Choking Their Own Artery

After a fortnight of agitation, the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti at Jammu has concluded that it is futile sitting in dharnas and holding peaceful processions. As a Samiti leader puts it, "We knew that unless Kashmiris are made to feel the pinch, the government will not pay attention." Hence the informal economic blockade of the Kashmir valley by preventing trucks plying on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

The blockade is being implemented not only by the Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal cadres active here but also by ordinary villagers armed with just the neighbourhood mechanic's discarded tyres which they burn on the roads. Now they have been aided by Punjab BJP leaders, some of who are camping at Lakhanpur near Pathankot.

Normally, some 1,500 trucks and 300 oil tankers go to Kashmir everyday. This is now down to a trickle because even with armed escorts, the drivers and goods carrier associations are reluctant to ply along the highway because at many places their drivers have been beaten up and threatened.

As a result, Kashmir is short of mutton—several weddings having been postponed because of it—medicines and fuel. Kashmir fruit growers, worried at the prospect of their apple crop rotting in trucks, have threatened to cross the border and sell their produce in Pakistan, through the Muzaffarabad route. The government has made arrangements to transport the apple crop out of the Valley, but that has made Jammu all the more livid. "People in Jammu too are suffering as a result of the blockade, but no one is worried about us. As always the interests of Kashmiris are paramount," fumes Leela Karan Sharma, the samiti convenor.