A Citizenship Walk along the LOC - Day 3 Monday 22/08/11

Photos on flickr photostream (ID: sahaafi)


Videos at: 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th3WG4TRutI 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39EmC3JAaC8 


As I bade farewell to the Peer Sahaab (Spiritual Head) in the morning, he instructed one of his disciples to drop me at Mo-il. This is where I begin my walk northwards aiming to reach Deva Batala. A solitary (local) soldier in plain clothes confronted me along the way, though he softened his tone once he understood what I'd set myself out to do and was satisfied that I'm an AJK citizen. He refused to take part in the survey though, visibly alarmed at some of the questions I posed.


I have a couple of maps (one bought from a Pakistani army shop on Murree Road in 2005, the other was printed by the AJK tourism dept.), a tourist pamphlet (again courtesy of the AJK tourist department) and GPS on my mobile (which is almost useless as there is little or no network coverage). Thus, I have to rely heavily on asking each and every person I meet along the way to confirm that I've adopted the correct route to my daily destination. 


I come across the first army camp of my walk unwittingly and almost inevitably. This is not before a local shares a dream with me that he had not many nights ago. He had sensed the breeze of freedom and independence blowing northwards from the direction of Jammu. Meanwhile, when I reach that first army camp of my walk - perched as it is on a steep hillock – I feel compelled to prematurely break my fast.


A soldier obliges me with a bottle of cold water as I explain my purpose and verify my identity with a couple of colleagues of his. Fifteen to twenty minutes later they bid me farewell by giving me directions for my onward journey. Coming across a goat herdsman just as he's finishing his morning dip in a small lake, I decide that I should try and get him to answer the questions on the survey. I regret not recording his reaction as there was a lot of humour in his innocent anger. When I asked him of which single identity he would choose to adopt from among Indian, Kashmiri and Pakistani; he was livid at the prospect of Indian being one of the choices at stake. He wanted to hand his 'prize catch' to a soldier passing by, who had descended from the very camp that I had already visited.   


About five kilometres further ahead, it dawned on me that Deva and Batala were two different habitations and even then the people who lived there were scattered. The second army camp of the day was encountered near Sariyaala Chapar. Their conduct and approach was similar to the first, cordial though just slightly lengthier. I spent the rest of the day and night in nearby Kot Jamal, interviewing locals.


Judging from the abysmal quantity and yet more abysmal quality of electricity in Kot Jamal – they receive as little as six hours of electricity per day with the voltage sometimes as low as 10 watts out of a standard 220. It's little wonder that every shop and household is armed with a regulator or two. Neither is it surprising to hear of a rumour that both China and Iran have reportedly offered electricity to AJK at a flat rate of 200 rupees per month for full electricity without any load-shedding.

A Citizenship Walk along the LOC - Day 2 Sunday 21/08/11

Photos on flickr photostream (ID: sahaafi)


Video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H01lgksMrb4


I felt too tired to wake for Sehri (pre-dawn meal before closing fast in Ramadhan), even though I slept outside the hotel inches from a dinner table and half a dozen vigorously munching souls. I eventually got up around 6am and felt relieved to find my mini-laptop still plugged into a socket in a discreet corner of the hotel. I was also pleasantly surprised that the hotel owner insisted on only charging 50 rupees, that too for dinner last night.

There wasn't much electricity to shout about the night before though I remember an invigorating conversation I had with a couple of youth, whom I surveyed at the hotel last night. They were fully conversant with matters of public concern and had urged me - in much the same manner as others have done before them – to institutionalise my efforts. A work-in-progress and difficult without a secure channel of funding, I took great pains to explain to them.

My first day of walking on a 'Citizenship Walk along the LOC' was modest compared to the standard I'd set myself to reach Tao Butt (northern most habitation in AJK) in about six to eight weeks. I could only walk five kilometres or so southwards from Mo-il to Chamb, despite wanting to walk further to Manawar. The two lads I'd met last night – true to their word – came to visit me in Chamb and insisted that I travel with them on a motorbike, I reluctantly agreed.

The video (link attached above) is of us in Manawar, where the area was still reeling from the murder of a mohajir (migrant from the other side of the divide post-1947) by a local. In discussion, I also learned that the areas of Chamb and Manawar were apparently taken by Pakistan in it's 1971 conflict with India. Much of the land in this region belonged to local Hindus prior to 1947 and was taken over by local Muslims who would have hitherto been land tillers or servants. The mohajirs were not able to take possession of land (certainly not in the quantity that they would have been entitled to) from locals. A modicum of tension has persisted between these two categories of people since 1947.

