Saadat.in Blog

The tourist season has begun, but we’ve seen very few tourists this time. By April 10th, all the hotels and houseboats are full. However, this time no hotels are full, and in-fact they are almost empty. The reason is the fear of Taliban. Some news channels had been airing threats of Taliban and also stating that 30 of them had already entered India. Most of the tourists are now canceling their bookings because of this false news, without ever trying to find the truth. I’m writing this post, just to add to knowledge of the tourists that this is a false news. I’m writing about this just to clear the picture and make all of you believe that its completely safe for tourists to visit Kashmir, and Kashmir is very much Taliban free. First of all, let me write something about the Taliban itself. They are the people who know only the language of guns. They are ruthless people and are only found in tribal areas where they can easily find some takers. They are all extremists and their followers are extremists too. However, things in Kashmir are quite opposite, people are educated and civilized and oppose Taliban. Taliban live in tribal areas of Pakistan which are completely lawless. As far as I am concerned, I strictly oppose the Taliban lifestyle and in no way will I support them, so are my other fellow Kashmiris.

This piece of news was first aired on “Headlines Today”. I don’t know the exact motive of their airing this false news. Some say guesses can be wrong, but here I’d like to guess that either they are trying to raise their TRP or they have some enmity with the people of Kashmir. Everyone knew that the tourist season was approaching and Kashmir had thousands of prospective tourists. It was the right time, time hit real hard and achieve the planned thing. The bookings are now being cancelled and all the people associated with this industry are worried about their fate. I talked to few of them to know how this thing was affecting them. So I had a chance to visit Gulmarg. There, at the Hotel Poshwan, I talked to its proprietor Mr. Altaf Hassan. He seemed worried, and said that he expected a huge turnout of tourists and in-fact, he had a lot of bookings. But since the news of Taliban spread many tourists were canceling their bookings. He assured me that this was going to be the best tourism season if things were set right as soon as possible. He also said that despite the state Chief Minister Mr. Omar Abdullah and the Army Chief Of India Mr. Deepak Kapoor refuted the presence of the Taliban, these false reports were refusing to die down. Still, he had faith the the people would come to visit this heaven on earth.

The Hurriyat hardliner, Geelani, also denied the presence of the Taliban in Kashmir and reiterated that Kashmir didn’t need them. Similarly, Syed Sallahudin also denied the reports. And now the Taliban itself denies their presence in Kashmir saying that they had no role to play in Kashmir. The link to the news report clearly shows that there is no Taliban in Kashmir. So,this false news turns out to be some propaganda, hit at the right time to hurt the Kashmir tourism badly. There were also news reports stating that the LeT would be launching attacks in Kashmir during the elections. But the very next day, Dr. Abdullah Ghaznavi clarified that they had issued no such statement and some else had been using their name. It all is being done to prevent tourists from visiting Kashmir.

I urge all the tourists, who are thinking of canceling their bookings in Kashmir or have already cancelled their bookings, that Kashmir is very safe now and the locals will be taking extreme care of you. There are no Taliban here and no body will try to harm you. You are in a safe place and will be safe. Happy journey to all of you!

Kashmiris are continuously being tormented by the Indian Security Forces. Our homeland is no more ours. And we see military personnel on the streets of Srinagar as if they own the land and we are refugees. They are always left open to shoot the local innocent people, not sparing kids below 15 years of age.

          Most of the Indians (other than Kashmiris) would be pondering why the peace-loving people of Kashmir are anti-India and why every protest leads to anti-India in nature. The only reason is that Indians and their government always wanted Kashmir and never cared about its people. They all want Kashmir and its people mean nothing to them. And in-fact, Kashmir has become a liability for them. But the reason, which is hard but true, is that the Indians want to retain Kashmir only because of its enmity with Pakistan. I’ve even read in some blogs who openly ask Kashmiris to cross over to AZAD KASHMIR and that they should forget their land i.e. Kashmir too. This hostility of Indian people forces Kashmiris to turn to Pakistan, otherwise there is no reason to ask Pakistan for help.

          The successive Central Governments never tried to tame their security forces and instead lauded their misdeeds. Speaking about my father, he was shot dead by the armed forces while he was on a survey for construction of a dam. Nothing  happened to his killers and they roamed freely. There are more than ten thousand similar cases. Why have all successive governments failed to check these violations? When no soldier was ever punished by the Indian Government, anti-India sentiment was bound to arise. They have made our life so hectic  and have continuously been occupying civil properties. Creating unnecessary problems is their common and daily task. Barging into houses and arresting youth is a new trend they have learnt. I fail to understand who allows India to call itself a democracy and that too secular.

