It is a fairly common practice of apple growers to fence off their apple orchards with rows of barb wire. The idea is to keep a trespasser away. But in recent days a curious sight has been greeting people in the Shopian area, a region famous in Kashmir for its good quality of apple.
Paying heed to the call of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the apple growers have been pulling down the barb wire fence to let guerrilla fighters’ move around without the obstruction of strings of sharp wire that can tear up skin if one comes in close contact with it.
Posters had appeared in public places some days back appealing to people to remove the wire, and the people have been obliging the guerrillas by tearing it down. Abu Zaid, the Hizb Mujahideen commander for Shopian, in whose name the posters were put up in the town, said, “These wires become obstacles in our movement and we witnessed huge losses in the past too. So, we appeal to general public to raze down these wires.”
Across the Zainapora-Wachi belt that is dotted with apple trees of wide variety, the growers have been removing the fence around their orchards to let guerrillas roam around in freedom. So, in village after village one could come across the pulled-down fences in Zainapora, Wachi, Imam Sahib, Nagbal, Heff, Shermal, Turkiwangam, Chitragam, Moolu Chitragam, and Sugan.
“The life of our boys is more precious than these orchards and so we have no objection to removing the fencing,” said Muhamad Abdullah, an apple grower from Shopian.
In the early stages of armed rebellion against Indian rule in Kashmir in 1990, a similar kind of plea was made by militants then to the apple growers and like today the people heeded the call and removed the barb wire fence.
Since the 2016 killing of the charismatic Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani by the government forces, scores of youngsters have taken up arms against the government. Many of them belong to Shopian and in recent months dozens have died in shootouts with the government forces. Not just guerrillas but many civilians in Shopian and beyond have also lost their lives in the desperate bid to save the militants in shootouts.