A tale of two Kashmirs

Mir Adnan Aziz.
The Frontier Post

The valley of Kashmir is an emerald set in pearls; a land of lakes, clear streams, green turf, magnificent trees and mighty mountains, where the air is cool and the water sweet... Sir Walter Lawrence.

Released from Kot Lakhpat prison, the now 67-year Mr. Kashmir Singh will be back in his native village Nangal Khiladiyan in Hoshiarpur, happily reunited with his near and dear ones. A multitude though, conveniently forgotten by the world, will remain chained, murdered, maimed and tortured, in what might be termed the most beautiful prison on Earth - Kashmir.

The release of one charged and sentenced for espionage became an absurd media frenzied circus. With our Chief Justice and his family still under detention, hundreds of our own missing and untraced, it was but a callous, crass and vulgar display of self promotion and projection of a few. The 'profusely garlanded and flower petals showered' departure was reportedly second only to that of another Indian's arrival at the same Wagah Border in 1999 – Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

It was also the same visit in which the hawk of yester-years and dove of today (benevolent for all but his very own), President Musharraf, decided not to salute the visitor. This was reciprocated, in a conspicuous departure from strict protocol, by a mere handshake from the representative of the three Indian services, Air Chief Marshal Anil Yashwant. The venue was the Rashtrapati Bhavan during the visiting President's ceremonial reception at the onset of the Agra visit. In another designed slight a six-foot Wing Commander, Pawan Rishirom, lead the inter-services guard of honor and escorted President Musharraf. This was a deliberate choice so that the visiting President would have to look 'up' to him at the end of the service while taking the salute.

To some these may seem like juvenile acts of pranksters at play. They are not. Try as we might the bitter deep-rooted acrimony of years cannot just be just wished away, more so, with a bleeding Kashmir still in the balance.

Mr. Zardari, in his newfound infinite wisdom recently parroted President Musharraf's stance by pronouncing: " Kashmir issue should be left aside for future generations to solve and right now India and Pakistan should focus on improving bilateral relations by strengthening trade and economic ties." People Party's leadership was not, for a moment, left aside for future generations. He took over the mantle of a modern day Regent readily and immediately, as a right and duty, after a 'shahadat'. How can he 'leave aside' for future generations, a cause drenched in the blood of thousands of martyrs and that too for better trade ties?

Should we read the bettering of these ties to a 'welcome' deluge of Indian culture and goods? President Musharraf's India appeasing unilateral glasnost has been a paradigm policy shift tantamount to abandoning the
Kashmir cause. It is because of these drastic one man policy shifts that we find ourselves in the quagmire we are in. The favourite ' Pakistan first' maxim has been confined to clenched fist speeches only. What we have to show for this 'bending backward' policy is a symbolic bumpy bus ride to Kashmir and a blaring advent of Bollywood and Om Shantis in gay abandon.

Mr. Zardari, himself, might have a change of heart, were he to visit Kashmir and the more than 95 orphanages and 500 graveyards there. These are a testimony to a whole generation orphaned and another one lost. In these graveyards rest about a 100,000 martyrs, each epitaph a tragic tale of a brutalized people.

This lost 'paradise on earth' with its majestic azure tipped mountains and the waters of the tranquil shadowy Dal Lake is a land of vibrant beauty and hues. The society in this beautiful land of heart-stopping beauty was gentle and industrious where children revered their parents. Now heart wrenchingly this natural beauty with those within, seems melancholy in the all-enveloping human misery. Each day dawns tentatively, as if fearful of what it brings, with the 'azaan' from the white domed Hazratbal mosque; its single minaret a silent witness to the beginning of yet another blood spattered day.

What we have in Kashmir today is 700,000 Indian security forces training their merciless guns on a population of just 9 million. Nowhere on this planet do we see such an overwhelmingly oppresive equation. The 'success' of the Indian counter- insurgency strategy, drafted by Jagmohan and the former head of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Girish Chandra Saxena (former Kashmir governors), depended on infiltration and subversion of the 'militants'. This was accompanied by unleashing a frenzied reign of terror. Though long gone their policies are still ardently followed, seen as a tried and tested recipe of 'success'.

Rape is used as a weapon to punish, intimidate, coerce, humiliate and degrade. Investigations by human rights groups into allegations of gang rape by the security forces show that it is being routinely used in search and cordon operations. Innocent people are killed as 'terrorists' to get promotions and cash rewards. Ninety percent people taken to jail are tortured. Castration is a favorite means of humiliation. Victims are forced to remain silent with ever looming threats against the families. Any judicial attempt at punishment is continuously and absolutely stonewalled.

The Kashmiris see all these outrages going unchecked and willfully un-noticed. This pathetic indifference, amounting to complicity, feeds an ever deepening hatred. Actor Robin Williams aptly describes how Kashmir figures on the international radar when he says: And you have Bush, hearing about all the fighting over Kashmir, and saying, "What? It's just a sweater!"

What we in Pakistan have been reduced to, more so in these recent years, is the once a year official observance of Feb 5 as Kashmir day. This brings with it yet another public holiday. We see our movies; have our fun and frolics, throng the eateries and shopping malls thus showing our solidarity with our brutalized brethren. We should not be proponents or advocates of war with India. This indeed does not mean the abdication of the rights and plight of those in Kashmir. During President Musharraf's rule of 'enlightened moderation', the Kashmir cause has been, like our other critical national issues, pushed into oblivion. His vacillating stance has been typical of a dictator sans popular support of the people.

It should be the newly elected Parliament's united and unwavering resolve to vigorously agitate and work towards a settlement as per aspirations of the Kashmiri people. It is imperative not to forego a political discourse at any cost. Without the same, as we are tragically seeing in Pakistan , people take to the gun and militancy becomes the only 'option'. When we bid such a tumultuous farewell to the now liberated Kashmir, we should, have pondered for a moment about all those still incarcerated in Indian prisons. The Afzal Gurus of this world on death row for want of a fair and just system. The unmarked graves in Tihar and other prisons where lie those who wanted nothing more but a promised free land - their paradise on earth.

One Kashmir is free to live with his beloved and gaze up to see a star filled sky in Nangal Khiladiyan - another bleeds amidst the darkness of despair whilst in perpetual chains. The famed Kashmiri poet Mahjoor said: You can't remain with folded wings! Plume them, fly and see the world.

The Cedar (Chinar) tree is the symbol of Kashmir. It is also known to take a thousand years to reach its full size. Let us all pray it does not take as long to see another free and liberated
Kashmir.

(miradnanaziz@gmail.com)