Subscribe To
Sustain Us

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

Read CC In Your
Own Language

CC Malayalam

Iraq

Peak Oil

Climate Change

US Imperialism

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Globalisation

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

WSF

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

Submission Policy

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name: E-mail:

 

Kashmir's 'City Of Bunkers'

By Wajahat Ahmad

30 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org

I was born and raised in a sleepy village in the conflict torn territory of Kashmir. Dubbed as the 'Paradise on Earth' and 'Switzerland of the East', the beautiful land of Kashmir has for centuries captured the imagination of many great writers, poets and film makers.

But the captivating land of Kashmir is now death's dominion. More than 70,000 people have been killed in Kashmir since 1989 when a popular Kashmiri uprising broke out against Indian rule. Hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris marched through villages and towns, shouting slogans in favor of Independence of Kashmir.

I was barely 11 at that time. I witnessed and participated in a number of such processions in my ancestral village Seer, in South Kashmir, which were often led by young men clad in white shrouds, symbolizing their readiness to die for the cause of Kashmir's freedom. By the end of 1991 long Indian military curfews had put a stop to the peaceful processions, which had been replaced by daily gunfights between Kalashnikov carrying Kashmiri militants and the Indian military forces.

India rushed thousands of troops to Kashmir to quell the Kashmiri uprising. By late 1990s the massive Indian military machine, numbering around half a million men and practicing an 'iron fist' policy-that included burning of dozens of Kashmiri villages, rape of many Kashmiri women and wanton arrest, torture and killing of thousands of young Kashmiri men- had considerably weakened the Kashmiri resistance. My teenage eyes witnessed a drastic change in Kashmir's beautiful landscape: from a fabled land, Kashmir was transformed into a huge military garrison, with hundreds of Indian military camps and bunkers springing up in almost every village and town. I witnessed numerous skirmishes between Indian troops and Kashmiri guerrillas in my village and in adjoining areas. I was fortunate to survive but some of my friends and relatives weren't. In the second half of the 1990s I left Kashmir to pursue my higher education, which led me to distant places like Delhi, Freiburg and Durban.

Years after I returned in 2006 to work in Srinagar, the capital city of Kashmir. The violence had considerably declined in the city but the Indian military presence seemed to have increased further. The city of Srinagar is dotted with hundreds of Indian military bunkers. Bunkers have become an integral part of the city's topography. They dominate all the major roads and approaches of the city, the sidewalks, most of the buildings housing government offices, markets, the bridges, almost all the crossroads, lakes, sports stadia, precincts of God's own places like mosques and temples, government run hospitals, some educational institutions and the hill overlooking the city of Srinagar.

More than the physical spaces they occupy in the city, the bunkers pervade the mental spaces of a commoner with fear. Whether walking on the sidewalks of a road, through the city centre or crossing a bridge in the city, one anxiously passes by sandbagged and concrete bunkers, surrounded by mounds of ugly barbed wires and occupied by aggressive Indian soldiers. The long barrels of machine guns jetting out of the bunkers form eerie reminders of the violent conflict in Kashmir. With the all-pervading bunkers occupying most of the roadsides and sidewalks, temporarily parking a vehicle on a roadside turns into an ordeal as the soldier occupying a bunker nearby aggressively whistles or shouts at you to move away. Ignoring the warning can invite threats and at times a severe beating.

Having lived in Srinagar for a year now, I am reluctantly getting accustomed to frequent and unending Indian military crackdowns, check posts, the overarching sight of military bunkers, vehicle checks and body searches. My typical day starts with my departure for my office. My journey from my home in posh Rajbagh locality of Srinagar to my office in Hazratbal, an old district of Srinagar, starts and ends with the sight of soldiers and bunkers. Almost daily my vehicle gets stopped near a military barricade or a bunker. The vehicle is thoroughly searched by the soldiers. Then my identity card is checked and the routine questions are asked in an unfriendly tone: What is your occupation? Where are you coming from? Where are you headed for? Forgetting to carry an identity card means an invitation to trouble. One could be stopped for lengthy questioning and at times taken to a nearby military camp for rigorous interrogation and detention.

For a young Kashmiri like me who enjoyed the luxury of living in the peaceful environs of Delhi and of Germany for almost a decade, it is hard to ignore the glaring sight of the ubiquitous bunkers. The bunkers are of varying shapes, sizes and colours, ranging from concrete ones made of only bricks to the ones made of rocks or bricks and plastered with cement. They carry the colours of orange, sky blue, red, yellow and green or a combination of these colours, which in certain cases form parallel or overlapping and winding streams.

A few months ago the Kashmiri media was awash with news stories that revolved around the 'aesthetics of bunkers', of military and police officials giving statements to the press about their plans to 'beautify bunkers' in the city. The military officials stated that the planned 'beautification drive' was to be carried out to make the bunkers look less threatening to a visiting tourist's eye. The bunkers are supposed to 'blend in' with the surroundings. Now ugly sandbagged bunkers are being replaced by hut like bunkers.

The new bunkers are primary made of coloured tin sheets or have painted wooden exteriors, which are reinforced by thick iron sheets, concrete or sandbags from inside. In outward appearance they are sleek, smaller than the older ones, squarish in shape with conical roofs, the walls and roofs of the tin and iron ones painted green or yellow with patches of yellow or rust brown forming patterns on them. Ironically, a few bunkers serve both military and commercial purposes in Srinagar. In a central market of Srinagar a square shaped police bunker, made up of thick tin and wooden sheets, is located almost in the middle of the road. Given its prime location and high visibility, a local enterprise, Rehmat, which sells spices and food products, has painted it with advertisements of its hot spice products.

Then there are some bunkers which are painted with peculiar slogans like ''From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is one'', 'Great is my country, India', and 'Kashmir: Crown of India', slogans emblematic of a military assertion of Indian nationalism in a region in rebellion against India.

Recently there were news stories regarding the Indian military's impending plans to induct around 12000 more troops in Kashmir. It seems quite likely that Srinagar would receive a fair share of these new troops and by extension the population of new military camps and bunkers is bound to grow. Soon, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call Srinagar, ''The city of bunkers''.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

 

 

Leave A Comment
&
Share Your Insights

Comment Policy


Digg it! And spread the word!



Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So, as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.



 

Get CC HeadlinesOn your Desk Top

Subscribe To
Sustain Us

 

Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

Online Users