Over the past twenty days Kashmir valley has been looking grim under the ghostly shadows of an undeclared curfew. The shadows far and wide like an endless canopy intend to destroy the last vestige of hope. Every single activity is done hole-and-corner due to the threat and fear. It is no different today than what once Nehru pompously and ironically said “Srinagar is almost a city of the dead where movement is difficult and large numbers of people are practically interned in their own houses, apart from many hundreds who have been put into prison”. His statement is justified time and again by his own successors. Curfew is not something that has come to the people of Kashmir out of the blue but something that comes immediately even when you hear a small shouting of an anti-government slogan. The word ‘curfew’ has a French origin meaning ‘to cover fire’, a regulation requiring people to extinguish fires before going to bed but the word seems to have undergone an amazing transformation. Then it meant protection, now it means horror. Curfew has always been a key element of force intended to demoralize and disintegrate Kashmir’ and its unannounced imposition by the authorities leaves every soul frightened. The present government is not experienced enough to understand the problems that people face at the behest of these limitless curfews which have rendered the life of an ordinary Kashmiri lifeless.

This unjustly treatment in curfews have been igniting people again and again. The unchecked barbarism in this gloomy atmosphere of servitude is giving rise to nothing but frustration, anger, and sadness within the people.

Confusion is so rampant that people cannot put their mind and heart to anything. Kashmiris have their plights embedded in hearts which never find a source of expression instead finds a blank refusal concealing the miseries right away causing everlasting insecurity and uncertainty. The truth of these curfews is that people have become impoverished and distressed. They have relinquished all hopes of improvement and progress, and that does not augur well.

Education system falls the first causality. Those who prepared for exams and had stuffed their minds with preparatory materials have long lost it and are completely bewildered. On one hand they appeal to have the dates extended and on the other hand they are pressurized by the authorities to make it to the examination centers, for completing admission formalities despite the severe restrictions posed by the ongoing curfews. Religious sentiments of the people are deeply hurt especially by stopping devotees for compulsory Friday prayers adding fuel to the flames. It just reminds us of the dark years of tyranny when Kashmir was handed to the savage Dogras. They were themselves vassals of the British who had curbed India for years and brought whole of it under its sway. Against the authority of Dogras ‘Vigne’ says that an uprising took place near Ponch and Gulab Singh, the then ruler went in person to see it, “some of his prisoners were flayed alive in front of him. The executioner hesitated and Gulab Singh asked him if he were about to operate upon his own father and mother, and rated him for being so chicken-hearted. He then ordered one or two of the skins to be stuffed with the straw… the figures were then planted on the wayside so that passers-by might see it and Gulab Singh called his son’s attention to it, and told him to take a lesson in the art of governing”.

The so called ‘confidence building measures’ appear to be ‘confidence crushing measures’.  Nothing seems to be going right at the moment, the entire valley looks like a mass of discontent and unrest. There is the aroma of innocent blood coming from every street. Men are being insulted, abused and beaten, even women are manhandled by the CRPF men, curfew passes are dishonored and at times ripped up. The terror unleashed on media men mostly on the photojournalists who risk their lives to report the news, is unheard of. Patients are denied access to the hospitals, their attendants are questioned and beaten. Hundreds of marriage invitations have been postponed and then postponed and finally cancelled,. Plans and preparations are shattered, brides look pale while their parents aghast. The shortage of essential commodities and medicine does the rest in throwing life completely out of gear.

The crimes that this curfew commits will never come to an end as long as it continues. The question stares us straight in the face. When shall this pain end?

Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST