A Kashmir Diary: War Ravaged Families Await Relief as Statehood Remains Elusive

The Diplomat

a day ago

While common Kashmiris wait for statehood that will empower the Omar Abdullah government they elected, families affected by the recent India-Pakistan war languish.
Tanveer stands in front of his house, destroyed by Pakistani shelling, at Ramgahi village, Salamabad, close to the Line of Control.
SRINAGAR, KASHMIR — An azure sky seems to embrace the virgin swathes of the Himalayas as one treks down steep slopes in Salamabad in Kashmir, close to the Line of Control that cleaves the region between India and Pakistan. The air is salubrious and the natural surroundings stun, explaining why a handful of families settled at Ramgahi, a village in the secluded foothills. But the region's warring history precludes yearning for romanticism.
When India and Pakistan went to war in May, the border villagers were the first casualties. Their homes being reduced to rubble inflamed the nation's mood, but already they have been forgotten by the rest of India. Given Kashmir's dual power structure, led by the chief minister and a New Delhi-nominated lieutenant governor, locals are not sure who to approach for redress — a bafflement most Kashmiris share.
Tanveer, a villager who returned to Ramgahi to search for his possessions in the collapsed mounds of concrete, says he received only 6,500 Indian rupees ($75) as compensation. Pointing to the dusty remains of his house, he complains that the administration strangely categorized it as 'partly damaged,' which entitles him to minimum relief. If his petition for the enhanced compensation earmarked for fully damaged houses were approved, he would get 130,000 rupees ($1,514), still woefully insufficient to shift the debris or procure raw materials for rebuilding.
'On the night of the shelling on May 6-7, we hid behind makeshift bunkers we had erected ourselves. For three weeks, we lived in rented rooms in Uri, exhausting all our savings, before the officials accommodated us at Uri Trade Centre quarters,' Tanveer recounts. According to him, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had promised a sum of 1 million rupees ($11,647) to those whose houses had been obliterated, 'but it is not clear who calls the shots.'
Despite the National Conference led by Abdullah storming to power in last year's provincial elections, with his coalition securing 49 of Jammu and Kashmir's 90 seats, New Delhi is unwilling to hand over executive powers to him, or restore statehood. Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded into a Union Territory in August 2019 when its semi-autonomous status was revoked.
Abdullah has so far shown restraint and political pragmatism in trying to engage constructively with New Delhi and negotiate a meaningful federal arrangement for Kashmir. His lack of bellicosity has provoked some of his own colleagues who point to the gradual dilution of Kashmir's political goalposts from demanding a plebiscite to demanding statehood. While their lamentation is valid, and shared by the people in general, they have not been able to articulate what a head-on confrontation with New Delhi should look like given its iron-fist control.
They accuse Abdullah of repudiating his election mandate, which they frame as a mandate to 'restore Kashmir's special status.' While it is true that common Kashmiris are aghast at the loss of autonomy, the claim that they voted in last year's elections hoping the National Conference would bring back that special status is misleading.
The historic turnout was triggered by the need to preclude BJP-aligned parties from securing power.
In an interview with The Diplomat, ahead of the elections, Abdullah told this reporter that the path to reclaim Article 370, which guaranteed Kashmir special status, is arduous. 'Something that took the BJP decades to roll out is not going to be undone by us in five years,' he said.
Nevertheless, the pressure for quick-fix solutions is mounting.
Sameer Ahmed Naik, whose family has been displaced since the India-Pakistan standoff, is one of the Kashmiris upset with the local government. His wife, Zeenat Begum, was injured in the legs and chest when intense shelling by Pakistani armed forces rocked their village, Naupora.
'Initially we got a lump sum payment of 30,000 rupees ($349) to compensate for hospitalization charges. But now we are abandoned, bearing medical costs of our own, at roughly 10,000 rupees ($116) per month. Where is the chief minister and his council?' Naik asked as his two children stared glumly. Naik said that although his house is destroyed, he is still getting electricity bills amounting to 1,500 rupees ($17) every month.
Commenting on the inability of the National Conference (NC) to help their case, eminent historian and political scientist Siddiq Wahid said what was desirable was 'private consultations between the NC and the People's Democratic Party [PDP] at what the Union Territory's government's priorities ought to be politically and in civic administration.'
'From the outside it appears that no such consultations were held,' he told this reporter. 'Meanwhile, the PDP's tactic, from the get go, has been to attack the NC rather than to contemplate political unity in the interests of the Union Territory.'
But Waheed Parra, leader of the PDP whose popularity among all sections of Kashmiris is soaring, says it was the National Conference's pugnacious power play that hollowed out opposition unity in Kashmir.
