MUZZAFARABAD,
Pakistan-administered Kashmir - Armies are trained for
warfare. They are structured for roughness and toughness
to live in border areas far away from home comforts.
Political management is not their business. They are
trained to use power. They have little time for
sentiment, or to understand the meaning of tears in the
eyes of innocent children. They are slaves to their
commanders and raised as masters of the universe to play
military games and spread destruction. They use whatever
means they can, no matter how many civilian lives are
lost in the process - their ultimate aim is to achieve
military success. Politics is not their game. Among the
more than 700,000 Indian army troops in
Indian-administered Kashmir, there are few exceptions to
this general rule.
In the Muzzafarabad office of
the Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust, a
non-governmental organization that provides health care,
food and shelter to displaced Kashmiri families,
white-bearded mute gardener Abdul Ahad comes across as a
crazy character at first sight, but he insists that he
tell his story through sign language.
Sabir
Siddiqui, a volunteer in the Trust office, patted Abdul on
the shoulder to calm him down. "I will translate what
you want to say," the official told Abdul, whose
impassioned eyes and face conveyed both deep helplessness
and sadness.
"This is one of the strangest
stories among displaced people," said Siddiqui.
"Abdul Ahad didn't come to Pakistani Kashmir
voluntarily, he was literally pushed to come here. You
know the villages along the border areas are the worst
sufferers during military skirmishes. Abdul Ahad became
a victim. He was roaming around in his village
Durgmullah in the district of Kopwarah when he was
arrested, and when Indian forces found that he was dumb,
they forced him to wear an Indian military uniform and
took him to Gerais Sector, which is adjacent to
Pakistan's Neelam Valley, and pushed him into the river
flowing towards Pakistan.
"When
Pakistan soldiers found 'an Indian army officer' they
immediately arrested him. Abdul Ahad was kept in detention in
a Pakistani prison for more than one-and-a-half months
and remained subject of interrogation. Even his dumbness
was taken as artificial. Later on, army
interrogators understood that the Indian forces had tried to
fool around and they called refugee-camp managers to take
Abdul Ahad to different camps and asked the people to
identify him. A few families from his village identified
him as a member of a poor farmer family from Durgmullah
village," said Siddiqui.
"The Pakistan army
people realized that their Indian counterparts were
playing around with them, but you know what happened in
this game? Abdul Ahad now has to lead his life alone as
all his family members are on the other side of the
divide [Line of Control - LoC] [1]. They cannot come
here, nor can he go there ... an eternal separation, and
just for a military joke."
In Manakpayan refugee
camp, 65-year-old Mohammed Yaqoob has an artificial
limb. "They [Indian army] cannot fight face-to-face with
the mujahideen, therefore they have mined all around
fields and villages. They know [with maps] where the
mines are, and they do not go there, but they do not
inform common people about mines. Therefore, dozens of
peaceful villagers in border areas have become victims
of mines, and I am one of them," said
Yaqoob.
"Now he is so fearful that when he hears
aircraft noise he runs for shelter. You can imagine the
atmosphere which developed his nature," said a young man
standing beside Yaqoob.
Statistics gathered from
different sources, including different human-rights
bodies such as Amnesty International, Asia Watch and even
Indian judicial inquiry reports, suggest that from
August 14, 1947, [2] until May 2004 the number of people
affected by the troubles near the LoC was 371,729,
beside the displacement of nearly 1.6 million people
(1.5 million refugees at the time of partition in 1947,
then the migration of 50,000 people after the 1965 and
1971 Pakistani-Indian wars, and then 35,000
non-registered refugees after the 1989 uprising, beside
23,056 living as registered refugees in different camps
in Pakistani Kashmir.)
Since 1990, the most
authentic figures suggest the deaths of 90,000 people,
about 22,000 reported cases of sexual assault on women,
11,000 cases of illegal detentions, and a long list of
other losses, including property etc.
Behind
these statistics are people with thousands of stories to
tell of the tragedy that has come to symbolize the
Kashmir struggle.
Siddiqui took this
correspondent to Domail, a point in
Pakistan-administered Kashmir where the Neelam and
Jehlum rivers meet. "Isn't this a beautiful sight?" Sabir
asked, but added quickly. "But not for us - you know we
have recovered 674 bodies at this point in the past 14
years. Bodies of those who were sunk by Indian forces or
bodies of those who were chased by Indian forces or
tried to enter Pakistan by the river route and drowned,"
Siddiqui explained.
"This 14-year story is
written in human flesh and blood, you go all around and
you will hear the same stories, only with changed faces
and places," said Siddiqui.
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 labeled 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.)
PART 2: Just a military
exercise ... 
people," said Siddiqui.
"Abdul Ahad didn't come to Pakistani Kashmir
voluntarily, he was literally pushed to come here. You
know the villages along the border areas are the worst
sufferers during military skirmishes. Abdul Ahad became
a victim. He was roaming around in his village
Durgmullah in the district of Kopwarah when he was
arrested, and when Indian forces found that he was dumb,
they forced him to wear an Indian military uniform and
took him to Gerais Sector, which is adjacent to
Pakistan's Neelam Valley, and pushed him into the river
flowing towards Pakistan. 
am one of them," said
Yaqoob. 
"Isn't this a beautiful sight?" Sabir
asked, but added quickly. "But not for us - you know we
have recovered 674 bodies at this point in the past 14
years. Bodies of those who were sunk by Indian forces or
bodies of those who were chased by Indian forces or
tried to enter Pakistan by the river route and drowned,"
Siddiqui explained. 
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 labeled by
Pakistan as "Azad" (Free) Kashmir. China also controls a
small portion of Kashmir. 
