We can prosper in Peace, not in Hatered

From Greater Kashmir (Also read Behind the Scenes)
So far the state of J&K was immune from communal onslaughts after the massacre of 1947. The people of these two regions were sharing good and bad days with each other like brothers. Many more ugly events took place in other states of the country since partition but it did not affect the harmony. But unfortunately the Amarnath Land Row created abrupt wedge between these two partners and created so much distance between them which seems very difficult now to bridge. Kashmiris fully know that the people of Jammu are tolerant race and have seen many ups and downs during last sixty years but have never reacted in such a harsh way against other sects of the state. This time they have entirely forgotten the past sixty years close association with their state mates of Kashmir and have used drastic and unlawful measures against them which were beyond expectation. Thus the Kashmiri Muslims and the Muslims of surrounding areas of Jammu had to sustain irreparable loss of precious lives and huge property and have become unwanted within a short burst of time. They have crossed all the limits and have not even hesitated to block the National Highway leading to Kashmir from Lakhanpur and stopped flow of essential supplies to Kashmir for days together. Wherever they spotted any loaded truck with goods bound for Kashmir, they got hold of the drivers and beat them to the pulp and hurled petrol bombs on them which made them half dead during the course of travelling. After words two drivers of Kashmir breathed their last in Srinagar. These harsh steps are taken at the last stage in the battlefield when all logic fails to work and when the two sides are to part company from each other for good. Therefore it appears that the Sangrash Committee may have some other aims in their heart of hearts, as such the land row seems a mere beginning. These agitating rioters gave communal color to the crusade launched against the Muslims at the behest of Sang Parivar, thereby crossed all the limits of humanity. In spite of such a big upheaval against a particular sect, the authorities at the corridors of power took it very lightly, thereby giving more time to goons of the fascist forces to continue their deplorable acts against the Muslims. The saddest part of the agitation was that the Kashmiri Pandits affiliated with so called “Panun Kashmir” and “Kashmir Samiti’, spewing venom against Kashmiri Muslims and the Muslims of surrounding areas of Jammu. They are the persons who used iron rods, chains, tridents and petrol bombs against Muslims and hurt their religious sentiments in a very crude manner. This they are doing contrary to the sincere efforts of Kashmiri Muslims for their homecoming. The wounds inflicted upon the said community during the upheaval may heal up in due course but the scars of the wounds will remain visible for all times to come and may revive the scuffle if the demands of the Sangrash Committee are beyond Amarnath. Thus the communal divide has turned the two communities poles apart. Now the land row agitation has come to halt in the wake of a recent accord reached between the Government and the Sangrash Committee on 31st August 2008. But it is one sided. Therefore it would be ever lasting and credible agreement only when Kashmiri Pandiths will take up the management of the Yatra.
S M Qadiri

"what is sad is that the focus in kashmir, especially of the Pundit community is not on the human shade of the dispute but on the geographical side. they want thier land back, the land which they were forced leave, but they refuse to see that this land also belongs to the common kashmiri who has spent a lifetime in a troubled land, who has seen his family die at the hands of the militants as well as of the army"- Anonymous, on Planforindia

Kashmir's mobile phone chroniclers

By Soutik Biswas BBC News, Srinagar

For many people, recording events on mobile phones has become a hobby

Minutes after 35-year-old Javed Amir Mir was shot in the head by security forces in Srinagar, capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, a young boy recorded his death on his mobile phone camera.
The shaky and grainy clip shows a blood splattered face lying on the road. You can hear the wailing women and the screaming men in the background
Across the city, 25-year-old Imran Ahmed Wani's death was also recorded on mobile phones by friends rushing him to hospital after he was shot during a demonstration.
In fact, Mr Wani's last days unspool effortlessly on pictures which can be seen on the mobiles of his friends - in one he is smiling at the camera, 10 days before his death; in another, life is slowly ebbing out of him as he lies, legs akimbo, in a ambulance racing to get him to the hospital.
"We have all these pictures on our phones. His memories live and move with us," says his friend and mass communications student, Sheikh Suhail, 24.
'Interesting footage'
As the mainly Muslim Kashmir valley erupted into protests last month after a row over transfer of land in the region snowballed into a movement for freedom from India, armies of mobile-phone toting youngsters began trawling the city to record the events.

A row over land has snowballed into a nationalist upsurge
The images and recordings of those momentous events have been swapped between friends, or put up on popular video sharing sites.
One of those, YouTube, spits out nearly 250 results when a search is done for "Srinagar protest" and many of these clips have been put up by youngsters from the valley.
There are now mobile phone recordings being swapped around which have reached almost cult status.
A pro-freedom procession, security forces thrashing children playing in a city park, a friend or a neighbour shot down during a protest, a funeral procession.
In a way, the images and clips comprise an uneven chronicle of the troubled life and times in the valley by these "citizen journalists" of Kashmir.
"This is a new trend in Kashmir. There are a lot of young people moving around the city with such mobile phone recordings," says Amjad Mir of Sen TV, a local news and current affairs channel.
In the restive Batamaloo area in Srinagar, a 29-year-old man, who owns a small mobile phone shop in the city, says he goes out every other day with his phone in search of "interesting footage".
"This is the first time ordinary people like us are coming out with our phones and shooting. This is the only way we can show to the world what is happening here," says the young man, who prefers to be unnamed.
'History in making'
During a recent curfew in the valley, he recorded people in his neighbourhood collecting several thousand bottles of drinking water to supply a local hospital which had run out.
The Batamaloo man shows me some of his other clips on the phone - crowds gathering for a demonstration, tyres burning on the streets, troops chasing crowds. A friend, he says, has clips of a man shot down by troops on his cheap Chinese mobile phone.

The mobile phone clips chronicle life in the city
His favourite is a nine-minute recording of a protest demonstration that he shot on his favourite Nokia phone from a flyover overlooking the road.
"I have never seen so many people in my life as that day. It was a big, peaceful demonstration. And I just kept recording," he says.
Chasing events on mobile phones have now become an obsessive hobby with these young men - they charge their phones regularly every night and hit the road next morning looking for some action.
A young journalist says the mobile phone chroniclers are usually internet-savvy students, who shoot clips and upload them on the internet.
"I want to preserve these memories. They are history in the making," he says.
His favourite clip: local boys demolishing an 18-year-old bunker of Indian troops in his neighbourhood during the recent agitation.
The Kashmir conflict now seems to have become fully digitalised.