'They (NC) suo moto declared candidates [for Parliamentary elections] and lobbied to keep the PDP out of the Opposition's I.N.D.I.A. alliance,' Parra says. According to him, 'No two Kashmiri have reason to fight today. We lost everything, our constitution and our history. The path ahead is self-preservation and resistance democratically.'
Jammu and Kashmir witnessed historic democratic participation in the provincial elections held in September 2024 — with turnout at 63.88 percent. Prominent politician and fifth-time legislator from Kulgam constituency, M.Y. Tarigami, feels the Narendra Modi government is wasting a big opportunity to strengthen the political process.
'The BJP-government at the center seems to be more concerned in disarming the elected provincial government further. Despite repeated assurances, uncertainty regarding restoration of full statehood continues. The perception is widespread here in J&K that the present BJP regime is more focused on implementing its Hindutva agenda than restoration of constitutional and democratic rights of the people,' he told The Diplomat.
Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up following a terrorist attack on tourists on April 22 at Baisaran, at the periphery of the Pahalgam meadow, roughly 90 kilometers south of Srinagar, Kashmir's capital. Twenty-six tourists, all men, were killed after being segregated on the basis of religion. Adil Hussain Shah, a pony guide, was the only Muslim to die. He sacrificed his life saving tourists.
The Resistance Front, an off-shoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a U.N.-designated terrorist group operating from Pakistani soil, claimed responsibility for the attack but later retracted that claim. India on May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, a missile raid, targeting what it said were terrorist launchpads in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. On May 10, after intense aerial offensives that alarmed the international community, the two countries agreed to a ceasefire.
India's television channels whipped up a nationalistic frenzy, circulating theories of local facilitation of terrorists. Sketches of three suspected perpetrators were flashed relentlessly on TV screens, including of Aadil Thoker, a local Kashmiri. The National Investigative Agency of India later said the sketches were misleading and that there was no local involvement. But by this time there had been a series of targeted attacks against Kashmiris, with the Association of Protection of Civil Rights reporting 184 incidents against Muslims and Kashmiris. The security agencies were also accused of punitive actions against people unrelated to the terrorist attack. Houses of at least ten alleged militants were razed, and youths randomly detained under the Public Safety Act, an anti-terror law that allows incarceration without trial for up to two years.
This reporter unsuccessfully tried contacting the family members of Aadil. His house at Guri Thukarpora in Anantnag district of South Kashmir was demolished arbitrarily by the authorities. Villagers claimed there was an unspoken ban on talking to media. A neighbor of Adil, requesting that his name not be published, said his two brothers, Zahid Thoker and Arsalan Thoker, have been detained at the Joint Interrogation Center in Anantnag.
'We don't know if Aadil ever joined the militant ranks. It is a police theory. He disappeared in 2018… not sure if he is alive,' the neighbor sighed.
Th neighbor underscored the counterproductive nature of police coercion. 'This has been an Ikhwan (renegade) village, avowedly pro-India even when militancy raged in the 1990s. Punitive actions will only alienate the people,' he warned.
This is a stark reminder why the provincial government's involvement in overseeing law and order is indispensable. It is elected representatives who can ensure a semblance of democratic norm in the state's interaction with civilians.
At New Colony in Naushera village, the family members of a man named Shahnawaz are still perplexed at his detention. It was around midnight that the police barged into the quiet, sparse settlements of Naushera, and apprehended Shahnawaz. By the time his father, Ashraf Nengroo, a retired employee with the Wildlife Protection Department, reached the neighborhood police station, Shahnwaz had been sent away to Kot Bhalwal jail in the adjoining Jammu region, 200 kilometers away. Shahnwaz, under psychological care for the past few years and largely immobile, has been charged under the draconian PSA.
Nengroo says a likely trigger could be Shahnwaz's alleged involvement in a stone-pelting incident years ago. 'Why apprehend him now?' he asks. Nengroo reached out to opposition leader Iltija Mufti and local legislator Bashir Veeri of the NC, who 'were kind and raised our case, but there was no respite.'
Nengroo is among those who would be happy if the provincial government were empowered. The Modi government maintains it will gradually restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood. Any sign of that is elusive. Yet, sources close to Abdullah say he is confident New Delhi will eventually relent, restoring statehood as early as August. That may be true in the face of unabated infiltrations in the Poonch, Rajouri pockets which pose a security challenge. Sources say there is also articulation of international concern — though not pressure — about the volatile situation in Kashmir, which New Delhi does not gloss over.