photographs

Above: The Indus River Near Batalik

Do we Really Speak about an Unidivided Kashmir
Where All People Are Equal?

Would Any Muslim in India feel Happy to Learn that the Indian Army has bombed Lahore, or Karachi or Multan or Pindi? No.

Then Why Did No Muslim in Pakistan Protest When Shells from the Pakistan Artillery Guns Killed Hundreds of Muslims of Dras and Kargil? And Made Many More Refugees? Why?

I found this old woman from Kargil hiding in a cave in the mountains around Kargil. She has been living there for many months. She believes the shelling will not stop. She has seen many people, including old people, getting killed. She has no idea about what an undivided Kashmir would mean. As for independence, she has found it in a miserable cave in the mountains...

During May, June, July this year, everybody in India and Pakistan were talking about the fight between the two armies: who was winning and who was losing. Very few talked about the people who have been living with shelling for more than one year. Pakistan does not care and nor does India. For, if it did why was nothing done in a important town like Kargil, which has been shelled almost without respite for more than one year? Would the Indian Government tolerate such a thing if this was Bombay or Calcutta or Nagpur?

Above: A Kargil hamlet getting shelled by Pakistan

The Indian Army Was Sleeping

Was it bothered about the people of Kargil? No, not at all. The officers liked their comforts in winter and did not want to be up in the moutains in the cold and with frozen food. So they stayed down. The Pakistani Army decided to teach the Indian Army a lesson, and taught it a lesson it is not likely to forget in a hurry. Hundreds of poor Indian troops were killed. The big officers and Generals, were still enjoying in their heated huts and messes. The same Generals continue to be in command. The Indian public has proved to be easily duped by the Generals. The Pakistanis are no better. They think their army is another cricket team.

Above: An abandoned House near Dras: The owners fled after a shed in their compund was blown to smithereens by a Pakistani shell.

The Pakistan Army is a Dangerous Team

Anybody who plays with lives is dangerous. The Pakistan Army is doubly so because it has never really been out of power in Pakistan. The Commonwealth is foolish to lament the loss of democracy in Pakistan, there was never any democracy in Pakistan. We always knew this but our friends said how is it different from India. It is fraud here and worse. Some said that is why we have to be independent. But we knew neither Pakistan nor India would allow us to be independent. That is why we said Pakistan is the batter of the two because at least we would be among our Muslim brothers and we would be equal. Some of us knew then only that this would bring nothing but bad times - how bad even I could not imagine. The fighting goes on. We too get killed by the Pakistanis - and the Indians of course. We have reached nowhere except being ruled by a fraudulent Kashmiri chief minister. But we know we cannot stop the fighting. Because now we have to do what the Pakistanis tell us. Through whom? The Hurriyat, the Lashkar e Toiba and through some mullahs. We have to go on fighting and die. The Pakistanis want to win the Kashmir cricket match.

Already Forgotten

The people of Kargil have already been forgotten: by the Indians, the Pakistanis and by the Kashmiris. How many trucks or volunteers did we send up. Only Shabir Sahab and some others did. Winter has closed in. I dont know how they are living...
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