Author: Samuel Baid
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 24, 2004
The 16 Pakistani journalists' visit
to Kashmir early this month was historic, as has been generally described,
but it is doubtful if the reports to their newspapers helped remove some
of the incorrect impressions ingrained in readers' minds by the Pakistani
propaganda machinery about the situation in Kashmir. Mr Imtiyaz Alam, the
Secretary General of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), which
organised the visit, told newsmen on reaching Anantnag that the Pakistani
journalists had been reporting only one side of the story about Kashmir.
"Today they can present both sides
of the story," he said. But what they chose to see and hear in Kashmir
and what they wrote showed their minds remained conditioned by their country's
official propaganda. Alam's conclusion that "the alienation from New Delhi
is complete and perhaps, irreversible" can be seen in this context.
Mr Alam as well as other members
of the Pak delegation had promised to report "the other side" of the picture
too. This "other side" they saw in Jammu where they met displaced Kashmiri
Pandits. The Pandits told them: "We have been displaced for the last 15
years because of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism..." (Mariana Baabar's report).
Mr Alam also reported what the Pandits
said. His article Alienation from New Delhi is Complete, Irreversible and
Ms Baabar's Moving images, tough lessons, heartless governments, both produced
by South Asia Tribune, showed their cursory attitude towards the plight
of Kashmiri Pandits, who have faced a merciless Hindu cleansing campaign,
launched by non-Kashmiris infiltrated by Pakistan to destroy Kashmir's
composite culture and pluralism, in the Valley. Mr Alam wrote that many
of the Pandits have abandoned their secular paradigm of Kashmiriyat; become
communalised and now demand a separate state by dividing Kashmir.
Stories about the plight of Kashmiri
Pandits may make no news in Pakistan: they have been very extensively aired
by foreign Urdu radio services like the BBC, Voice of America and Voice
of Germany when the persecution of Pandits started in the Valley in 1989
and later. These stations are hardly heard in Pakistan. Of them, the BBC
is the most popular in Pakistan. Their exodus from the Valley was also
widely reported by the Pakistani Press.
It would appear "the other side"
of the story was used as a camouflage to disguise actual objectives in
the Valley: to collect matter to prove Pakistan's allegations of human
rights violations, Kashmiri alienation and so on in the Valley. They met
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, who talked
of state terrorism and azaadi. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who heads his own
faction of the Hurriyat conference, ruled out azaadi but advocated the
merger of Kashmir with Pakistan as the only solution.
Returning to New Delhi on his way
to Islamabad, Mr Alam summed up his impression in an interview to UNI thus:
the more than 15-year-old militancy in Kashmir is a "civilian insurgency"
and the dominant opinion in the Valley is for achieving azaadi, which does
not mean accession to Pakistan, and "the entry of security forces and the
Army has made the indigenous uprising a bloody conflict". He said the Army's
attempt to quell "the uprising" had given it the dimensions of a conflict,
which he described as "a political issue".
"Since the military is deployed
in such a large number, human rights violations are bound to occur," he
said.
Back home, he wrote: "Regardless
of what the parties from the opposite or the same camps say, and there
are too many, the people of Srinagar from all walks of life know to spell
one word with close to total unanimity and that is: azaadi. The alienation
from New Delhi is complete and, perhaps, irreversible."
It is to be noted that while the
SAFMA journalists from Pakistan were probing "the other side" of the story,
Islamabad stopped 21 Pakistani pilgrims from visiting the Alamdar-e-Kashmir
shrine in Charar-e-Sharif. Islamabad was apparently worried that these
pilgrims would be told by local people how Pakistan-backed foreign terrorists
set this shrine and the surrounding houses on fire in 1995. Mast Gul, who
escaped back to Pakistan to be given a rousing reception by the Jamaat-i-Islami,
had headed this destruction. The Pakistani pilgrims would have known the
real "other side" of the Kashmir story had they been allowed to visit Charar-e-Sharif.
The Pakistani journalists who came
to Kashmir were all very seasoned. To see the confirmation of what PTV
blares out every night about Kashmir was certainly not the SAFMA objective.
These journalists looked over many aspects of "the other side" of the Kashmir
trouble. They did not try to probe the extent of Pak involvement in the
trouble in Kashmir.
They have also not taken note of
the freedoms the people of Kashmir enjoy because of democracy. That they
can raise pro-Pakistan, pro-azaadi and anti-India slogans is all because
of this freedom. You cannot imagine this freedom in Pakistan occupied Kashmir
(PoK). Above all, you cannot imagine a pro-India counterpart of Geelani
in PoK or Pakistan. In India, Geelani is like any other politician.
Now it is the turn of Indian journalists
to visit PoK but the difference of the two visits will be that Indian newspapers
hardly report on developments in PoK. It is doubtful what these journalists
would like to see there.
Perhaps more and longer visits by
Pakistani journalists in future may help the Pak press be more realistic
and bold.
The writer is former editor, UNI
