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Journalism of Courage
THE news came to Uri on a telephone call from Rawalpindi routed via Delhi. Two months after Zanab Begum crossed the Line of Control on the Caravan-e-Aman from Muzaffarabad to meet her brother after decades of separation, she had gone too far away for the distance to be bridged in this lifetime.
Nor is she the only relative sexagenarian Ghulam Qadir Mughal lost in the devastating earthquake of October 8. Like many others in Uri, he has been bereaved almost a dozen times over. Seated outside the rubble that was his house, the fragile Mughal8217;s eyes film over as he recounts the names of his dead relatives: 8216;8216;My sister Zanab Begum, my brother-in-law Ghulam Nabi, their son-in-law Mohammad Shafi8230; he was a judge in the Muzaffarabad court8230;
8216;8216;Half my family migrated to Muzaffarabad during Partition, seven of them visited me in Uri after the bus service started. I want to help my relatives there. Please tell the government to allow me to cross the LoC. I will go there to help my brothers, sisters in their hour of crisis.8217;8217;
MUGHAL is not the only Kashmiri who prefers to overlook his own misfortunes post-October 8 to focus on his relatives on the other side of the barbed wire. But as they wait for the Indian and Pakistani governments to come to a decision on joint relief operations, they battle their own doubts and fears.
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For the earthquake not only killed 50,000 people in PoK and some 1,300 in Kashmir, it also ruined the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road. Since April, when the Caravan-e-Aman made its first journey, this road had become the one legitimate way to overcome the 770 km of rugged terrain, barbed fencing, snow-bound peaks and fast-flowing rivers that divides Kashmir.
So, the optimism that greets the five-point proposal is tempered with caution. 8216;8216;It8217;s good that meeting points may be set up along the LoC,8217;8217; says Mughal. 8216;8216;But it would be too cruel if we had to turn back after meeting our relatives. People from both sides should be allowed to cross the LoC after minimal formalities so that they can visit their relatives. My daughter and grandchildren are in trouble at the moment, I want to ease their burden.8217;8217;
Families in a similar situation have glimpsed a silver lining with the Pakistani suggestion for relief-and-rehab camps along the LoC at Teetwal Tangdhar, Kaman near Aman Setu, Haji Peer Uri, Chakan Da Bagh Poonch and Mendhar-Tetapani. Pakistan has also suggested that people from either side of the border be allowed to cross over on foot, and that travel documentation be pared down to rush through the processing.
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haji peer
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In the not-too-distant days of hostilities, this pass north of Uri town was deemed to be of great strategic importance, linking Poonch and Pakistan. Close by, a single rock-mountain divides Silikote village, India, and Sanijwad village, Pakistan. Though no relief efforts are visible at Silikote, the village will be pivotal to the survival of a dozen remote PoK villages if the pass is thrown open. For the moment, though, Indian and Pakistani troops still stand eyeball-to-eyeball and the area continues to be heavily mined |
With three of the five points coinciding with India8217;s suggestions Rawalakot in Poonch, Chakoti in Uri and Teetwal, plans are afoot for 8216;composite8217; relief camps that will provide medical facilities and relief to people from PoK. Divided families can use the camps as a meeting point.
IN the run-up to the five-point solution, an ISDN line connected the divided Kashmirs for a brief period of 15 days. On the instructions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, special telephone lines were set up at Uri, Srinagar, Tangdhar and Jammu to connect to PoK.
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TEETWAL
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At Uri, long queues outside one such booth are a common sight. 8216;8216;It8217;s been a long, painful wait. I8217;ve been trying to call my brother in Muzaffarabad, but no one is answering the phone,8217;8217; says Nazir Ahmad Khan of Noorkha Uri. 8216;8216;I am desperate to go there, maybe even bring back my brother and his family. But till the official nod doesn8217;t come through, I guess I8217;ll keep on working the phone lines.8217;8217;
Echoes of similar sentiments can be heard across the Valley. 8216;8216;The opening of these points is a symbolic exercise,8217;8217; says Kashmir University Vice-Chancellor Dr Abdul Wahid, half of whose family lives across the LoC. 8216;8216;Both India and Pakistan have suffered extensively in the quake. Divided families should be allowed to travel and help their relatives on either side.8217;8217;
IN political circles, the response is mixed. While the separatists8217; initial enthusiasm8212;triggered by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf8217;s call for free movement and India8217;s positive response8212;has withered, mainstream politicians believe a good beginning has been made.
8216;8216;But we are disappointed the Centre didn8217;t allow the LoC to be opened,8217;8217; says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference. 8216;8216;The relief camps will not serve any purpose as thousands of affected families will not be able to access them from far-flung areas. The relief should go to them.8217;8217;
For Shabir Shah, senior separatist leader and president of the Democratic Freedom Party, the quibble point is the free-access for relatives. 8216;8216;We wanted free movement for volunteers, who could have crossed over and helped their brothers in need,8217;8217; he says.
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chakan da bagh
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Located in comparatively flatter terrain than the other proposed open points, the easily accessed Chakan Da Bagh in the Peer Panjal range was chosen primarily for the security angle. So far there have been no reports of infiltration in this region; also, the flat land will allow camps to be set up. Food and medical supplies are ready for PoK quake victims who cannot be reached on account of difficult terrain and paucity of helicopters Story continues below this ad |
While Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed welcomes the proposal, even as he describes it as 8216;8216;inadequate8217;8217;, Farooq Abdullah, former CM and patron of the National Conference labels it a good beginning. 8216;8216;We should also think about opening the roadlinks on the Jammu-Sialkot, Poonch-Rawalakot and Kargil-Skardu routes,8217;8217; he says.
