Kashmir reacts with gloom, anger and despair as summit fails
Kashmir reacts with gloom, anger and despair as summit fails
SRINAGAR, India (AP): Kashmir reacted with gloom, anger and
despair Tuesday at the failure of the India-Pakistan summit,
which had raised hopes of modest progress toward resolution of
the five-decade dispute over the Himalayan territory.
After spending most of the last three days glued to their
television screens, Kashmiris emerged Tuesday to gather at tea
shops, vegetable markets and each other's homes to discuss Monday
night's announcement that the talks had fallen through.
"We were hoping that some good news will come out of this and
maybe peace will return to the Valley," said Hazifullah Mir, a
government employee walking to work. "But when I saw the flash on
STAR TV that the talks had failed, I was very disappointed."
The three-day media blitz brought nonstop details and analysis
of the summit into every home, though the actual talks between
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee were kept confidential. The
apparent camaraderie between the two had led some to expect gains
for peace, but many others said the outcome was inevitable given
India's refusal to budge from its long-standing position on
Kashmir.
"We were watching TV and every time we could hear India saying
that Kashmir is an integral part. So it was expected that talks
will fail," said Ali Mohammad Mir, a 55-year-old tea stall owner
who sat sipping kehwa, Kashmiri tea, with his patrons.
Though there was no official statement on why talks broke
down, it appeared that the stumbling blocks involved language
over how to describe the dispute over Kashmir and the militants
that India calls terrorists and Pakistan calls freedom fighters.
Militant groups in Pakistan said Tuesday that the collapse of
the talks had given an impetus to their campaign to separate
Kashmir from India and they would intensify attacks.
India's Border Security Force on Tuesday displayed for
journalists the bodies of three men said to be militants killed
Monday night northeast of Srinagar. That raised to 89 the number
of people filled in fighting between the guerrillas and Indian
forces during the three-day summit.
Most militants train in camps in Pakistan and sneak into India
across the mountainous border. But Islamabad denies New Delhi's
charges that it arms and aids the Islamic militants. Islamabad
says it gives only moral support. As many as 60,000 people have
died in Kashmir since 1989.
Naveed Bashir, 16, and his friend Azum Hafiz, 17 walked
despondently to school under the gray skies of Srinagar, freshly
washed with summer rain.
"We were hoping that the talks will be successful and that
peace will come so that we can go trekking," said Hafiz, whose
parents refused him permission to take off with his friend into
the mountains.
"But unfortunately failure of talks means more violence, death
and destruction," said Bashir.
Since they were little, the boys, like most Kashmiris, have
lived restricted lives, fearing to step out lest they be arrested
by security forces or become the victim of random violence by
Islamic militants fighting for Kashmiri independence or for a
merger with Pakistan.
The boys said their parents' recounting of their vacations in
some of Kashmir's popular tourist destinations was a distant
dream for them. Now, with militants threatening more violence
following the failed talks, such travels appear more remote.
"It is sad," said Ali Imran, a political analyst in Srinagar,
the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state. "It means pushing the
people of Jammu and Kashmir into another era of suffering and
misery."