The earthquake in Uri and Baramullah of Kashmir and Muzzafarabad, Punch, Rawalkot, Gilgit, Baltistan and other parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan was devastative. It may take a long time to heal the wounds and to rebuild the lives of those who lost everything. However, unlike in other places, where we have seen people limping back to life with the support of one and all, the case of Kashmir is different.

The narrow real-estate interest that India and Pakistan have in Kashmir has alienated the population of Kashmir to a great extend. Even while we swear Kashmir as an ‘integral part’ of India, we still hold the people foreign. That could be the reason that the Indian civil society groups, business houses and all those cine stars are yet to reach out for relief and rehabilitation.

Consider what happened during Latur or Gujarat earthquake, or in the recent past, in Tsunami. It hardly took any time for the relief to start. NGOs, business houses and even cine stars lined up to adopt villages and start work towards short and long term rehabilitation. Then the newspapers did not carry much Ganguly-Chappell-like on the front page, rather it was the stories and magnitude of the tragedy and the help reaching them from different sources. This time it is different. After a few days of the tragedy, stories of earthquake have been pushed into the inside page; in many cases, they are reduced merely to a photograph.

The situation on the ground is reported to be grim. Dr. Syeda Hameed, Planning Commission member and Tapan Bose of Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy visited Baramullah and parts of Uri immediately after the earthquake. They said, “The earthquake has destroyed almost all buildings on the road side, as well as on the hills along both sides of the Jhelum river. As the homes were built with local stones and mud, the earthquake has shattered these structures. School buildings, health centers, government offices, army barracks, bazaars, everything seems to have been destroyed.”

They said that during their visit they saw thousands of people - young children, women, old and the middle aged - were camping in the open. With the weather already turning cold, night temperatures are dropping down to almost 3-4 C. The people have no shelter. The children and others have very little protective clothing.

This is not unimaginable to anybody who has been following the relief operations earlier in any such calamities. The difference was, in other places there were many (often un-coordinated and directionless) teams engaged in relief activities. There were many pitfalls of such activities. However, what mattered was that the affected people could realise the concern others had for them and at times of desperation that mattered a lot. Then, it was natural for rest of us to reach there with help. Unfortunately that’s not the same with Kashmir.

The reason is not just inaccessibility. This indifference is more or less a reflection of our attitude towards Kashmir and the bias we have developed over the years against her.

Senior lawyer and human rights activist Pervez Imroz puts the Kashmir scenario succinctly, “Kashmir is occupied by over half a million Indian soldiers, subjugating a small nation of about six million people. This occupation is shrouded in a cloak of symbolic democracy.” For the past decade and a half, democratic rights of the people, including their rights to speak and assemble are curbed. Army pokes their nose into all aspects of their life. Imroz says, “Armed Forces Special Powers Act, in force in Kashmir, empowers a soldier of the occupation army to shoot and kill a Kashmiri on mere suspicion, blow up a house or imprison anyone. This occupation is comprehensive, widespread and sophisticated. Sprawling military and paramilitary camps and cantonments dot every nook and corner of Kashmir. 15 to 20 percent of land in Kashmir is under direct physical occupation of this military presence.

“Beyond the fact of physical occupation, military presence controls all aspects of life, disconnects people from each other and subjects them to all kinds of humiliation. Cordon and search operations (crackdowns) and interrogations (torture) are routine means employed.”

What we have been hearing about Kashmir was through the mouth of the State, which employs the most subtle and the most insidious occupation. We are made to believe that Kashmiris are a bunch of jihadis, who want to wreck our lives till they can take that piece of land to Pakistan. As in the case of tribal struggles, the struggle for self-determination of the people in Kashmir as well as North East is alien for a large number. And thus, Kashmir is not ‘us’. It is ‘them’. And ‘they’ don’t deserved to be treated as ‘our’ people in Gujarat or Lathur or some other place.

Or this is what it comes out to, with no, or only a weak voice of support at the time of crisis. Even both Pakistan and India have an opportunity to come together and work collectively for helping the people rebuild their lives and write a new chapter in the history of our relationship. However, involving the people of Kashmir, consulting them at every stage and restoring their democratic rights would very much be a part of such a genuine effort.

What the people in Kashmir deserve is not charity. But an expression of our concern and care for the thousands who are dead, and the tens and thousands who survived. Unfortunately the ones who are left behind are estined to feel the heat of a hostile State. Time has come to stop pretending that we do not know about Kashmir. We may differ with them politically, but we can respect their rights and support them in crisis. For those who want to make a donation or know more, write to pipfpd@pipfpd.org.