          Why does the influence of human rights organizations stop at the border of Kashmir. In India, they talk about the animal rights, but in Kashmir, why do they forget human rights even? Killing a person and labeling him as a terrorist belonging to LeT. This is how they treat Kashmiris and then expect them to be loyal to India. And in-fact, Jammu which is a part of the state sees no such violations only because its a Hindu majority area. but still India is a secular democracy. It makes me laugh to see how biased Indians are.

          The BJP has always wanted to get rid of Kashmir because its the only Muslims majority region in India and they have no hold in this part of India. But they want to play politics in loosing Kashmir. They want that India should loose Kashmir during the Congress rule so that they can blame Congress and use it as an election issue. It would be a win win situation for them, first they will get rid of the only muslim majority of India and the second that they would win the next elections. BJP knew that kashmiris would retaliate anything they do in Jammu and so they enforced a blockade on Kashmir. Naturally, Kashmiris would retaliate. So kashmiris marched towards AZAD KASHMIR. The protesters could have easily been stopped by the forces in the half way but they let them reach the border and then opened fire at them, killing 20 people and a Hurriyat Leader. A Kashmiri life holds no value to India and they still claim to be a democracy.

            We see violence in about 20 states of India which have been engulfed in cancer by maoists and naxalites. Just because they are Hindu majority areas, entirely different rules apply there. Unless the Indian Government removes bias towards Kashmiris, nothing is going to change here in Kashmir. If India wants Kashmiris is to be with it, they have to respect rights of Kashmiri people and their lives too. Other-wise “HUM KYA CHAHTE, AZAADI” will be the only slogan everyone would be hearing.

The recent economic blockade enforced by the people of Jammu under the aegis of the Sangh Parivar is totally reversing. The people of Jammu are being defeated in every way. They thought that by enforcing a blockade, they would frighten the Kashmiris, but this time luck was in our favour and we are going to hit them hard this time. Even the Government of India knows that Kashmiris were not wrong but it were the people of Jammu who were wrong in every way.

          Kashmiris were angered at the blockade enforced and failure of the Indian Government to remove it. This alienated the Kashmiris, and now people of Jammu will feel the heat of our backlash. Every Kashmiri is backing the arrest of trade with people of Jammu. All Jammu based products are facing a boycott here in Kashmir and the products that have their offices in Jammu and not in Kashmir are also being boycotted. Most of the pharmaceutical companies who have their depots in Jammu are being boycotted. Kashmiri traders are going for an open trade with Delhi and other states, leaving the fate of middlemen of Jammu hanging. They are urging the pharmaceutical companies to setup their depots in Kashmir. But on this, the Jammu  based pharmaceutical traders threatened the companies not to issue medicine directly to Kashmiri distributors.

Now proceeding to the facts and figures.

          Kashmir forms the 80% of the total market of goods in the state while as the Jammu region only has 20%. We see this fashion in pharmaceuticals also. While as the turn-over of the pharmaceutical companies in J&K is considered to be 1200 crores, more than 900 crore comes from the Kashmir valley. If we are a bigger market why would we let such a small chunk be heading us. We were totally dependent on them for medicines, but due to the blockade enforced by them, we ought to look for new sources. They stopped their medicines during the blockade, now we are stopping their medicines as means of retaliation. Trade relations with Jammu will be cut off totally very soon and they would be taught a lesson for enforcing a blockade. Cipla, a pharmaceutical company, which openly declined supplying medicines directly to Kashmir, has been blacklisted here by the medicos.

          The traders of Jammu eat their bread because of Kashmiris, but in foolishness they chose to backfire us. Now they are coming on their knees, but we wont move. They will have to repent their deeds. We, Kashmiris, will make sure that no goods, having their origin in Jammu, are sold in Kashmir.

          Now for the people who believe Arun Jaitley and assume that the economic blockade was a propaganda of the separatists, I wish to tell them that 1 million people marching in protest, against the blockade and failure of the government to remove it, can’t be wrong and misguided by the separatists. The UPA government at the Centre weren’t fools hand in hand with separarists,who too admitted existence of the blockade and proposed that the armed forces would be buying the fruit produce of Kashmiris. Noted print media like The Hindu, The Times Of India, The Tribune and The Hindustan Times, weren’t supporters of separatists who also admitted the economic blockade being enforced on Kashmir. The Delhi Fruit Traders weren’t fools even, who urged home ministry to remove the economic blockade beacuse they were suffereing losses because kashmiri Fruit didn’t reach them. Further , I wish to make it clear that Kashmiris aren’t communal like Jammuites. We respect every religion, but we won’t tolerate anything against us. This year also, the Yatra went on peacefully, and will continue to be. The Amarnath Board got the land they already were using, but caused such a loss to us. But Jammuites, who wanted a separate state with the help of sangh Parivar, is going to face the ire and not the Sangh Parivar.

