7/11 is 9/11 for Kashmiris  

Sheen Meem Ahmed  

On 7/11, almost simultaneously Srinagar and Mumbai witnessed devastating, horrendous and frightening serial grenade attacks and bomb blasts respectively. The consequent horrible picture of death and destruction caused by these operations looked like an enactment of the 9/11 tragedy of the US. Even though the motives may not be the same, the strikes exhibited a meticulous planning by the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity. 

Life after these strikes is limping back to normal routine but is had had a very negative and adverse effect on the economy of Kashmir, which had of late started seeing a ray of hope, vis-à-vis its business and economy.  But the gruesome events of 7/11 have made an adverse impact on Kashmir’s economy. Apparently, these serial attacks seem targeted to wage economic warfare against common masses besides terrorizing the people in general. The five Srinagar grenade attacks were carried at five different places in and around the main city localities, where normally tourist inflow remains concentrated during the 5-6 month long tourist season. This development warrants serious thought to understand the evil designs behind them. 

Beginning from Dalgate, where the world famous Dal Lake is located, the hitherto untraced attackers rushed to target Regal Chowk, the busy city centre and hub of commercial activities. The third target was Lal Chowk, wherefrom the attackers shifted to nearby Aab-i Guzar locality; and the final attack was Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) to end the game of death and destruction. 

First attack claimed lives of six Kolkata tourists including three women and wounded 11 others. The unidentified attackers lobbed a grenade inside the tourist bus, which exploded with a deafening noise killing and wounding the insiders instantly. In yet another deadly attack a grenade was thrown into the Maruti vehicle injuring four persons including two non-Kashmiri father- daughter duo. The third blast was aimed at a Tata Sumo vehicle carrying tourists. This attack left two of them dead and two others wounded. In the fourth operation took ma toll of a non-resident 3-year-old Kashmiri girl, her mother and several others include female children of this American settled family. Lastly, TRC grenade attack injured two non-Kashmiris as well as several local pedestrians. 

The five serial grenade attacks in total claimed 8 lives and left 37 wounded. It would be worthwhile to mention here that all the 5 attacks took place at a within a radius of some 2.5 kms and that in a high security zone. This zone is otherwise considered comparatively a safe zone which is said to be virtually out of bounds for such episodes in view of extra ordinary security arrangements and constant vigil there. But the grenade throwers could easily manage to attack their targets. These incidents have shattered people’s faith in the reliability of the whole security system.  

It was in the context of this very fact that Omar Abdullah, President of the National Conference questioned as to where the normalcy in Kashmir is. He castigated the state government for projecting the false picture of peace and normalcy in the valley, which had convinced the tourists to visit Srinagar then fall to bullets. Given the complexity of the obtaining situation, Biman Bose, Secretary CPI (M) West Bengal, did rule out these being the handiwork of militant outfits. This is why he even sought a thorough probe to fix the responsibility for the broad day-light deadly grenade attacks on tourists. However, the official version is that the grenade attacks had been carried out by none else than militants. 

It is a noteworthy development that not only the prominent militant outfits denied their hand or involvements in these widely condemned attacks, but even Hizbul-Mujahideen termed these dastardly act as heinous crime.  Lashkar-e Toiba also described the attacks as condemnable, inhuman and barbaric. However, as matter of routine government insists its stance and accuses the militants for these blasts and subversive acts. Whenever the two sides make such accusations and denials, the truth is shrouded into a mysterious riddle in a way that nobody can possibly afford to reach at the bottom of reality. As the highly explosive situation demanded, both the factions of Hurriyat Conference condemned Srinagar and Mumbai blasts in strong words.  

These blasts have caused a deadlock in the Indo-Pak dialogue, even though the separatists are not buying the Indian theory alleging Pakistan’s involvement in the horrible 7/11 events. But India’s needle of suspicion is pointed towards Pakistan based Lashkar. India has once again reiterated its earlier demand (conceived and initiated by L.K Advani former Home Minster), in response to Musharraf’s spontaneous proposal for joint investigation, for the handing over of Syed Salahuddin, Hizb Chief and Dawood Ibrahim to India.  

Like in the past years, this year also the tourists and Amarnath yatris were targeted by unidentified subversive forces. The modus operandi of these invisible terror forces dropped a sure hint of the pattern of targeting the Indian tourists in Srinagar. Factually, in comparison to previous couple of years, the tourist traffic had picked up with a remarkable revival of tourist industry in the last 2 years. The State government attributes this to return of normalcy. But all claims of normalcy went to winds in the wake of sudden occurrences of anti tourist operations. Indeed untraceable subversive forces gave a violent blow to the still crawling tourist industry.  

Earlier, 4 terror attacks were carried out against the Indian tourists. On April 27 unidentified saboteurs lobbed a grenade directly on tourists at Pahalgam, the tourist resort of global fame, wounding 18 people. On May 27, a grenade attack was carried out killing one tourist, one local driver and injuring three tourists. Two days prior to that, when Mamohan Singh was packing up after his 2-day second Round Table conference, 4 Gujarati tourists fell to the fatal grenade attack near Ghanderbal, a suburb 15 kms away from Srinagar city. On June 1, 2006, another grenade attack near Dalgate claimed one more tourist’s life and left behind many injured. Prior to these gory episodes, on 10 June six Nepalese labourers were gunned down in a south Kashmir hamlet, Yaripora, by some unidentified gunmen.   

The current year, 2006, began on a positive note for the local businessmen, whose bread and butter is directly connected with the tourist industry. The Mughal Gardens, and places away from the capital, like Gulmarg and  Pahalgam saw an envious influx of tourists from all over India. Thousands of visitors, which in other words meant a good profitable seasonal business, thronged every hotel, restaurant, guesthouse, houseboat, and even private apartments. Market places also wore charming looks as happens usually in the season. Handicrafts, for which Kashmir enjoys a very special position all over the world, remained in high demand, and were being sold like hot cakes. Even the number of Amarnath visitors had gone up considerably. 

However, the forces hostile to Kashmiris’ minimum possible comfort and a little earning opted expeditiously with a sinister design to give a deathblow to the otherwise fragile economy by targeting the tourists and some Amarnath yatris. This has caused a serious damage not only to the tourist industry but also to the image of Kashmiris. They are being looked at as inhospitable and non-accommodative by nature. Perhaps this was aptly conveyed in unambiguous terms by one of the visiting delegation of West Bengal which came to Srinagar to collect dead bodies of the slain Bengali visitors. The players of terror game of 7/11 are certainly the avowed enemies of not only the people of Kashmir but the entire country.