Despite claims to the contrary, all’s still not well in Kashmir

Despite innumerable claims of ‘normalcy’ by multiple news channels in New Delhi, the situation on the ground in Kashmir Valley remains unchanged. All phone lines, except landlines, remain out of service, the shutdown continues, all the markets and schools remain closed, and most of the political leadership continues to remain in detention.

Even bureaucrats and police officers are not sending their children to school in the absence of communication facilities.

The public protest has gone beyond the street and stone pelting this time and turned into a defiant, civil disobedience movement. The Hurriyat Conference — most of its frontline and second line leadership behind bars and under house arrest — is out of the picture. Despite lifting of some restrictions, people have refused to resume normal life.

Most of the daily purchases for essentials are done in the early mornings, from 6—9 AM when the markets close and shutters come down for the remaining day, only to resume in the evening for a few more hours. Public transport continues to be off the roads.

Only private vehicles ply on the roads during the day.

Concertina wire continues to block several important roads and junctions in the city. Many more checkpoints and sandbag bunkers of CRPF personnel have been established across the city since August 5. More army and CRPF camps and bunkers have come up across the Valley to house thousands of additional troops brought in the weeks before revocation of Article 370 on August 5. Even educational institutions, including colleges are presently occupied by troops. And reports suggest that soldiers are spreading out in residential areas, occupying high-rise buildings and houses strategically placed, ostensibly on rent. Houseowners cannot refuse letting out their houses to security forces.

Foreign Media

With the Indian media, both in Kashmir and outside, content to mostly highlight government claims, even local journalists are forced to rely on international media to find out what is happening on the ground.

It is through the international media that Kashmiris learnt that a WhatsApp group called ‘Save Heart Initiative’ that had helped in more than 13,000 cardiac emergencies and was hailed as a Kashmiri success story, is no longer functional. Hundreds of Kashmiri doctors, some based abroad, were part of the group, uploading electrocardiograms and other vital information and then getting life-saving advice from one another.

But with no internet in the Kashmir Valley, doctors there can’t use it.

Ironically, it is again through the international media that Kashmiris learnt that Omar Salim, a urologist, rode a bicycle on a deserted street in Srinagar with a poster dangling from his neck pleading for the restoration of phone and internet services. He was apparently arrested and released with a warning not to do it again.

It was again the New York Times which reported on October 7 the tragic death of a college student, Amir Farooq Dar, who was bitten by a poisonous snake while tending to the family’s sheep in an orchard near Baramulla.

But neither the village health centre nor the hospital in Srinagar, where the family reached after several hours, had the antidote to beat the venom. Soldiers stopped them at check points, delaying their progress.

Unable to find the antidote in hospitals, the family approached an army camp but were told to return the next day. Sixteen hours after he was bitten, Amir Dar died. His body was carried back home, 55 kilometres away from Srinagar, in an ambulance.

Reports of torture

In South Kashmir, public movement is scarce and the shutdown is severe. People remain confined to their homes, avoiding venturing out on the streets. Several young men in the district have been picked up by the police during midnight raids, creating fear among local youth who mostly avoid staying at their homes for long. Many of the youngsters suspected of stone pelting have also been slapped with Public Safety Acts (PSAs).

The army presence and ‘area domination’ activities in the district have increased. Over the past two months, several reports of torture in south Kashmir areas including in district Shopian have been published in the international press, documenting with photographic evidence torture meted out to the local people by the armed forces in the area. The army has officially denied reports of torture.

In several villages of Pulwama district, people spoke about the fear created by the armed forces, alleging that the forces regularly beat up the local boys, snatch their ID cards and ask them to come to the army camps in the area where they are severely thrashed before being released. Several local youth in Pulwama this reporter spoke to said they were terrified of night raids and regular beatings by the armed forces patrolling in the area which had forced them to stay out of their homes and move to other areas.

Business, tourism losses

Already battered and yet to recover from losses suffered during shutdowns in 2008, 2010 and 2016 uprisings, business and commerce in Kashmir is going through one of the worst phases (See figures on top).

The losses to the economy of the Valley in the past two months are estimated to be between Rs ₹8,000 to ₹10,000 crores, according to rough estimates by Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI). The business and trade community has called for the lifting of the siege, releasing detained business leaders, and restoring all communication lines, including internet, before they can make a realistic assessment of losses.

“There is a deep sense of insecurity among people and that includes the business community here,” said Sheikh Ashiq, the President of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industries. “We can access the damages to the local trade and economy only when the siege is lifted and communication lines are restored,” he said, adding that they’re not even able to reach all their office bearers due to the continued communications shutdown. KCCI president said the government is responsible for the present lockdown as it was imposed by them and the onus of reviving the local economy is on the government this time.

“Due to the continued internet blockade for the past two months, the business and trade community has not been able to even file their regular income tax returns, including GSTs, which was all done online in the past,” said Ashiq.

The peak tourist season in the Valley received a big blow as hundreds of advance bookings in hotels in several tourist resorts were abruptly cancelled. According to KCCI estimates, presently about 1300 hotels, 900 houseboats and 650 shikara boats are vacant and out of work in the Valley. The losses suffered by the tourism sector have crossed more than Rs 1500 crore, as per KCCI.

About 25,000 to 30,000 transport vehicles associated with the tourism sector in the valley remain dysfunctional for the past two months.

The way forward

People in Kashmir believe any talk of “normalcy” or “Naya Kashmir” is farcical. While the entire political leadership and members of the civil society and business leaders remain in detention for more than two months, any attempt to crop up “new faces” to occupy the political landscape of the valley will at best remain confined to the news channels.

As long as the basic liberties and rights of people are not restored, the government cannot expect the people to resume normal life and make peace with the new ‘normalcy’.

The only way forward to bring back any sense of normalcy in Kashmir is to lift the military siege, demilitarise civilian areas, restore all communications lines and respect basic human and political rights of the people of Kashmir.

However, under the present political dispensation in New Delhi, any likelihood or hopes of restoring the special status of the state – even by the constitutional bench that will hear the abrogation of Article 370 in the Supreme Court – appears bleak. That does not bode well for the future of Kashmir.