Wasim Khalid
Wasim Khalid is a Srinagar based journalist and like his fellow Kashmiris, he’s been living under the government imposed curfew since June.
The pre-dawn congregational prayers in our mosque are just over. It is 6 in the morning.
As we prepare to return back to our homes, a husky voice on a loudspeaker pierces the windows of our mosque. The worshippers rush outside - a white jeep is moving on the street. A public address system, mounted on it, announces imposition of curfew.
On the roadside, close to the mosque, people carrying jugs wait to fetch milk and groceries.
The warnings blare from the vehicle, “anyone who tries to defy curfew will be shot”. The morning shoppers race to get home.
Within minutes, the mosque is empty - even before the customary supplications that follow the prayers. We all know by now to heed these loudspeaker warnings.
The white police jeep is followed by a grey bus. Khaki clad padded troops pour out. The concertina wires are laid. Mobile check posts are erected. The curfew is on.
Curfew is a reaction from the government to challenge separatist writ. Separatists opposing New Delhi’s rule have initiated a “quit Kashmir movement” in the valley. Over the last few months, they’ve been calling the shots, controlling the life of the people. They set the dates for the protests and rallies. They name the “normal” days when we can have a breather to replenish supplies or sit by the lake for a few moments of pretend freedom.
Outside on the roads the only movement comes from police armed with bamboo sticks, plastic canes and automatic rifles. They now rule the streets and alleys.
We Kashmiris have been banished from our own streets.
A friend has called it a “mass house arrest” of citizens.
If people try to come out of their houses, troops brandishing bamboo sticks herd them back in. Sometimes, invectives work, but most of the time, the “law breakers” are awarded speedy justice – flogging.
We learn of what’s going on in the world only through the windows of our houses. But even there, we need the stars to be on our side. If the police spot us, we could get a tirade of abuses – even the women - and sometimes, a slingshot is aimed at us, or worse.
In the houses in the centre, there’s barely a window intact.
Government offices, schools, colleges, public parks, banks, business establishments, and all type of businesses are closed. But life is turning on its head and our normal daytime activities are now taking place at night. This is when the curfew is relaxed, so this is when milkmen deliver milk, and vendors bring their grocery carts onto the streets.
Kashmiris, used to long isolating months of winter long ago learnt to stock the essentials. So everytime the curfew is relaxed for a few hours, we rush to buy pulses, flour, vegetables and dry milk powder - anything that will keep because we don’t know when we’ll be allowed to shop again. We dry vegetables like brinjal, tomatoes and bitter gourd to preserve them.
Community kitchens have been established to feed the poor and each locality has formed a committee. People pool money and keep it with community head - who disburses it amongst the most needy.
It is the weakest who have been worst hit by the curfew - the poor who can’t work, school children who have lost precious months which could in the long run, result in lost years of education, the sick who can’t get to hospital or buy drugs.
Hamida Akhtar, a pregnant woman from Srinagar, delivered a still-born boy after an emergency operation. The baby could have been saved, if she would have been allowed to leave home on time by troops imposing curfew.
Like Hamida Akhtar’s baby, the curfew is smothering us all bit by bit.
on Oct 12th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
The author hasn’t written about the horrors of Islamic fundamentalists who are spearheading a voilent unrest after failing to achieve their goals in twenty year long worst Islamic terrorism. Kashmiri journalists the most unprofessional one have always ignored saner voices and silent majority in Kashmir. The Islamist goons enforcing shtdowns by indulging in arson loot and vandalism deserve world attention. The forme terrorist Masarat Alam with the help of his cotrie is responsible for the blood shed. Government is enforcing curfew to save lives. Moderate Muslims of India, pakistan and world are concerned about activities of Islamic mascots like Masarat Alam who wants to establish Taliban type dispensation in Kashmir. The overwhelming moderate majority of Kashmir reject him and are cooperating with government to bring an end to unrest. The journalist faternity of Kashmir who get carried away with mob mentality have lost all credibility and nobody takes them seriously. The author of this story was sacke by a reputed news paper for his false reporting and for his links with Islamic terrorists.
on Oct 12th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
its all true… Life is became hell out their and that’s all because of these ugly policemen and their leader Omer abbdulah..
on Oct 12th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
good piece of work.
on Oct 13th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Thanks Nazir Ahmad for your true report. However, media and social networking sites have emerged as a weapon of spreading terror and inciting hatred among different communities. Most journalists are taking their words abroad and into the international arena for defaming India and Indian forces. They are posting grainy videos against Indian security forces. But recently the video posted against Pakistani forces, has them on the defence and they are shouting-fake….We all know about the forces behind the unrest in different parts of India. It is our duty as Indians to stay calm and united, and fight these forces at all levels.
on Oct 13th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
In 2008, almost 1200 youth, mostly students, had received injuries above waist, meaning that armed forces are directly trying to aim at bodies instead of thinning demonstrations, which a top cop, who was sacked after couple of youth were killed in a firing, also acknowledged to media as well. He said protests should have been allowed.