When we returned to Chamb I was invited to a prominent local shrine known as Khairowal Durbar. It was an opportunity to sample a spiritual yet festive rural environment where I interacted with many people who had come from far and wide, including my own district of Kotli. The spiritual head eagerly suggested that I spend the night there. I accepted his invitation.

The evening livened up particularly after iftaar (breaking of fast in Ramadhan at sunset). I had maintained my fast despite not availing of sehri and tempered my thirst by showering with what seemed like ice-cold water gushing out from a heavy-duty motorised tube-well on three or four occasions during the day.

There was zero interaction with 'authorities' on this day.  

A Citizenship Walk along the LOC - Day 1 Saturday 20/08/11

I originally toyed with the idea of starting my walk from Shakergarh (in Pakistan's province of Punjab) along the international border which corresponds with Kathua, the southern-most urban centre of our State which lies in Indian-administered territory. Taking time and other matters of a practical nature into account, I revised it to travelling on public transport from Sialkot to Manawar (where the southern-most point of Azad Kashmir begins).

Barely 30 kilometres – as the crow flies – from Jammu, Sialkot is a busy city in Pakistan's Punjab province and was a major migration hub for the Muslims of Jammu province in November 1947. Many of them had narrowly escaped massacre at the hands of Hindu mobs, who in turn were enraged by countless stories narrated to them of Muslim mobs killing Hindus and Sikhs in what became known as Azad Kashmir. I wanted to give myself a sense of orientation of our State (as a whole) and develop some insight into the impact of 'borders' on our freedom to move.

This took me via Chapraar and Saidpur to the Chenab River (Head Maralla) and Phagwal before I entered our State at Manawar late in the evening. I put up for the night at a hotel in Mo-il, a dozen or so kilometres further north. During the day, I had been questioned by the police as well as an army unit near the Chenab River without incident.

My journey enabled me to engage in conversation at every opportunity with the public of Pakistan as well as those inhabiting Azad Kashmir. There was little to differentiate them in terms of language and culture, nevertheless a difference in political status was acknowledged by both Pakistanis and 'Kashmiris' (As per norm, I use the word generically to represent all inhabitants of the erstwhile Dogra State of Jammu & Kashmir). The bus driver driving us into Azad Kashmir was enquiring from experience when he politely asked of my origin. “This is a 'border area' and the security agencies have made us paranoid of all strangers that travel with us,” he apologetically explained.

Aspirations and grievances

Aspirations and grievances


Here are some further snippets that come under the banner of aspirations and grievances...


"So many countries have come into existence since ours was occupied...."


".....we want civilised trade not army boots........"


"........Both (America and China should support an open-ended plebiscite on Kashmir......The politicians imposed on us are willing to sell anything for power and they are powerless from doing anything genuine for us....Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey should also take notice (Though the former two may try and drag us into one of their camps). We were happy that China did something to recognise our independent status..which is more than can be said of Pakistan which rather than replicate China's gesture, has been busy in not differentiating between it's own citizens and ours. We are very disturbed by Pakistan's inaction and inexpression on so many pertinent issues related to our aspirations and grievances."  


"We must repeat the importance of 'Awami Raaj'...we want all foreign forces to withdraw simultaneously......otherwise tomorrow you'll all (India, Pakistan and TROTW - The Rest of the World) accuse us of being terrorists.....we don't want the world's conflicts to continue dogging us and the world's community dodging us."


"Kashmir is 'Jannat' (paradise on earth) and 'Jannat' cannot be 'Jannat' if it's not peaceful...the world must take the bulk of responsibility for addressing this issue.....otherwise many more innocent will die.......(most will be our citizens and particularly our youth) and we cannot afford losing another..........not anymore..........not anymore (for Jannat's sake)."

Nuclear flashpoint vs neutrality

This was supposed to be my last opinion article for the English daily 'Rising Kashmir', based in Srinagar.

Here are some words from the aborted content, that I've traced back so far...

Hating India too much and loving Pakistan too much can be crushing while hating Pakistan too much and loving India too much can be conceited. Kashmiris should adopt a neutral course to achieve Independence.

