From Ahmed Ali Fayyaz SRINAGAR, Oct 8: The first ever visit of Pakistani journalists to Jammu and Kashmir has exploded a many myths and fantasies that have sustained the element of rigidity across the two sides of the LoC. Notwithstanding its brevity, the historic passage of the journalists to Srinagar city—nucleus of the 16-year-long armed strife—has forced politicians and intellectuals to reveal what they had been hiding for years. The state of misconceptions was overwhelming even among those Kashmiris who have had a wide exposure to the exterior world. It can possibly be measured with a couple of observations. President of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti, was attired in her Abaya and scarf when she received the Pakistani delegation at Khannabal, Anantnag, on Tuesday evening. On Thursday evening, she had neither. The bareheaded woman politician was little different from the three Pakistani women journalists whose only competitors in fashion were a Doordarshan official and a Delhi-based correspondent of NDTV. On Thursday, a Pakistani journalist desired to see a Kashmiri detenu, Shakil Bakhshi, who was being produced in a Court. Two Srinagar residents asked a Kashmiri journalist: "Where are the Pakistani journalists?" He replied quickly: "Here’s one". "No, show us the real Pakistani journalists" insisted the duo. They were not ready to believe that a zero-shaven guy with "Indian clothes" could be a Pakistani journalist. Dukhtaraan-e-Millat chief, Asiya Andrabi, who has emerged as the strongest exponent of Nizam-e-Mustafa in Kashmir, knew it perhaps well in advance that the Valley’s Pakistani female guests would be all in Western outfits. She had her reasons to discredit the Pakistani journalists as "part of a sell-out gameplan" on Kashmir. Invited to the Chief Minister’s at home in honour of the Pakistani journalists, Asiya would have committed suicide. The Rouf and Hafiz Nagma was so mesmerising to the Pakistanis that they made just one demand: "Mufti Saheb, Please send this group of dancers to Pakistan". Relying on the reports of three foreign news agencies, the Pakistani journalists were under the impression of 1991’s Kashmir. In a couple of days, they discovered that life was normal to a great extent and—notwithstanding the popular sentiment of Azadi—quite a thick section of people was yearning for peace and development. They also discovered that most of the icons, created by militants and the establishment through media, were simply nobodies in Kashmir’s politics. They even failed to find postal addresses of scores of ‘parties’ and ‘organisation’ managing to publish their statements in newspapers. Pakistani journalists, who had been told by politicians and human rights activists, that there was no freedom of expression in Kashmir, ventured into the city interior to capture facets of the Valley’s day-to-day life. They shot the pro-Azadi demonstration of the students at Kashmir University, interviewed the parents of the disappeared persons and some women, who alleged that they had been raped by security forces. "Nobody stopped us anywhere. We were absolutely free to move and talk to students or shopkeepers at Lalchowk", Talat Hussain, famous anchorperson of ARY TV, said at a meeting with Kashmiri journalists. Exactly the same was observation of the leader of the Pakistani delegation, Imtiyaz Alam, when Kashmiri lawyers grilled him at an open-air session at Lower Court Complex. "It’s unbelievable. Nobody stopped us from shooting a pro-Pakistan demonstration and Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan slogans near Geelani Saheb’s house. It’s amazing to see pro-Azadi slogans at the Court Complex and nobody from the government stopping anybody. Is it really the world’s most beautiful prison?", asked a Pakistani journalist, referring to a recent expression of the European Union about Kashmir. After reading Jammu and Srinagar-based newspapers and watching Doordarshan and private television channels, most of the Pakistani journalists believed that freedom of expression was in practice in Jammu and Kashmir. Some of the journalists were impressed by a number of human interest stories in Srinagar newspapers besides the quality of questions asked by the local journalists. Facing hot and bitter questions, one of the woman journalists shot back on one occasion: "You don’t seem to be only journalists. You seem to be activists". Most of the activists, politicians and lawyers told the Pakistani journalists that all the good deeds were by Mujahideen and all the bad ones by security forces. Still, they found a woman outside the Hurriyat headquarters at Rajbagh who was openly cursing "Pakistan’s terrorism". A 65-year-old Kashmiri stopped a vehicle of Pakistani journalists at the Lower Court premises and shouted upon them: "Ask Musharraf to stop this terrorism. There has been enough of bloodshed in Kashmir". A Kashmir University student had no hesitation in getting up and asking the Pakistani journalists to stop PTV’s "false propaganda". "We as Muslims feel ashamed at PTV’s white lies. Even if the day is peaceful, it says in its evening bulletins that Mujahideen have killed twelve Indian soldiers. Next day it says there was a huge demonstration in Srinagar", he said. "Na baara fauji martay hain na jaloos nikalta hai", he added. Expecting hero’s welcome in Srinagar, the Pakistani journalists tasted the reverse of it at many places. The moment they arrived in Jammu, Kashmir’s staunch pro-Pakistan voice, Asiya Andrabi, dubbed them as part of an American plan to change LoC into the International Border. Two days later, they were rejected as "traitors" by a group of slogan-shouting students at Kashmir University. Even those, who invited them on lunch or dinner, were crudely critical of the Pakistani journalists’ "mission of tasting Wazwan and sightseeing". It was this humiliation that made the guest journalists leave the arranged party without taking anything on at least two occasions. Treatment at the KBA meeting was no different. Among all politicians, it were only Syed Ali Shah Geelani and NC’s Omar Abdullah who conducted themselves impressively before the Pakistani journalists. "We had impression that Geelani would be an aggressive mullah and Omar would be a politician by accident. We don’t necessarily agree with their political ideology but both of them made their points very nicely", said a Pakistani journalist. The journalists’ visit also uncovered the gap between the fact and the fiction with regard to "100,000 martyrs". They learned that thousands of militants and innocent civilians had been killed by security forces for they were consciously part of a separatist movement. But, during their visit, the Pakistani journalists also came to know that thousands of civilians had been and were still being killed by militants under the labels of being NC or PDP activists and informers of security forces. They learned that thousands of Kashmiris had been killed and were getting killed in crossfiring, grenade blasts or landmine explosions without their conscious contribution to the cause of Azadi. Besides, thousands of soldiers and their local helpers had got killed in gunbattles with militants, hundreds of militants had died in group clashes and a number of soldiers and civilians had committing suicide under the stress of the disturbed situation. All these casualties were being put in one account and called "100,000 martyrs". Similarly, the Pakistani journalists learned that there had been 0% to 8% turnout in some segments in Assembly elections but at the same time there were segments in which turnout was 40 to 60% and the elected MLAs had polled even 20,000 or 25,000 votes. As of the political options and political leaders, the Pakistani journalists found confusion and contradictions. While most of the separatist leaders favoured Azadi, Geelani vowed to fail the third option of freedom if the UN resolutions were to be implemented ever in future. On at least two occasions, the Pakistani journalists asked a blunt question: "Why should Pakistan drain its resources on you people if you are for independence from both India and Pakistan?". They also witnessed it very closely that there was chronic mistrust and everyone was a suspect for every other person in Kashmir. If Geelani spoke volumes against leaders of his rival faction of the Hurriyat, Prof Gani consumed hours of the meeting in dismissing the former as "unrealistic and bigot". It was easy to gather that there was no credible leadership to the popular sentiment of separation from India and most of the self-styled leaders were running the movement simply as a lucrative business activity. Hardly anybody could convince the journalists that the status quo could, in any way, lead to Azadi or merger with Pakistan. |