However, political analyst and head, department of political sciences, University of Kashmir, Noor Ahmad Baba refuses to see the five-point proposal as a big deal.
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kaman
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8216;8216;It is a positive development, but I don8217;t read much into this. These will only be meeting points, and they were on the cards even before the October 8 tragedy,8217;8217; he says.
THE army, however, believes in being prepared. Apart from checking out the proposed points, the army has already stocked relief material in the three spots most likely to get the go-ahead: Kaman, Teetwal and Chakan da Bagh.
8216;8216;We are ready,8217;8217; says Lt Col V K Batra, defence public relations officer. 8216;8216;We have done whatever we had to do. We have set up medicare centres at all the three locations. Doctors and paramedics are posted there and we will offer life-saving services to the patients.8217;8217;
Helicopters are on the standby to evacuate the seriously injured. The army has cleared the road leading to Teetwal, which had been blocked by massive landslides triggered by the quake. Work is in progress on the four-km stretch leading to Kaman.
8216;8216;The road to Teetwal is open,8217;8217; said the Defence PRO. 8216;8216;The road to Kaman will take some time but we have made the mule track operational to carry relief material there. Our bridging equipment is also ready.8217;8217;
Relief material8212;tents, blankets and food items8212;has also arrived. Now if only the governments would hurry up and decide.
A future unlike the past
To , the opening of the LoC appears only the first step into a whole new world of Kashmiri possibilities
THE awesome earthquake that flattened much of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir also promises to undo one of the most bitter but enduring manmade lines in modern history 8212; the Line of Control.
The LoC has survived six decades of unending military and political tension between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, punctuated only by three and a half wars. But its future could be very unlike the past.
As India and Pakistan struggle to cope with the humanitarian consequences of the earthquake, the rigid political foundations of the LoC have cracked to expose the many contradictions within Indian and Pakistani positions on Kashmir.
India, for example, claims the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India and yet offers to convert the LoC into a border. Pakistan pretends parts of Kashmir it controls are 8216;8216;free8217;8217; while insisting those under Indian control are 8216;8216;occupied8217;8217;.
India rarely refers to the LoC without also mentioning the word 8216;8216;sanctity8217;8217; and involving the Shimla Agreement of 1972. Although it was only a slightly modified version of the Ceasefire Line CFL agreed upon by India and Pakistan in 1949 after the first war in Kashmir, for the Pakistan Army, the LoC is a reminder of the humiliating defeat at India8217;s hands in 1971.
As India has doggedly protected the LoC all these decades, Pakistan has been determined to wipe it off the map. Its boldest military bid in Kargil turned out to be a fiasco. But Pakistan had other ways of undermining the LoC 8212;through cross-border terrorism.
Amidst the bloody war for Kashmir over the past few decades, the three-letter abbreviation has become a large enough metaphor in the subcontinent for a recent Indian film to be simply called LoC. For the rest of the world, the LoC is equally familiar as the world8217;s most dangerous 8216;8216;nuclear flashpoint8217;8217;.
But all that might be history after the quake. Few would have envisaged the kind of Indo-Pakistani cooperation that has already taken place over the past three weeks. This has included Pakistan8217;s acceptance of Indian relief, the repatriation of citizens from the other side trapped by the earthquake, and tacit cooperation between the two military forces along the Line of Control.
Given the burden of the past, there has been natural reluctance within the Pakistani military establishment to accept wider ranging Indian cooperation, for example the Indian offer to supply helicopters.
More radical options, however, emerged a few days ago when Musharraf agreed to open the LoC to receive 8216;8216;any number8217;8217; of Indian Kashmiris to come across with relief material. He also suggested political forces across the LoC could work together in providing relief.
In fact, Musharraf was not setting out new proposals, but was only responding to Indian offers made sotto voce.
GIVEN Pakistani political sensitivities, India did not want to embarrass Musharraf by going public with its proposals. New Delhi wanted to leave it to Musharraf to decide the limits of traffic that his domestic politics could bear. Musharraf8217;s eventual positive response was made inevitable thanks to growing criticism at home of the army8217;s inept relief operations.
The idea of opening the LoC has not been an easy one to digest in either India or Pakistan. Preferring status quo, conservatives on both sides insist six decades of history cannot be altered by the quake, devastating though it might have been.
India worries about free flow of terrorists across the LoC. Pakistan, too, does not want the old order to crumble into uncontrolled chaos.
But history occasionally tends to accelerate and sweep aside conventional wisdom. Despite their reservations, India and Pakistan are inching towards a controlled opening up of the Line of Control. Setting up relief centres along the LoC is only the first step.
The entire PoK and large parts of Indian Kashmir along the LoC need to be rebuilt. If India and Pakistan agree that effective reconstruction of Kashmir could only be based on a different political design, a range of new possibilities emerge.
These could include new highways linking the divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir, opening up old trade routes between Kashmir and neighbouring regions, easier travel across the LoC, a free trade area, joint development of tourism and river waters.
FAR-FETCHED? The elements of this grand strategy were implicit in the joint declaration from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf when they met in New Delhi in April.
They produced a rare piece of political understanding on Kashmir amidst great differences. Singh said the present borders LoC could not be redrawn. Musharraf, in turn, said, the LoC was part of the problem and could not be the solution.
Singh and Musharraf, however, agreed that borders should not matter. If Singh and Musharraf were suggesting that people, and not territory, should be the focus on Indo-Pakistani negotiations on Kashmir, the tragic earthquake has reinforced that simple principle.
Whether and when the quake might lead to a creative solution to Kashmir are not the most significant questions now. The compelling reality is that the act of God on October 8 might have pushed India and Pakistan down a road they dared not tread.