          Yesterday only, four trucks of goods were returned back to Jammu, and asked not to send any more goods. We, Kashmirs, are buying goods from Jallandhar, Ludhiyana, Pathankote and Delhi and nothing from Jammu.

          The people who supported the economic blockade need to understand that they are in deep trouble. Lets see how Sangh Parivar will help them now.

India, Insha-Allah, is supposed to have a remarkably good future. Considered as a future SUPER POWER, India has everything that a nation needs. A robust economy, military power house, home to foreign investments,best brains are some of blessings stored in cards for India. All Indian states and their citizens have a secure future because India is going to be a future power.

Well, writing this meant something else. All that I wrote above are facts known by all, including Kashmiris. Since they call Kashmir a part of India, Kashmir will be a part of the boom including its people. Its not that Kashmiris are a bunch of illiterate people, they too understand this fact well. Now, a common question in everyones mind would be that if they understand the benefits that they would get staying with India, why the hell do they want AZAADI. Clearing this doubt would slightly improve the image of the so called ANTI-NATIONAL KASHMIRIS.

India literally pampers Kashmir and for the past three years it has been pumping aid into Kashmir to the tune of 96 billion rupees which is ten times as much as that of Bihar (the most backward state). But still Kashmiris want to secede, WHY? To clarify this point, I’ll have to be little  filmy. In Hindi movies, we all must have seen kidnappings. Lets suppose a rich couple is having only one son and he is kidnapped. The boy’s parents would pay any amount to save their child, no matter how much its going to cost them but they would want to save their son. When compared to their son, their money seems of no importance to them. The case is somewhat similar here. Kashmiris can give up the funds that come from the central government just for the sake of saving their kins.  They are ready to live an African like life, but they want whole of their families alive. They don’t want any Kashmiri to be killed without any reason, even if it costs them all their luxuries. We, at Kashmir, want a dignified life with right to self determination, even if it costs us loosing the aid from India. We can only think of money when we are alive, what use can money be put to when you are not alive. We need life and that too dignified and not money. A hindi proverb well suits the situation “Jaan Bahi to Laakhon Paao”

I, in my personal views, am a supporter of India, but only when if it clips the powers of its security forces in Kashmir, relocates them from civil areas by confining them to borders only.They should be made  accountable for everything, and should pay toll taxes. They should not even touch a Kashmiri without the approval of local police. They should pay the whole rent of all the buildings they have illegally occupied and be booked for the murders of innocent Kashmiris they have deliberately killed. I believe that our army is not so incapable that for mere 1000-1200 terrorists we require SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND TROOPS. If intelligence reports are to be believed, only 1000-1200 terrorists exist, and this fact is know by everyone. Why do we require such a huge army here? Shouldn’t some of it be diverted to naxal and maoist hit states. Below is a piece of record that shows why Kashmiris want freedom?

From Jan. 1989 to August 31, 2008 (Source : http://www.kmsnews.org/)

Total Killings*                                  92,532
Custodial Killings                               6,944
Civilians Arrested                           115,500
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed       105,645
Women Widowed                             22,663
Children Orphaned                         107,194
Women gang-raped / Molested        9,837

* (including custody killings)

None of the facts have been twisted and have been presented as they are. We don’t need an sympathy and your apathy doesn’t affect us anyhow. We just need to clarify our stand that we demand a dignified life and the right to self determination.

In the ending 80s, militant insurgency started in Kashmir. Since then we have been seeing a lot of changes. We have lost a lot of people. And the successive governments at New Delhi and our puppet state governments are responsible for it. They never voiced their concern against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and neither they did they think of relocating the security forces from civil areas. Gradually Kashmiris got frustrated and their anger started brewing up against India and all the Indians. Also one of the major ingredients of hatred against India was that Kashmiris were being falsely implicated in terrorist cases. They were shown on TV channels, particularly Hindi news channels,as arrested terrorist planning to attack this and that, and you all people lauded your police, for they had saved your lives. The officer gets a promotion and some cash reward. But think of the person who has been falsely implicated. His future is crashed and he lands in Tihar jail. I don’t say that the guys that are arrested are innocent, they have a tag which is much bigger than a terrorist. THEY ALL ARE KASHMIRIS and this is their biggest crime. In many cases, Jammu and Kashmir police gave clearance certificates to the arrestees but none of them was set free. Certain policies of Indian Government kept on mounting anger against India. The laws that prevailed in Kashmir were more anti-people than anti-terrorism.

