both psychological as well as physical. His duty hours are such that he works against the biological clock of his body besides remaining under the constant threat of a militant attack,'' he said.``Frankly enough, jawans had been categorically told not to trust anythingbecause the militants could come in any attire and could be anybody. So theyhave been dealing with the people accordingly. Agitated by the tiring duty hours and threat from the hidden enemy, a jawan would give vent to all his frustration and the common man would become the target,'' he said. Now all that has changed.In fact, there are villages in the Langate and Rajwar belt in Kupwaradistrict where the villagers had divided themselves into groups to keep vigil at night. ``In Langate, the villagers even had to accompany the troopsas road-opening parties to check for improvised explosive devices plantedon the roads,'' a Government official belonging to the area, who did notwant to be identified, said. ``Now it has almost stopped,'' he said.
