Srinagar’s landscape tells the stories – and silences – of five years since August 5, 2019
A walk through the capital of Jammu and Kashmir maps the additions and erasures of the last half-decade.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
“Is there any chance of this building reopening?” a local resident in Srinagar’s upscale Raj Bagh neighbourhood asked me.
I had no answer.
The building he was pointing to was once the address of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a powerful voice of separatist politics of Kashmir.
Led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, this group of Hurriyat leaders had held talks with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2004 to find a solution to the Kashmir dispute.
But those days are long gone. Five years ago, on this day, the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre downgraded Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a Union territory, and rescinded its special status by scrapping Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. This not just cancelled Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and statehood but also signalled a crackdown on separatist politics.
The building is an eloquent witness to that story. The fading blue signboard of the Hurriyat Conference has been torn down. In its place is a large board announcing that the National Investigation Agency has attached the two-storied building on orders of a court in Delhi. The organisation was named in a terror funding case in 2017. Scrawled on the gates in white paint are the words:...
