[Reader-list] Fwd: Re: Amaranth Yatra - Sonia Jabbar's response

[Iram Ghufran]

S. Jabbar wrote:

...As for Rajouri & Poonch I may as well say this straight out as I don¹t
know when they will fix the bug that bounces my mails back to me.  I
traveled extensively in that region in 2006. I was shocked at how wretched
it is.  They have borne the brunt of the violence from Pakistan from 1947
onwards and unlike Kashmiris do not have a lobby and so do not jet around
the world to advertise their suffering.  The roads are rotten, there is no
development, and they are targeted by the militants and under suspicion by
the sec. forces.  Before the ceasefire they were regularly hammered by
shelling.  Because Kashmir is ŒMuslim¹ and Jammu is ŒHindu¹ and such has
been the state¹s miserable politics these people have been left out in the
cold as nowhere people, or 2nd class citizens.  The same goes for the people
of Akhnoor who have been displaced because of the shelling and the mines
laid on their lands.  They continued to live in tented camps even after the
cease fire because their lands could not be cleared of landmines.  There is
no Hindu-Muslim angle to this & so they are ignored by all political parties
& citizens groups alike.

Before 1947 all border areas whether Akhnoor, Rajouri, Poonch, Uri, Keran,
Karnah were geographically linked to what is now Azad Kashmir.  Their roads
and communications were with Sialkot, Mirpur & Muzaffarabad.  Both the
Valley of Kashmir and Jammu were largely irrelevant to the people living in
these areas because of difficulty in communications across the Pir Panjal.
The border in 1947 changed all that.  Now these areas are backward
frontiers.  People have no access to the Œoutside world¹ save through the
one, long and totally unreliable road link to Jammu.  When I traveled there
I experienced the nightmare. Large sections of the highway are regularly
washed away during the monsoon and repaired in a casual manner.  The result
is the bus ride from Jammu takes the whole day to Rajouri where you have to
spend the night and then another 6-7 hrs to Poonch.  The Mughal Road would
speed up communications and provide an all-weather alternative when the main
link is down.

I don¹t know why my enthusiasm for this road has excited your suspicion and
hostility. Even as the road from Lahaul through Zanskar is destroying some
of the most pristine Himalayan landscapes, I recognize the legitimate desire
for the people of Ladakh, Kargil and Zanskar to have an all-weather road.
Surely the Mughal Road can be seen in the same spirit.

Best
Sj


>
> On 7/1/08 3:32 PM, "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Sonia  Could you please substantiate with some facts/data your
> statement that the people of Rajouri and Poonch are "2nd class citizens of
> J&K"  Who are these people? What identifies them? How are they "2nd class
> citizens"?  You have made a generalised comment about "the people of Rajouri
> and Poonch". Did you mean to refer to a specific group?  You talk about
> their "isolation". What kind of isolation?  What is the "second link to the
> outside world" that you have in mind?  What is that "outside world"? What
> "world" are they currently confined to?   Kshmendra Kaul
> --- On Mon, 6/30/08, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] What Mughal Road didn ¹ t that shrine
> land-transfer plans did - Kavita Suri
> To: "Aditya Raj Kaul" <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>, "sarai list"
> <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Monday, June 30, 2008, 1:50 PM
> It's interesting that all this is coming out now.  I had no idea about the
> 10,000 trees cut to make way for the Mughal Rd or the Markhor sanctuary
> being threatened. Both are reasons enough to rethink the project, even
> though I feel the people of Rajouri & Poonch need a second link to the
> outside world to end their isolation that have made them 2nd class citizens
> of J&K since 1947. The Mughal Road project has been going on for quite
> sometime now, it's strange that Dr. Singh, Agnishekhar et al did not raise
> their voices earlier... Or did I miss something?
>
>