Kashmir – Switzerland of the East

Zakir Ahmed is a twenty-year-old resident of Banihal, one of Kashmir’s districts that is crippled by terrorism. Along with his three sisters and an aging mother, Zakir a Bakarwal by profession stays in a ramshackle hut made from pieces of wood assembled with polythene and scrap. Come winters and he moves down to the plains of Jammu where the government provides basic shelter for Gujars, Bakarwals and their cattle. During the day, he earns around two dollars by selling milk at the local market and at night spends sleepless nights not knowing when he or his family might become victims of the ongoing low intensity conflict between the Indian Army and Islamic terrorists. “ Early in the morning, the army comes and asks us to move out of our homes, they throw all our things out in search of terrorists, at night militants come and force us to give them food and shelter, if we refuse they threaten to kill us” says Rubiya, Ahmed’s aged mother.


Kashmir, once known as the Switzerland of the east was the favourite tourist spot for local and international tourists. Beautiful landscapes, glaciers, lush green fields and snow-capped mountains made Kashmir an ideal tourist attraction. From newly weds to retired people, from students on educational trips to serious mountain trekkers, Kashmir provided an ideal break for one and all. But all this ended in the late eighties when insurgency gripped the state and all hell broke loose.

Kashmir; Insurgency or Sponsored Terrorism. Three wars have been fought between India and Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir. Both countries claim that the state of Kashmir is an integral part of their country and the conflict almost resulted in a nuclear flare-up in 1999 after Islamic terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament. In the past two decades or so, a strong militant movement sponsored by foreign states has destroyed the economy of the state. Minority communities have been targeted and have been driven out of their homes, government establishments and employees have been targeted, innocent civilians have been killed and there have been scores of human rights cases reported.

The central government has tried everything, from pumping in extra grants and providing subsidies to farmers to providing ex-gratia payments to victims of insurgency. The government has also moved in nearly seven hundred thousand military and paramilitary troops to curb the uprising.

The Indian Army – A Mixed Role. The Indian Army has made various attempts, some successful some not so successful in winning the hearts and minds of the local populous. The psychological operation initiated by the local field commanders called Op Sadbhavna aims at rebuilding broken houses as well as homes. The army units provide sports coaches and teachers at the local schools, a lot of friendly cricket and football matches are organised between the village teams and the army followed by free distribution of stores and food. The army has also constructed schools, medical clinics and mosques in areas that have been badly affected by insurgency. Though Op Sadbhavna has been part successful in winning over the trust of the local citizens, there is still a deep-rooted distrust for the politicians.

Kashmir – A State Plagued by Corruption; There have been scores of allegations of corruption against Kashmiri politicians; over the years they have been accused of pocketing money that the central government’s been providing for the betterment of the poor Kashmiris. In the last elections, the National Conference (NC), a party that dominated the Kashmir politics for nearly seven decades, faced a virtual debacle with its numbers declining in the state legislature to less than a half of its strength in the previous assembly and it was for the first time in the electoral history of the state that a party in power was defeated. Analysts blamed the downfall of the party to corruption and inefficiency in dealing with the problem of insurgency.

The present day government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and his daughter seem to have struck the right chord or at least for the time being, they are addressing the right problems and reports of corruption are being dealt with more strictly and affectively. Elected ministers are spending more time working with the people rather than spending time in leisure activities, as was the case with the previous state government. The new government is also concentrating on luring outside investments in the state thus giving rise to employment and generating the economy. Indigenous trade is also being promoted and products produced within the state are being encouraged and marketed better than before.

Modus Operandi of Terrorists; Zakir Ahmed believes that military presence in the region is further aggravating the problem; he understands that the army is doing its job and doesn’t blame them for their overwhelming presence in the state but feels that the central government could have handled the situation in a better way. “Instead of sending in the soldiers and hoping of squashing the conflict by further use of strength, the government should have tried understanding the core issues that have gripped the state and should have tried solving them, maybe then the problem might have not escalated as it has now”. Ahmed is referring to the growing number of educated unemployed graduates who have no jobs and if there are any vacancies, corrupt politicians ensure that the seats go to their people or to those who pay more for getting the job.

I posed a question to Ahmed that unemployment and corruption are prevalent in every part of the country but does that make all unemployed youths terrorists and his answer unsettled me. “If a family is poverty stricken and under heavy debt, terrorists come to their homes and give them large amounts of money, most of which is counterfeit. They do the family a big favour and tell them it’s all in the name of religious camaraderie ship and brotherhood. They then leave and do not surface for the next few months or even a year. After sometime, the terrorists come back and ask the gratified family to send their young son to a training camp across the border in the name of Jihad or holy war. They promise good money and the poor family, already in debt to the terrorists feels obliged to let their son go and serve them in the name of religion. This is how you find young boys of the age of as less as fourteen in their cadres,” says Ahmed.

Kashmir – A Re-Emergence; There now seems to be some silver lining from behind the dark clouds. Even though terrorism is prevalent in the state, the number of daily incidents seems to be reducing and most importantly, tourism is once again booming. This year saw a quantum increase of tourists to the summer capital of the state. A record hundred thousand tourists visited the state as compared to twenty thousand last year. Boathouses , hotels and flights have been booked in advance for months and the local people are enjoying a good tourist season after a long time.

The answer to Kashmir’s problems is not military presence or mindless funding by the central government, a strong political resolve between India and Pakistan and sincere attempts to clear the air of mistrust and back stabbing by the warring nations will help the local Kashmiri to live a peaceful life without the fear of being killed in an army – terrorist crossfire. The people of Kashmir do not want violence as a means to the end, for them personal safety and a decent livelihood is more important than their affiliation to any country. Like Ahmed’s eleven year old sister says, “I want to grow up to be a doctor, but for that I need to survive this conflict,”


Rajat Madhok


P.S Last I heard about Ahmed’s family was that he along with his sixty year old mother Rubiya were killed in a militant grenade attack, Ahmed was coming back from the local hospital where he had taken his ill mother for treatment.