On the road, halfway to
Srinagar MUZZAFARABAD,
Pakistan-administered Kashmir - In this lush region,
where rivers and mountains define the landscape, runs
Chakoti Road, which connects the capital of the
Pakistani territory to its counterpart, Srinagar, in
Indian-administered Kashmir.
In many places the
road runs alongside the Jhelum River, and passes the
Kashmiri refugee camp of Manakpayan, which could be
called "halfway to Srinagar", which is only 150
kilometers away.
This would be an ideal spot to
build a bus stop, in the event that a bus service is
resumed between the two capitals of disputed Kashmir.
Currently, the Line of Control (LoC) [1] that separates
the two regions of Kashmir is closed.
Were the
LoC open, refugees in the Manakpayan camp would be the
first to visit their homes in Indian-administered
Kashmir. Such a possibility has been touted as a first
step in confidence-building
measures aimed at resolving
the Kashmiri dispute, or as Pakistani President General
Pervez Musharraf has said, "meeting halfway".
However, the refugees in Manakpayan
camp are not too impressed. Over the past 10 years or
so, since militancy in Kashmir intensified [2] many
temporary huts have turned into permanent refugee homes
as the dispute between Pakistan and India has dragged
on. There are 2,720 refugees in Manakpayan camp, 1,508
in Ambore camp (see below) and altogether 23,056 in the
whole of Azad Kashmir.
As soon as people in the Manakpayan camp
heard of the arrival of a newsman they rushed to their
homes to call their relatives and friends. They gathered
in a school run by the non-governmental organization
(NGO) READ Foundation. The picture that emerged was one
of a whole generation of youths fully politically and
ideologically committed to the Kashmiri cause, which for
most means accession to Pakistan.
Most of the
youths in the camp were science graduates, and most keep
informed through the BBC's Hindi and Urdu radio service.
Twenty-nine-year-old Mohammed
Rafiq's family migrated to the camp in 1994 from the
Kopwara Karnah district of Indian-administered Kashmir.
Rafiq knows that should a bus service
start, it would pass near his home. But he doubts that
he will take a ride.
"Whether by bus or by air,
we are not ready to go to Srinagar. This is not the
ultimate end of our struggle. The start of a bus service
would mean that we accepted the present Line of Control
as an international border. I tell you this bus service
is not for Kashmiris. No Kashmiri will use that bus
service. It is only for a handful of pro-Congress Indian
Kashmiris who would come," said Rafiq, referring to the
Congress Party in India that heads the coalition
government in Delhi.
"When we left our homes, farms,
cattle and property behind on the Indian side of the
divide and migrated to this side of Kashmir, we were
forced to do so. Every day t
he Indian army made siege
and search operations, they destroyed our private lives.
It was compulsory for every man between seven and 70
years to visit a nearby army checkpost three times a
day, and have their daily activities registered. They
[Indian soldiers] often surrounded our areas and pushed
all men, women and children into nearby fields. Then
they carried out identification parades, which continued
for as long as three days and all folks continued to sit
in the open fields surrounded and harassed by Indian
army guns.
"The situation is still the same.
With over 700,000 [Indian] army present in the Valley,
rapes, humiliation and arrests of innocent Kashmiris
continue. What value have a bus service and
confidence-building measures then," Rafiq questioned.
Mehboobur Rehman, 80, cited almost the same
reason for his migration, but he was not as politically
and ideologically motivated. Indeed, he remained
nostalgic about his past in Indian Kashmir, where he was
a rich man in Kopwarah, with farms and three houses. He
asked the people sitting nearby to confirm to this
correspondent how rich he was, and everybody nodded in
his support.
"Why not, why not, for sure I will
take a ride on the Srinagar-Muzzafarabad bus and see my
native village," said Rehman. His "politically
incorrect" remarks outraged the youths sitting around,
and they started to taunt him.
"The old man has
already lost everything, now he will go to his village
to get his bones and flesh buried by the Indian army,"
said one youth in the crowd.
"Yes! It is true
that I lost everything when I migrated to Pakistan. The
day after I migrated, Indian forces set ablaze all my
houses and farms like they do with everybody who
migrates to Pakistan, and distributed the land to other
people. Yet there are good old memories and I still look
forward to when the Kashmir dispute will be resolved and
the Indian Gorkha, Jat and Madras regiments will not
come to kill us and I will be able to see my land
again," Rehman said.
Where two rivers
meet Conflict always brings with it devastation
and degradation in the quality of life, no matter how
much people are compensated.
