| NEW YORK | RUPEE NEWS | August 10th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | Kashmir has erupted. The BJP as usual is constructed a crisis getting ready for the next elections. This time around it is not the Babri masjid, this time it is the Jammu pandits. The lines have been clearly drawn-Jammu Hindus vs. Muslim Kashmiris. The blockade on the Jammu-Srinagar road incarcerates the Kashmiris who will eventually seek access to Pakistani and Chinese markets.

 “As people of Jammu have decided to continue the economic blockade, the Government must open alternative trade routes to tackle the grave situation in the Valley. India and Pakistan must immediately open the cross-LoC routes with Valley,” he added.

Prominent constitutional expert, A G Noorani, termed the economic blockade as unconstitutional. “It is surprising how the Government is tolerating the economic blockade to Kashmir. The blockade is totally unconstitutional, illegal and Government must immediately act against the vested interests and restore supplies to the Valley,” he said.

 “The authorities should also explore alternative road links to the Valley,” Noorani added.
 The blockade of Srinagar-Jammu highway has forced sharp decline in tourists flow to the Valley. “Many of our bookings have been cancelled as the activists of extremists organizations are not allowing the tourists to travel to Kashmir. We desperately need to explore the options of alternative route links like Jehlum Valley Road in the wake of the blockade,” said chairman of Houseboat Owners Association, Muhammad Azim Tuman.
 The traders too are of the opinion that the option of the alternative road links need to be explored since the Valley is on the brink of a disaster due to the blockade.
 “The opening of routes like Srinagar-Muzaffarabad will not only give Kashmiri products an access to the international markets like Central and East Asia but other world class products could also be made available to the consumers here,” said president Kashmir Traders Federation, Farooq Ahmad Shah.
 Shah said opening routes like Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road would also end the Valley’s dependence on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, which often remains closed for weeks together.  “The cross-LoC trade will give fillip to the Valley’s economy,” he added.

The upshot of this standoff is an extreme polarisation in the security-sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir. For more than a month, the dispute over the allotment of a 40-ha plot of forest land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board has spilled into the streets with violent crowds disrupting the normal way of life.

The Muslims in Kashmir held angry protests demanding the cancellation of the allotment. Egged on by regional political parties and secessionist groups in the valley, they indulged in acts of arson and violence.

The state caved in to the demands and the May 26 order of allotment was revoked on July 1.

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Srinagar, Aug 10 (IANS) Stating that communal harmony in Jammu and Kashmir would not be allowed to be disturbed over the Amarnath land row, union Home Minister Shivraj Patil Sunday said the road-block to the Kashmir Valley has been lifted and fruit-laden trucks stranded on the highway for weeks could start moving. Addressing a news conference here, Patil also urged fruit growers not to go ahead with their threatened march across the Line of Control (LoC) to Pakistan-administered Kashmir capital Muzaffarabad to sell their produce.

“Such a step would be wrong for both the fruit growers and the country,” he said after an all-party central delegation led by him reviewed the situation in the Kashmir Valley and interacted with politicians here.

He said the government was ready to compensate those fruit growers whose produce was destroyed because the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was blocked by protesters demanding allocation of land to the Amarnath shrine management board.

Protesters in Jammu had blocked the only motorable road link to the valley after the government July 1 cancelled the May 26 land allotment to the Amarnath shrine board.

The issue has created an unprecedented communal wedge between the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-majority Jammu plains. Separatist Hurriyat Conference Friday threatened to lead Kashmir fruit growers’ march to Muzaffarabad Monday following the road block near Jammu.

“We shall help the fruit growers who had suffered because of the non-availability of transport,” Patil said, reiterating that the Jammu-Srinagar highway has now been restored to traffic both ways.

Asked how the government intended to deal with the challenge posed by the march, Patil said: “We will have to deal with it as we have been dealing with such situations in the rest of the country.”

The home minister said a solution to the land row acceptable to the people in both the regions of the state would be worked out.

Stressing that the communal harmony in Jammu and Kashmir should be maintained, he said: “We (the government) will take steps to ensure the communal harmony is not disturbed.”

He said the media could play a great role in re-building confidence between the two regions of the state.

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea and the media is the vehicle which carries an idea. I request you to be responsible and report in such a manner so that the innocents are not put to harm,” he urged.

He said the central government would pay compensation to those who lost their lives or got injured during the land row agitation. This is besides the ex-gratia compensation announced by the state government.

The central delegation held talks with various groups in Jammu Saturday in a bid to resolve the dispute. “We will attempt to work a way out which is acceptable to both regions of the state and the one which will have no adverse fallout,” Patil told reporters at the end of the talks in Jammu.

The Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS), a conglomerate of over 30 Hindu groups demanding the return of the land to the shrine board, said the talks with the central team were “inconclusive” and vowed to pursue its campaign.

Meanwhile, representatives of Kashmir chamber of commerce and industry and the transporters left the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre, the venue of the all-party talks, without meeting the central delegation.

“We were kept waiting for two hours and then we left the place,” a representative of the traders said.

When informed about the development, Patil said he was sorry about it because the delegation meeting had continued for a longer time than originally intended.

That must have resulted in the delay in the proposed meeting with the chamber of commerce and transporters’ representatives, he said.