The real fear is that if armed forces try to corner cat (Kashmiri youth) it will try to pounce upon them. This is exactly what we have been seeing. The peaceful protests of 2008 were forced to become violent which led to killings of 65 youth and injury to more than 2500 people.
In city and elsewhere armed forces have continued this trend and in the mountains where media hardly reaches and villagers choose to remain silent, fake encounters continue to happen which makes Kashmir a fitting case of UN intervention in forcing India to repeal draconian laws that protects its soldiers and push for a plebiscite to decide the fate of more than 10 million Kashmiris.
on Oct 13th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
One more thing if India along with 30 other countries are ready in January 2011 to allow christian-majority Southern Sudan to poll for self determination why is international body hesitating to solve the oldest dispute in UN agenda-Kashmir.
on Oct 13th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
great story…direct from the heart…the world needs to wake up to the stories of pain and suffering of kashmiri people…
on Oct 13th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Living in Australia hasn’t been really good after I left Kashmir for studies. But what brings me more closer to the valley and its people is the love and affection I still get when I travel to my home town Habba Kadal. One may find things peaceful from outside but inside one can discern how someone can lose his manhood if he goes through what Kashmiris are going through during past 22 years. More than that the communal forces sitting miles away always try to make it sure that the sufferings get a bad name. I met an old lady in my area whose only son in five sisters was picked up from his automobile serivce centre by troops and dropped dead in the evening. while the state and delhi promise blood money, what makes her a tough women is her wits to take on to streets and demand punishment to killers of her innocent son. What makes this news worthless to Delhi papers is that it doesn’t fit into their discourse.And when local papers cover such news they are branded as “abettors” in undermining Indian nationalism. Just recently there were several media outlets who were banned, their licence nullified, besides several journalists including AP’s most trusted Mehrajdin and his son Omar was beaten up..Mehraj is still on treatment at their homes. Together with this the local papers like Greater Kashmir and Rising Kashmir downsized their staff by 20-30 per cent, for whom advertisement is the oxygen that remained hindered because of curfews and stringent cordons. My sister whop still lives in Jawahar Nagar area told me how hawkers in her area were beaten up by troops and local police to scuttle news flow. SMS service also stands banned.Now the govt is preying on facebookers who it feels are reporting from their areas on the networking site.
All this has made lives of kashmiris terrible which may result in a violent armed revolt if Delhi didn’t plan something acceptable to Kashmiris. I may be called a traitor or pro-pakistani by my fellow kashmiri pandits living i cosy mansions in delhi and mumbai but my heart bleeds for all the 110 kashmiri boys who were killed for just hurling stones.
Regards,
R Tickoo
Habba Kadal
on Oct 13th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Brilliant piece Waseem. Keep it up. See how truth and blatant falsehood can stand in close proximity to each other sometimes. I’m referring to your article and the very first obnoxious comment by Nazir Ahmad, though I’ve every reason to believe that isn’t his name. Everyone knows why you’re not with Rising Kashmir now. And a person who can be so shameless that he can put on record a distorted verifiable incident, can stoop to any level. So no need to comment on the rest of his rubbish. Keep it up my ISLAMIST, lol.
on Oct 16th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Ankita
I appreciate author for this wonderful, candid piece of writing. Although I had never been to Kashmir ever since we were forced to exodus, the article has truly penetrated the sufferings of common people at the hands of uniformed forces. Had national media been playing an impartial role the situation could have never reached to the height where Kashmir seems to be out of control? I also want to convey that hire and fire is the policy of corporate world. Since there is a prevailing unrest for last four months in valley and government curbed the advertisements drastically, the media houses in Kashmir were forced to downsize their man power.
on Oct 22nd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Even as an established rule of martial law, this form of organization is at best, quite shoddy. What has to be recogized by the policing powers and the government, is that life in all its emergency situations, still goes on. The authorities need to divide the policing duties into two components, one being the regular power of the army to maintain a law enforcement presence which is more than difficult to win the support of the populace, who do not recognize the authority represented in these troops through the government. Secondly, would be the deployment of Military Police units separate from the main body of troops. The MPs would provide what is known “business continuity policing”, or the normal duties of a civilian controlled constabulary, to assist in the ongoing policing needs of the general public, such as health emergencies, accidents, and the like. In the aforementioned case of the baby, such a division of duties and responsibilites would have done much more towards saving an innocent and fragile life, under the extrodinary circumstances of life under the curfew. If the government cannot demonstrate that the regime of martial law instituted through the curfew cannot provide the most basic security needs of the population it claims to protect, then this measure will yield only negative returns to whom may be considered a foreign occupier.
on Feb 3rd, 2011 at 4:47 pm
It is a strangely unsettling news. Recently two sisters were killed by LeT men in Sopore. But no reaction from the separatists, no statement from PDP, no stone pelting, no call for bandhs by Geelani, No Arundhati Roy statement, no videos on facebook and no article on SAW…What does this mean?