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Journey to a new beginning

SYED NAZAKAT
AS a journalist based in
Srinagar I was able to
witness the euphoria of
thousands of people as they heard about the reopening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road a month ago. I was able to see soldiers of both countries leaving their guns on the ground and working on the reconstruction of the road. I saw the hundreds and hundreds of people thronging the local authority's office in Srinagar to get travel permission to meet their families who live on the other side of Kashmir. I saw the divided families and friends reuniting, tearfully embracing each other. I saw thousands of people line the route from the LOC to Srinagar to loudly cheer the travelers from Pakistan on April 7. It was a thrilling feeling to be part of the long and winding convoy of about 20 vehicles that snaked its way by the side of the Jhelum river and passed through the villages like Udusa, Sangrama, Nowsher, the Pripanjal gate, and through Uri and Baramulla back to Srinagar. From atop the hillocks, from inside the lantern lit rooms of their small houses, along the roads, on the verandahs of the shops in the small market places, they all waited and cheered and danced, as the police and army struggled to contain their joy.
Conscious that the divided Kashmir we had all known for the past 50
years was literally merging into one, I found it emotionally difficult to describe the sequence of events. As I live and work in Kashmir, so I am telling you that the reopening of bus service between the two Kashmirs is the best thing to happen to the Kashmiri people in a long time.
People took to the streets in a spontaneous explosion of disbelief and jubilation as they realized that the otherwise volatile 720km long Line of Control which divides Kashmir into two parts is going to fall and the two buses carrying 49 passengers are going to hit the 173 Kilometer Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road on April 7.
It was the momentous time when the people come face to face with memories they have been nourishing for many years. The sight of the green and yellow bus with Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service emblazoned on its sides came into view from a narrow cleft amid the huge mountains of the Kasi Nag Dhar mountain ranges that have been witness to the many wars between India and Pakistan and now disbelievingly watched the scenes of garlanding and hugging.
The scene is difficult to forget and impossible to describe. Not many months ago, the entire area was pounded by shell fire between India and Pakistan soldiers. But today in a carnival atmosphere solders on the both sides of border waved each other! And finally the dividing line,
LoC had been blurred; history was being made. And everybody wanted to be the part of it. Parents had brought their children to see what was happening, and as one Kashmir couple said to me they had brought their two sons to see what was happening as they never thought they would witness such scenes in their lifetime but hoped that their children might.
For the entire contingent of the world media stationed on this side of the border it was history being lived in front of their eyes and "well packaged for television." When finally the gates on the Pakistan side of Kashmir opened the travelers of this side of Kashmir walked across the bridge, the first few paragraphs of a grand reworking of history were written. The dramatic shift in policy signaled to people here, and of course to the rest of the world, that
India and Pakistan finally want some serious business on Kashmir. Over the years the Kashmir issue has become so complex that India and Pakistan have fought three wars over it in 50 years. Nothing divides India and Pakistan as Kashmir does, and nobody has suffered
more in the process than the people of Kashmir.
The LoC divided not only land, but the people. It had been the point at which fear and hatred collided. It had been the palpable sign of India-Pakistan abhorrence and bitter past. It had been a human tragedy that despite being so close to the each other the people cannot cross over and meets their relatives and friends who live at the stone throw distance from their villages.
Till yesterday, if a man living in Kashmir wanted to see his relative who lives hardy few kilometers away from his home, he has to travel over one thousand kilometers to Delhi by road or air, and then fly or take bus to Lahore, from there he has to then travel to Pakistan occupied Kashmir. A journey, owing to the Indo-Pak hostile relations, hardly anybody has made in the last
fifty eight years. But with the reopening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, the distance between the two Kashmirs has been cut short to just 173 kilometers and six hours of bus drive. Though at the initial stage only sixty passengers from each side will be allowed to cross over,
but still it is indeed a first step in a right direction.
Over the years, everybody saw the violent movement and Kashmir only as the outcome of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan which had its roots in the 1947 partition. India always called the rebellion a Pakistan-sponsored terrorist movement, while Pakistan projected it as a jihad -- a Kashmiri struggle to join Pakistan just because they shared a common faith. For India, the future of Kashmir is non-negotiable -- it is an "integral part" of the country, the only Muslim majority state in the union and thus a cornerstone of its democracy and secular credentials. For Pakistan, Kashmir is also important because the majority of its population is Muslim -- it is Pakistan's "jugular vein" -- and an unfinished task from the subcontinent's partition in which
Pakistan was born as a home for Indian Muslims.
With these claims on Kashmir, both countries and the rest of world seemed to have forgotten the people and their suffering. Whatever attention Kashmir was given was because it was a flashpoint between two nuclear neighbours and not because Kashmiris were suffering. India and Pakistan seem to share one common policy on Kashmir -- to force Kashmiris to toe their respective lines. In fact, it seems that both countries want to fight to the last Kashmiri. With the result today, there are more than 500 martyrs' graveyards dotting Kashmir, and every epitaph standing on a grave tells a tragic story of today's Kashmir.
Yet, on April 7, the fall of the LoC came without bloodshed. It was a triumph for all those who believe that solutions lie on talk's table not on the battleground. What events led to this historic moment? What part will it play in India-Pak bonhomie? And does the fall of LoC and reopening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road guarantee peace and stability in Kashmir? These are the questions all are long to find answers. I am looking forward to April 17, when Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf will visit India to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discuss Kashmir.
The author is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.