A silent majority

A silent majority

A mockery of democracy

A mockery of democracy

Kashmir Dispute has become National Ego for India & Pakistan (Guest Post)

Sardar Wajid Ali, Age 27, was born in Dothan, Poonch district in Pakistan administered Kashmir. He was educated at the Government Boys College, Dothan. Don F.Sc. Pre-Engineering from Muhammadan Science and Computer College (MSCC) Hajira Poonch, B.Com from Karachi University & MBA from University of Central Punjab Lahore. Worked for Toyota in Pakistan in Management since 2005-2008 got excellent management award, and now working as Business Manager with a group of Locals in U.A.E Abu Dhabi named as (FBGC & SBF) dealing in Construction Sector, Manufacturing & Trading. Associated with Jammu and Kashmir National Association of UAE as Media Coordinator & Administrator of Kashmir Cornor JKNA online Discussion Forum. {Kashmiris Connected and Organized for Reconciliation of National Oriented Reprisal} that networks with other Kashmiris

Here's his article:

Any conflict or combat is a product of any species of violence which starts when there is no purity in acts whereas purification and decontamination of acts matters a lot for peaceful consequences. The State of Jammu & Kashmir is the most tinted and highlighted state amongst South Asian Region because of its disputed eminence, and of course because of ambiguity, obscurity, unimportance and triviality of national right that is being unresponsive and uncaring indeed by all means from the state's oppressors since six decades.

The State of Jammu & Kashmir is amongst those 562 princely states of sub-continent that have five thousand years of history background as independent, progressive and prosperous status with its multi-dimensional cultural heritage. The culture that maintains its incessant flow dismantling the man-made barriers between past and present. The state was well known by its harmony, unison and relationship of masses having different religious background under one territory before its dissection. Over the divider of sub-continent in 1947, the state has to suffer an unscrupulous expedition since the divider of sub-continent till date, and may be in forthcoming years there will be continuity in this sort of injustice oppression because there is an absence & lack in serious coordination towards serious negotiation counter from two of the Nuclear powers India & Pakistan possessing this unfair oppression where the state victims want to get rid of this merciless behaviors of both countries.

Pakistan stand on Kashmir is purely based on Two Nation Theory depicted as "because of 77% of the state population consists of Muslims in majority" so justification matters for Pakistan that, state need to be part of Pakistan, which is not reliable and authentic stand indeed because state is having different religions like Muslims, Buddhist & Hindus as major religions and also the subdivision exist like (Sunnis, Shias, Ismailis, Sikhs etc.) so the Pakistan stand on Kashmir is not having any authenticity and also flaw of this justification automatically appears because Two Nation Theory only functional for those areas of sub-continent then straight under British rule and did not applied any of the semi-independent princely states like Kashmir. Indian justification for Kashmir is based on the right that was given to the rulers of 562 Princely states of Sub-Continent to choose about the future of these states and the ruler of Kashmir has got about the accession of his state to India so Kashmir is the fundamental and legal part of the India which is also not possible because Kashmir is not a commodity that is for sale or for any bartered but it is an individual's existence part where all people have their fundamental & equal right to choose their future through a plebiscite which is expressed in many of the talks by then Government Officials of both countries at many occasions during their perspective speeches (Quid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in June 7, 1947, July 11, 1947, July 30, 1947. Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru in July 9, 1951. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in July 14,1972 and Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in 1992) mentioned that it is the right of Kashmiri people either they want to be a part of India, Pakistan or want to live Independently as Kashmir has an individual existence and its people must be the final arbiters of their future. but behind the scene it is not so easy because the fight for Kashmir region has become the national ego for both India and Pakistan and no one is ready to get off through any means of dialogue consideration because both countries have no focus for the prosperity and well-being of Kashmiri people but only holding a resource oriented approach that is just to annihilating & demolishing the basic ideology and right to self-determination and destroying the overall peace of South Asian Region with this non-serious attitude.

As I have cited earlier that the peaceful & non-violent consequences cannot be practiced and implemented until and unless these two nuclear powers will not take the Kashmir conflict for the well-being of Kashmiri people rather than resources oriented approach. It is the matter of fact that both countries have their own mutual interests in this region in the shape of (Water) as {Indus Valley has major 7 Rivers and many small rivers are fertilizing the lands of Pakistan and India since water treaty agreement between India and Pakistan} as major and more that no one can ignore or overlook and ultimately both countries have turned the Kashmir conflict as National Security & Ideology by overlooking the people of Jammu & Kashmir and lead to relate this conflict to their national ego by spending very huge amounts to security matters and ignoring other essentials.