Ambor
refugee camp is situated near Domail (where the Jhelum
and Neelam rivers meet). The hut-like houses are built
on a mountain near the road that follows the Jhelum
river. Very much like the Manakpayan camp, the Ambor
refugee camp mushroomed in the 1990s after the 1989
uprising in Indian-administered Kashmir. The government
of Azad Kashmir (Free - Pakistan - Kashmir) pays Rs750
(US$12.50) per person in a family per month and provides
housing. They are allowed to seek employment.
Shaheen Ahmed is 30 years old and says that when
he migrated to Pakistani Kashmir he passed intermediate
exams, but he could not continue his education.
"For the past 14 years we have been in a
permanent state of uncertainty. The day we migrated we
thought it was a temporary shift and soon we would be
back to home. In this kind of uncertainty, like many
other immigrants, I also could not make any career
plans. Whatever I have done in the past 10 years is just
for survival, " said Ahmed.
Shaheen has no
permanent employment or profession. For some time he was
employed as a primary teacher in a local NGO school. Now
he depends on earnings through private tutoring to local
Pakistani Kashmiri children to raise his own four
children.
However, in spite of his tough life,
Shaheen is firm in his political opinions. "I do not
believe that any bus service will start. It is all
drama. Even the dialogue is fraud. India is not serious.
One thing I tell you, they are all talking on division
formulas [for Kashmiri territory]. Let them do it.
Kashmiris would not accept any formula which suggests a
division of Kashmir. Not even the separation of Jammu
from Kashmir, as in every inch of Kashmir people have
taken part in the liberation struggle and made the
utmost sacrifice. A full new generation has matured
during the uprising and all are fully motivated for
their right of self-determination," Shaheen said
harshly, but in a soft voice.
Notes [1] The LoC
is a demarcation line established in January 1949
as a ceasefire line after the end of the first
Kashmir war. In July 1972, after a second conflict, the LoC
was re-established under the terms of the Simla
Agreement, with minor variations on the earlier boundary. The
LoC passes through a mountainous region about 5,000
meters high. North of the LoC, the rival forces have
been entrenched on the Siachen Glacier (more than
6,000m high) since 1984 - the highest battlefield in the
world. The LoC divides Kashmir on an almost two-to-one
basis: Indian-administered Kashmir to the east and south
(population about 9 million), which falls into the
Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir; and
Pakistani-administered Kashmir to the north and west
(population about 3 million), which is labelled by
Pakistan as "Azad" (Free) Kashmir. China also controls a
small portion of Kashmir.
[2] The territory of
Kashmir was bitterly contested even before India and
Pakistan won their independence from Britain in August
1947. Under the partition plan provided by the Indian
Independence Act of 1947, Kashmir was free to accede to
India or Pakistan. The Maharaja, Hari Singh, wanted to
stay independent, but eventually decided to accede to
India, signing over key powers to the Indian government
- in return for military aid and a promised referendum.
Since then, the territory has been the
flashpoint for two of the three India-Pakistan wars: the
first in 1947-48, the second in 1965. In 1999, India
fought a brief but bitter conflict with Pakistani-backed
forces who had infiltrated Indian-controlled territory
in the Kargil area.
In addition to the rival
claims of Delhi and Islamabad to the territory, there
has been a growing and often violent separatist movement
against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989.
Islamabad says that Kashmir should have
become part of Pakistan in 1947, because Muslims are in
the majority in the region. Pakistan also argues
that Kashmiris should be allowed to vote in a referendum
on their future, after numerous United Nations
resolutions on the issue.
Delhi, however, does
not want international debate on the issue, arguing that
the Simla Agreement of 1972 provided for a resolution
through bilateral talks. India points to the Instrument
of Accession signed in October 1947 by the Maharaja,
Hari Singh.
Both India and Pakistan reject the
option of Kashmir becoming an independent state.
Syed Saleem Shahzadis Bureau Chief,
Pakistan, Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.)
MUZZAFARABAD,
Pakistan-administered Kashmir - In this lush region,
where rivers and mountains define the landscape, runs
Chakoti Road, which connects the capital of the
Pakistani territory to its counterpart, Srinagar, in
Indian-administered Kashmir. 
measures aimed at resolving
the Kashmiri dispute, or as Pakistani President General
Pervez Musharraf has said, "meeting halfway".
he Indian army made siege
and search operations, they destroyed our private lives.
It was compulsory for every man between seven and 70
years to visit a nearby army checkpost three times a
day, and have their daily activities registered. They
[Indian soldiers] often surrounded our areas and pushed
all men, women and children into nearby fields. Then
they carried out identification parades, which continued
for as long as three days and all folks continued to sit
in the open fields surrounded and harassed by Indian
army guns. 
people are compensated. 
