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Kashmir : Conditions have improved in the Valley : Opinion poll

	August 20, 2007

The first ever Indo-Pak opinion poll sponsored by the Indian Express-Dawn News and CNN-IBN and designed by CSDS Delhi, and carried out by AC Nielsen, finds that respondents in the state’s capital cities, Srinagar and Jammu, feel that the overall situa¬tion in the state has improved in the last five years since the 2002 Assembly elections. It also shows that the state government has a quantum of popular support and the people are not very unhappy with the Ghulam Nabi Azad Government. Both the valley and the Jammu regions agree that things have improved since 2002.



The poll was carried out in the last week of July and the first week of August in the top ten cities of Pakistan by AC Nielsen and the top twenty cities of India by CSDS.



Besides 1010 interviews in urban Pakistan and 2030 inter¬views in urban India, the CSDS conducted a special straw poll by interviewing 226 persons in Srinagar and 255 persons in Jammu city.



People in Kashmir Valley want azadi in the sense of becoming an independent country. As may as 87 per cent of the respondents in Kashmir chose this option over other options like maintaining status quo or merging both parts of Kashmir either with India or with Pakistan. Pakistan figures almost nowhere as a first preference for Kashmiris in this poll. But India is only mar¬ginally better placed.



Not surprisingly, this sentiment is not shared outside the Valley. There are no takers for Kashmiri independence in Jammu town, with nearly everyone supporting on integration of Indian Kashmir and PoK into the Indian Union. The opinion in other cities in the rest of the country is not as vehement as Jammu, but there is an overwhelming preference for integration with India.



The opinions of urban Pakistanis are, predictably, opposed to the opinions of urban Indians. That makes it look like a perfect deadlock so familiar of national struggles in many parts of the world, a tiny minority wants freedom from nation states that treat their land as nothing other than a piece of property.



Positive sides come from both sides of the border. Urban Pakistanis do not insist on Kashmir joining Pakistan, those who desire so are matched by as many who are willing to accept an independent status for Kashmir. A majority of urban Pakistanis are also willing to let Kashmiris decide their own fate.



Although a majority (higher among the Punjabis) insist that Indo-Pak relations cannot move forward till the Kashmir issue is resolved, as many as 45 per cent of those who have an opinion do not see Kashmir as a pre-condition. This proportion is higher among the urban Indians.





Greetings exchanged at international border



Border village Suchetgarh didn’t sleep on August 14 night, as villagers and some members of a civic society with lit candles in hands greeted neighbours across the international border (IB) fence at midnight, when both India and Pakistan became free 60 years back.



Men, women and children gathered on the rooftop of ‘janjh ghar’ (community hall), with lit candles in both hands, greeted the Pak Rangers at Peeli post of Kadalayal, a village on the Pakistan side, as the BSF men looked on with welcoming gestures.



Paying tributes to the thousands who died in the 1947 Parti¬tion riots, they talked of peace and deliberated on issues like the political fate of J and K state, casualties in the border villages during the Indo-Pak wars and in later years before the ceasefire and the possibility of peace between the two nations.



The event which became a candle-lit seminar in late night hours, was organised by the Jammu-based units of political and social organisations. The All- Party Hurriyat Conference, the International Democratic Party (IDP), the Jammu-Kashmir Democrat¬ic Freedom party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Jammu-Kashmir Dogra Front, the Forum for Peaceful Resolution of J-K problem, the People’s Conference, the Deshbhagat Yadgar Committee and the Knowledgeable Peace Society joined the effort.





Give up violence : Azad tells militants



Addressing a function in Srinagar on Independence Day, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad asked militants to shun violence and take the path of peace. He said there was no other way out when the government had kept the doors of dialogue open. He said Pakistan is realising that dialogue is the only way for a solu¬tion to problems. Azad said India has all along maintained there is no problem that cannot be resolved through peaceful means.



Meanwhile, state Governor S.K. Sinha has said that the time was not conducive for reduction in force deployment as insurgency in the state is not yet under control. He was speaking to news¬persons in New Delhi on August 13 on the sidelines of a function where a book, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir : the Untold Story was released. He said infiltration has been on the rise this summer.





Eight people killed in terrorist attacks



Five people have been killed in an improvised explosive device blast in Anantnag district. Three CRPF jawans who were injured in the blast on August 17 succumbed to their injuries the following day. Two persons had died on the spot. The militants had targeted the cavalcade of a senior CRPF officer on Friday evening. The incident took place 50 km away from Srinagar.



In another incident, three people were killed and 12 injured in a grenade attack by militants on a crowded market in Bandipore area in North Kashmir on August 13. A grenade exploded on the road causing injuries to 15 persons, three of whom died in hospi¬tal.



The incident came a day after two persons including a Dis¬trict Commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen was killed in an en¬counter with the police near Sopore town in Baramulla district.





Toll in ammunition depot fire goes up



The toll in the August 11 fire at an ammunition depot in Anantnag district has gone up to 17 with the recovery of bodies of 13 Army fire-fighters, a Major and a recruit from the site. While the fire has been put out, search is continuing for anoth¬er 10 people still missing.



PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has demanded that ammunition depots should be shifted from the civilian areas.





Pandits launch political party



Displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu region have launched a political party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Democratic Front. The party’s acting coordinator A.K. Diwani said in Jammu on August 16 that the party would fight for the Kashmiri Pandits’ return to the valley and their rehabilitation.