Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah held a meeting of his cabinet in the iconic tourist spot of Pahalgam in southern Kashmir on Tuesday. The symbolism was not lost on anyone. Pahalgam is the same place where over a month ago, 26 tourists were killed by terrorists after confirming their Hindu religious identity.
The visuals of the cabinet meeting along with his father and former J&K Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah playing golf in the world-famous Pahalgam Golf Course were aimed at conveying a message across the country that the place was safe and secure “now”, one month after the massacre.
However, it will take a lot more than the Golf Course or cabinet meeting visuals for the people across the country to feel confident and safe to visit the Kashmir valley. Tourists have started trickling into the valley after the terror attack, but their number is zilch as compared to earlier numbers.
Public memory is indeed too short, but not that short not to remember the brutal massacre that happened just a month ago. Moreover, the terrorists responsible for the killing of the tourists have still not been captured. There is no information about them, which is certainly a cause for concern, besides a grave security failure. However, security is not under the state government. It remains under the Centre as Jammu and Kashmir is currently a union territory.
Prior to the Pahalgam massacre, there was a belief and perception, which eventually proved misplaced, that the terrorists will not target the tourists as tourism was the mainstay of Kashmir’s economy. In the last few years, in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, a perception was created that Kashmir is “absolutely safe now” and terrorism is a thing of the past.
The perception was reinforced by tourists from the rest of the country who would return to their home states with good memories and a belief that Kashmir was perfectly normal. And they are not to be blamed. Kashmir looked like normal, irrespective of the fact whether it really was. This would also lend credibility to the Central government’s claims that peace had been completely restored in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.
However, it was not like that. Killings of people were taking place regularly, off and on, particularly in South Kashmir where Pahalgam is located. Non-Kashmiri labourers were regularly targeted and killed. Besides, there were several targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits. Among them was a leading businessman who was killed in the heart of the city, which was supposed to be secure under round-the-clock security vigil.
The tourists were not attacked, not because the security situation had completely improved. They were spared, till now, as the terrorists apparently thought that in case they start targeting tourists, it will hit the economy and the local population will get antagonised. Terrorism cannot survive without local support.
So much so, Chief Minister Omar had himself said it on record, not once but many times, that the massive inflow of tourists was not any indication of normalcy in Kashmir. He may have been trying to make a political point, but in hindsight he proved right. Kashmir proved to be as unsafe as it was in the mid-1990s when such massacres used to take place.
Now that the “unwritten code” of not targeting the tourists has been broken, it will take a lot of time and effort to restore their confidence. Besides, the very fact that the terrorists responsible for the killings were neither nabbed nor killed and nobody knows where they vanished, makes the fears more intense.
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Omar also knows the harsh reality that the security situation in Kashmir remains quite fragile. Given the topography of the Kashmir valley, particularly tourist spots like Pahalgam and Gulmarg surrounded by thick forests, it will not be an easy task to comb these places and keep them secure.
Tourists will, nevertheless, gradually start flowing back into Kashmir. The place remains easily accessible with remarkable air and road connectivity. Rail connectivity is also in the offing. In fact, the train between Katra and Srinagar was reportedly to be flagged off on April 19, which was put off for some unexplained reasons.
But Jammu and Kashmir will need to be extra careful to regulate the movement of tourists to the specific secured places only. Baisaran meadow, where the tourists were killed, was an isolated place with not even a marked road. It was a grave lapse of the local administration to allow so many people to that secluded place. This is besides the intelligence and security failure that was primarily responsible for the loss of precious lives of unsuspecting tourists.
Restoring complete peace is the precursor to restoring tourism in Kashmir. Omar should not repeat the same mistake as that of the Government of India of jumping the gun and drumbeating that peace has been restored, when actually it has not been. Holding a Cabinet meeting and clicking shots of his father playing golf there does not mean that peace has been restored.
Even an MPs’ delegation had visited Pahalgam and held a meeting there about a couple of weeks before the massacre took place. Holding “secured” meetings is one thing and letting tourists roam around freely is quite different. There is a need to be more cautious and careful. Better safe than sorry.
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