A Cherished Dream of Laissez-faire Unfulfilled

Zulfikar Majid:   Amid subdued insurgency in Kashmir and consensus on Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) between the two nuclear powers - India and Pakistan – Kashmiris, after a decade-and-a-half long conflict, saw semblance of peace and tranquillity dawning upon them with the opening of travel routes across the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the two parts of Kashmir, in April 2005. The 2003 ceasefire between the two historic rivals buoyed New Delhi and Islamabad to go one step further. Although sceptics on both sides of the border refused to acknowledge it as a substantial step towards building the much needed confidence between the two countries, the cross-LoC bus service between Srinagar (capital of J&K) and Muzaffarabad (capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) succeeded in bringing together the divided families on the two sides of the line without going through hassles of obtaining passports and applying for visas.

LoC Tensions: Need Facts, Not Hype

Beena Sarwar: 

News about the death of two Indian soldiers at the Line of Control in Kashmir on Jan 8 triggered anger in India. Yes, a Pakistani soldier had been killed just two days earlier. But his body had not been mutilated. He had not been beheaded. For that is what Indian reports said, creating hysteria and leading to the beating of war drums: the bodies of their jawans had been mutilated, one of their heads was missing, and Pakistan was responsible (small mercy, authorities asked Indian journalists not to use the word ‘beheaded’ but ‘decapitation’).

India seemed to erupt in a storm of anger, outrage, and indignation, betrayal and hurt, and calls for retaliation against Pakistan. Understandable. Imagine the reaction in Pakistan had it been the other way around.

Someone’s son, brother, father, husband… Lance Naik Hemraj, Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh

But things are not always what they seem. The only facts out there were that there was an escalation of tensions along the LoC, Lance-Naik Aslam of Pakistan was killed on Jan 6, two Indian soldiers died on Jan 8 (at the time of writing, on Jan 10, another Pakistani soldier has been reported killed).

When Water in The Spring Turned Black

The exodus of Pandits from the Valley is an aspect of the Kashmir conflict that has received scant attention. In a book just released, Rahul Pandita, who was 14 at the time he and his family left their home in Srinagar forever, gives a searing account of the displacement, struggle and survival of the community.

Kashmir Valley, 1989-90

It was from a neighbour that we heard the first rumours. He had gone to the ration shop to get sugar when he overheard a man exclaiming — ‘Inshallah, next ration we will buy in Islamabad!’ It was around this time that bus conductors in Lal Chowk could be heard shouting — Sopore, Hand’wor, Upore. Sopore and Handwara were border towns while Upore means across. Across the Line of Control. It was meant as an enticement for the youth to cross over the border for arms training, to launch a jihad against India.