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!