When India put the Kashmir case in United Nations in 1948, the resolutions of United Nations Security Council as {38, 39, 47 and 51 of 1948} and United Nations Commission for India & Pakistan (UNCIP) resolutions of {August 13, 1948} has evidently professed the State of Jammu & Kashmir as disputed region and anticipated its final decision and settlement through free, fair & unbiased plebiscite under the supervision of United Nations and prominently declaring the right to self-determination for Kashmiri People that was violated and still in the process of violation across LOC in the state of Jammu & Kashmir by strictly ignoring the free choice of plebiscite for masses and by implementing the accession as essential and legal procedure by both Indian & Pakistani constitutional assemblies like {Azad Jammu & Kashmir Interim Constitution Act 1974 that was imposed by Islamabad}, itself a disregard and contravene to the same act which starts as "WHEREAS the future status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir is yet to be determined in accordance with the freely expressed will of the people of the State through the democratic method of free and fair plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations as envisaged in the UNCIP Resolutions adopted from time to time" and in the same Constitutional Act it is mentioned in Article 4 (7) (2) of the Act 1974 states that “No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan.” This is at one side itself a disregard of this Constitutional Act and the other side a straight violation of human fundamental rights.

During Musharraf & Vajpayee's regimes a ray of hope was created when a bilateral efforts had taken to build and promote bilateral relationship between both countries through Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) like starting direct bus service across LOC, Promoting mutual relationships between both countries, opening negotiation counters for each other, concentrating to promote trade, Opening ways for mass communication sectors, Promoting sports, musical and cultural environment that was clogged later on because of may be Musharraf dictatorship was not got supported by masses in Pakistan and collapsed soon that has led the Kashmir dispute at same level where it was in earlier time without any concrete outcome and proper implications regardless of a looming emphasis. This regime at least worked a bit realistic as compared to previous ones and no doubt the positive smooth acceleration of relationship may only practice through Confidence Building Measures (CBMs).

It is also a matter of fact that no one from both of India & Pakistan will set back easily from this disputed region because it will questioned and hurt their National Integrity, Mutual interests in the state, Loss of resources and particularly a political dilemma that caught the international attention that has become National Ego for both of them now. Spending a major portion of their budgets on security matters and shaking their economic structures is a sign of their National Ego regardless of the people oriented approach or any prosperity or progressive measures for the masses of Jammu & Kashmir State.

Another blemish and blotch approach has to be seen in the recent Elections held in AJK part during current era of 2011 which is another prejudice & bigotry when non-state political parties has took part in elections by hook and crook methodology through their few projected state elements with the help of heavy amounts in the territory of Kashmir which is a status quo and none of the political party have right to purchase land or to participate in any election campaign in disputed territories around the globe which is the straight violation of the laws relating to the status quo areas and Kashmir was declared disputed by the United Nations in 1948 and both India and Pakistan agreed to give Kashmiri people a chance to determine their political future through free and fair plebiscite under the UN patronage without positioning their own adoptions in this disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Karachi pact 28^th of April 1949 is another reflection of illegal occupancy where Pakistani Establishment has enjoyed their titular power in Northern areas of Gilgit, Baltistan and Hunza by taking it directly under Islamabad without relating it to Azad Jammu & Kashmir Interim Constitutional Act and this region is five times the size of the area designated as Azad Kashmir consisting a territory of 72,971 km2 in real that is so injustice and discriminated behavior , big hurdle for masses relationships, traditions, creating destruction in the communication process and detracting masses from both regions of Azad Kashmir & Gilgit Baltistan(AK & GB) to demolish their history backgrounds, whereas Line of control (LOC) is a drastic division that has snatched the overall peace and calm across the border. So in real scenario we cannot say that there will be some sort of peaceful consequences and measurements from both sides of LOC without pure judgmental behaviors and without implementation of United Nations Resolutions on Kashmir dispute where it is clearly mentioned that Kashmir dispute must be resolved with the choice of Kashmiri people otherwise in the prospective of Islamabad & Dheli both are badly failed to protect the Kashmir cause at its genuine identity and just relating it to their National Ego which is clearly seen & realized in current situation.

The other side of Line of Control (LOC), the sacrifices rendered by Kashmiri people have proved it clearly that there is no other option that can be practice regardless of implementation of free, fair and unbiased plebiscite and referendum rather than any maltreatment and abuse, discriminate, forged or planted one elements. So relating the Kashmir Cause towards National Integrity is actually the National Ago for both Indian & Pakistani Governments which has no means with Kashmiri People and both countries must need to understand and respect the fundamental human rights not for the sake of National Ego or any resource oriented approach but for the sake of mankind and for the better perspective of humanity.

Writer's email:

wajid_ali19@hotmail.com 

Yet more resistance on 'Election Day' in Kotli

(As they've captioned it)
Kotli June 26, 2011 : Workers of JKLF Protesting Against Fraud elections in POK

An anachronistic exercise

An anachronistic exercise