By Smita Singh 10 August, 2010
Hard News
Hard News
For Kashmiris the story of dissent and its repercussions has always been the same, perhaps it is time for us to listen.
I was 13 in March 1991 when I reached Kashmir. My father was posted as part of the Army’s Corps of Signals. I looked out as our convoy crawled through the empty streets of Srinagar, silent but for the graffiti screaming from a wall here, a poster there -‘Indian Dogs Go Away’, ‘We Want Freedom’, ‘Hizbul Mujahidin Zindabad’, some incomprehensible scrawls in Urdu following us until we entered the cantonment. Bunglows and beautiful lawns, tree lined pavements and the olive green of the uniforms- comforting, familiar and welcome. The images of the ghost town receded, but not for long.