Indian Security Forces increased their brutalities on a war footing. At the same time terrorists stepped up their attacks on the security forces. Kashmiris saw these terrorists as their saviors. The terrorists were not harming civilians but instead they were fighting against the oppressors. This got them enough support. Had the Indian government acted on time and clipped the special powers of its security forces, the situation wouldn’t have been so bad today. But instead they chose to kill terrorists as well as civilians. Other Indian citizens supported this tyranny and called all Kashmiris as terrorists. This further alienated Kashmiris from India. Fake encounters started appearing in the valley. The security forces used to arrest youth for questioning, and they never returned. They used to kill the youth during the night time and pumped bullets into their faces to mutilate their faces beyond recognition. The last step would be branding them as Lashkar e Toiba terrorists who were Pakistani nationals. This had become a full fledged industry now, and the victims were even supplied now for costs. Last year only, a thousand unidentified graves were found and an SSP was arrested for many fake encounters. What happened to the case? no one knows. Imagine an Assistant Sub-Inspector being promoted to the rank of SSP. They get promoted by killing civilians and branding them as PAKISTANI TERRORISTS.

The security forces are known for crime against women. Last year only, in the distant district of Kupwara, a female teacher was a victim of eve teasing by security forces. One of her male colleagues objected to this, but the security forces warned him of dire consequences. On one fateful day, the security forces found that male colleague alone. They grabbed him and took him to the nearby forest and started torturing him. They chopped off 3 kilograms of meat from his body and then shot three bullets into his head. After hearing gunshots hundreds of villagers went towards the spot and saw the security personnel running away leaving him in a pool of blood.He instantly died and the security personnel fled into their camp. Despite of an enquiry ordered by the District Magistrate against this brutal murder. None of the murderer soldiers was booked, WHY? because they enjoy immunity. His only fault was that he objected to eve-teasing of his female colleague. Look at the prize he got for saving a woman’s honour.

I am not writing this post concocting stories to get readers but my conscience wants me to clear the image of Kashmiris. Kashmiris aren’t wrong but they are always wrongly quoted. While the economic blockade had been enforced, Indian Government refused to help us because it considered the NUCLEAR DEAL issue much bigger and important than the economic blockade. When Indian Government didn’t nothing to end the economic blockade, Kashmiris themselves needed to do something. Kashmiris took such a hasty step because Kashmir was choked of all essential supplies. Our RIGHT TO LIVE was hindered so we marched towards AZAD KASHMIR. There too innocent civilians were shot at. India would have full right to shoot us all if it had tried to help us earlier, but India didn’t. How come are we anti-national then?

Attacks on Kashmiris continue, despite repeated assurances by the governor. Many truck drivers have returned back to the valley telling their  woeful tales. The HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS are increasingly targeting  Kashmiris, attacking them using petrol bombs and sometimes even burning them. They are harassed and their trucks torched. The governor announced that it was safe for Kashmiris to export their fruit produce, but on 19th, the drivers were again attacked. This questions the commitment of the governor of removing the economic blocade and allowing free movement of trucks.

Now coming to my views. I don’t understand what makes innocent Kashmiris their target. During the agitation here,in Kashmir, not a single non-muslim was harassed. And instead they (non-muslims) also participated in our agitation, because the issue was not communalized here. The protests were a medium to stop the land transfer to non-Kashmiris. I fail to understand from where the religion came into the protests. The support of our sikh brothers should be lauded as they walked hand in hand with us during the protests and also provided Langars at various places.

Its very astonishing to learn that BJP, which is spear-heading the protests and communalizing  this issue, itself has limited Kavad yatra in Uttarkhand. Citing environmental reasons, the BJP government itself reduced the number of pilgrims who could attend the yatra and also reduced its duration. They have limited the number of pilgrims to 150 per day and closed down all the food outlets, banned the movement of general public and ponies. If they can limit the yatra to save Goumukh glacier, why doesn’t anyone think about the Kolohoi glacier. Just because ours is a Muslim majority state, these baseless points are being raised. How can they stop yatra in their state and then raise such issues in other state? In this case, where did their Hindutva attitude go. How could they allow this thing to happen in a state ruled by themselves? Its clear that they are doing this to gain vote bank. Quoting Sachin Pilot, a Congress MP, ‘We should be very thankful to BJP. What Pakistan couldn’t do in 20 years, BJP did it in 10 days.’ He said this while commenting on division of state.

