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| Geelani, others giving communal touch to infrastructure development | | Now, separatists oppose train to Kashmir health resorts | | Abdul Majid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, May 14: Running short of issues to grab public attention, Kashmir's separatist leadership seems to be on a mission to every time try make a mountain out of a molehill. In the latest, the separatist leaders have started opposing government plans to extend the rail connectivity to health resorts of Sonamarg and Pahalgam.
While the separatists and their like-minded civil society groups have started issuing statements to oppose the move by singling out these two hill stations, some pro-Pakistan camps are all set to announce "sustained campaign" on this front to keep the pot boiling and be in news.
On May 12, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti urged the Central government to extend rail link to Kupwara, Sonamarg and Pahalgam in Kashmir and Rajouri, Poonch and Chenab Valley in Jammu region.
Mehbooba, according to a PDP spokesman, raised the issue with Union Minister for Railways, Suresh Prabhu in New Delhi. She even called for arranging joyrides for tourists between Banihal and Baramulla "so that they can explore the splendid beauty of J&K's countryside."
But the government plans to improve infrastructure don't seem to have gone well with the separatist camps, which are losing footage more so since 2010 when marathon Hartals fizzled out with a dent in Kashmir's economy.
For now, pro-Pakistan hawk Syed Ali Geelani has taken a lead to oppose the train by issuing his party statement. "Expressing its reservations over the suggestion of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti of constructing railway tracks in Pahalgam and Sonamarg, All Parties Hurriyat Conference said that this proposal will collectively prove very disastrous for the Kashmir region," a handout from Geelani's Hurriyat said Wednesday.
The Hurriyat (G) spokesman in the statement said: "For the development and prosperity of any region, the construction and making of roads and rail lines is although a very essential condition but keeping in view the fragile and delicate atmosphere of the Kashmir, the construction of roads instead of railway tracks can prove better."
A day before Geelani's statement, Kashmir Centre for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS), a Srinagar-based civil society group opposed the proposal of setting up railway tracks to the twin hill resorts.
The KCSDS, headed by wife of a senior separatist leader close to Geelani, was first to react within hours of PDP making the rail extension demand in the national capital.
The KCSDS statement published in Srinagar dailies said Mehbooba's demand was "ill thought as these areas, which are already under tremendous stress due a huge number of visitors, will be further burdened by greater footfall to be made easier by train travel." "The proposal if implemented would prove disastrous to the eco system of these areas," the KCSDS spokesman said.
Sources in the pro-freedom quarters said the issue will gain momentum in the coming days as they want to snowball it into a controversy. "Mirwaiz, who doesn't want to lag behind, is all set to make opposition to train connectivity, a part of his Friday sermons at the Jamia Masjid," said a Hurriyat (M) insider.
Political analysts said separatists have singled out train connectivity of these two places only to link it with Amarnath Yatra. "Pahalgam and Sonamarg happen to be base camps of Amarnath Yatra so they want to mix the infrastructural development with communal politics, which over the years sells the most for their being in to spotlight," said the analyst. "Otherwise why didn't they oppose train connectivity for other places including Poonch and Kupwara?" he asked adding "Why only Pahalgam and Sonamarg has pinched them?"
A police official admitted that making controversy out of Amarnath Yatra has become as "favorite cannon fodder for the separatists." "They are buoyed over their recent campaign opposing construction of Pandith townships in Kashmir… As the previous controversy is over, now they want to be in news by opposing the train by linking it to Yatra," he said. |
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