Mumbai

It’s the second day of the Mumbai attacks. People in Srinagar who are talking about this horrific violence are unconvinced by the New Delhi News Channel’s assertion that the terrorists are all from Pakistan and came by boat to the shores of Mumbai. (On this Friday I’m writing from inside a local family’s home as a citywide curfew for all of Srinagar has been imposed by the Indian military.)

In response to the media coverage of the atrocities in Mumbai this is what I’ve been hearing from people in Kashmir: Why haven’t they showed footage of any of the terrorists? The reason, people say, is because if the pictures would show that they’re Indians and not Pakistanis. This is just another ploy to make Pakistan look bad in front of the international community, another effort to make all Pakistanis out to be terrorists, much in the same way that India’s media makes us Kashmiris all out to be separatists agitating for an autonomous Kashmir.

In fact, many of Srinagar’s middle and upper-middle class people are strongly apolitical; they just want to be left alone. Many people don’t understand all of the hullabaloo over Kashmiri independence. Look at the control India has over Kashmir, they say. That’s not going to change.

It’s no wonder that people here are skeptical of the the-terrorists-are-Pakistani scenario that we’ve been seeing all over the news. Many of them feel unjustly maligned by the same media. Kashmiris live their lives here under the watchful eyes of the Indian military, posted every half block in the capital city and around the rest of the province, along highways, in village markets, at the entrances to banks and hospitals. The soldiers set up random roadblocks and check-points, forcing all drivers to pull over. Cars are searched, and the drivers have to show identification.

In the three weeks that I’ve been here, unannounced curfews have shut down Srinagar two to three times per week. The curfews make life difficult for local people for a number of reasons -- mainly that unable to leave their homes, people cannot get to their mosques for prayer. Many people I’ve talked to call this a direct attempt by the Indian military to infringe on the religious rights of Muslims.

A more serious result of the curfews, with all businesses closed and the streets locked down, men cannot earn money that day to feed their families. Many of the poorer families here are forced to live like that: a day’s wages for the husband goes towards that night’s dinner.