The major solution to end this crisis is to divide the state. Jammu along with Kathua and half of the Udhampur should constitute a separate state. Also Indian government should consider repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which entitles the Indian security forces to arrest anyone or shoot on mere suspicion. Second one is opening the LOC for trade purposes and allow free movement of Kashmiris. The last one would be freeing all the political prisoners.

The Indian government has been doing a hell load of injustices to us. The protests in Jammu were more violent than in Kashmir. Still more protesters died in Kashmir. The people in Jammu burnt “The Holy Qur’an”, while as no disrespect was shown towards any religion here in Kashmir. Still more kashmiris were killed. The Jammuites enforced an economic blocade on Kashmir. when Kashmiris protested they were again killed. I ask these questions to every human being, whenever we ask for our fundamental rights, why do we always get bullets? Why is a Kashmiri life so under-valued? Why are our sentiments always played with? If India considers us a part of it, then why does it have such an indifferent attitude towards Kashmiris? Perhaps there would be no answer to my questions, because no one ever wants to answer them. It hardly matters to them that daily we loose a brother and eventually we have become used to it. Everyone wants and has the right to live a peaceful life, but here you don’t let us do the same.

All roads led to Pampore Saturday. If there was anything visible in this saffron town, it was a sea of people. Kashmir had assembled to pay homage to Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the slain Hurriyat leader who fell to police bullets on a peaceful march to Muzaffarabad.
People including women and children from across the Valley assembled at Eidgah here, climbed rooftops, trees and even sky-touching mobile towers to watch pro-freedom leaders.
On way to Pampore from Srinagar, women offered milk, water and food to the people, who continuously shouted pro-freedom slogans and waved green flags.
“We want freedom,” the people kept shouting.
Since morning people were waiting for the arrival of the leaders. When Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s cavalcade reached the spot, women showered flower petals on him. Later youth carried Mirwaiz on shoulders in a procession to Eidgah. People also gave rousing welcome to Muhammad Yaseen Malik.
However, people could not control their emotions when Syed Ali Shah Geelani reached there. They huddled, shouted anti-India and pro-freedom slogans and escorted Geelani, who was atop a vehicle, inside the jam-packed Eidgah.
However, not a single cop or troopers was present on the road from Athwajan to Pampore. For hours people kept thronging the town—by foot, on motorcycles and vehicles. The locals had established langars at various places.
But more than food, people preferred to listen to the pro-freedom leaders.
As Geelani started his speech, some youth climbed atop all the mobile towers overlooking the Eidgah, and hoisted green flags. Shouting pro-freedom slogans, people saluted the youth who stood atop the cell towers and kept waving the green flags.
‘Sheikh Aziz Teri Azmat Ko Salam (We salute the grandeur of Sheikh Aziz,” a group of youth carrying the slain leader’s life-size posters shouted.
When the pro-freedom leaders ended their speech, people started to move to their respective destinations in huge processions. On seeing massive procession, two Army trucks abruptly stopped at Athwajan. A group of women taunted the troops for “killing the innocent people of Kashmir.”
Later some youth among the procession paved way for the Army vehicles to leave the spot. At Pantha Chowk the police diverted the procession through the Bypass. However those who managed to move through the highly-fortified zone housing the 15 Corps headquarters, shouted pro-freedom slogans and moved in a procession to Shivpora. Till late evening, youths on motorcycles and vehicles moved through city roads, shouting pro-freedom slogans.

From June, the 25th, we’ve been seeing sea changes here in Kashmir. The people of Jammu have enforced an economic blockade on Kashmir. The union government is watching as a mute spectator. Now the fruit growers, who witnessed losses worth hundreds of crores, tried to export theit fruit produce through the LOC to Muzzafarabad. This, according to me, should have been allowed because this is the only option to save them from severe losses. When they macrched towards Baramulla, they were fired upon by the police killing many people. After commiting a folly, the government while trying to hide their fault imposed a curfew with shoot at site orders. Again killing many people. We, at Kashmir, are now facing shortage of essential items. The food, medicine, fuel and every other item is about to get finished up. The Kashmir  marriage parties are known for their robust feasts, but due this blockade, about 90% of the parties are being cancelled. The streets here remain deserted due to curfews imposed by the civil authorities.
I, in my personal view, find the HINDU ORGANIZATIONS, responsible for this act. They have never been able to win elections in Jammu and Kashmir and now they are playing cheap politics by using Jammuites against Kashmiris. The Jammuites complain that the Kashmiris discriminate against them and they have been left far undeveloped. But if the facts are to be taken into consideration, they are more developed than us. They have a much better infrastructure than us. They also have a far less number of unemployed people. All their charges are baseless. Its evident that the issues they are raising are all hoax and they want something else in its disguise.