Kashmir Bus Service Attacked by Enemies of Kashmiris

Usually, grand send-offs for travelers are reserved for cruise ships. Bus passengers have to do without the confetti and the brass bands. However, in Kashmir yesterday, India's Prime Minister turned up to wave "good-bye" to garland-decorated passengers crossing the de facto border between India and Pakistan. The trip was the first such journey in almost 60 years. Some say, the trip included fireworks, but authorities denied that a grenade had been thrown.

Kashmir has been a disputed territory since Britain left India and Pakistan to find their own destinies. The only Muslim state in officially secular, yet Hindu in reality, India, Kashmir's position is the result of historical fluke as well as three wars between India and Pakistan. It is now divided between the two nations, a so-called line-of-control, acting as the de facto boundary. There are two cities that claim to be the capital of Kashmir, Muzaffarabad and Srinagar, which have not had bus service between them since King George VI was Emperor of India (which included Pakistan). And one shouldn't forget that both India and Pakistan have The Bomb.

So tense is the situation that the passengers on the bus did not drive across the bridge crossing the line. The bus stopped, they walked across the bridge, and got on another bus. Four different militant groups threatened the 50 people (25 or so traveling each way) who rode the buses. Authorities had them in protective custody. Their crime was going to visit family on the other side of the line-of-control.

The militants had tried to derail the trip by making attacks on Wednesday. Two gunmen got into the heavily guarded tourist complex and wounded six -- none of them passengers. After 66,000 deaths since 1989 over who gets to rule Kashmir, a few more wouldn't matter to the terrorists (the word is used with greatest precision). They are interfering with the right of common people to travel as they will. Their efforts to change the political situation by force of arms has been unsuccessful for years. They are, simply, fools wasting their own time and harming the very people for whom they claim to fight.

Recently, Pakistan and India have made some progress in thawing their usually chilly relations. President Musharraf is due to visit India for a cricket match on April 17 between the two nations -- an event unthinkable in the past. Kashmir, though, remains the intractable problem. There are those who want independence, those who want to take Kashmir from India and give it to Pakistan, and there are people who want the status quo. And then, there are the people on the bus who want to travel freely and safely. Just as firefighters fight fire, and freedom fighters fight freedom. One wonders if the Mahatma might have reconsidered his goals if he knew about this.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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