Omar's latest worry: Kausar Nag Yatra row takes on Muslims Vs Pandits narrative

Late on Saturday evening, a group of Kashmiri pandits gathered inside an oval-shaped hall in Jagti, a mini township for Kashmiri pandit migrants in Nagrota, on the outskirts of Jammu. Anger had been simmering among the residents here after the state government revoked permission for the ‘Kausar Nag Yatra’ through the Kulgam route, forcing a group of 40 Kashmiri Pandits to retreat. “The time,” a senior Kashmiri Pandit told a gathered audience, “is for us to teach the state government a lesson like we did in the Lok Sabha elections.” He continued to speak, saying the government of Jammu and Kashmir has succumbed to pressure from separatists. The government doesn’t care about its own citizens and residents of the Valley for centuries, he said. [caption id=“attachment_1648681” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Kausar Nag lake[/caption] If the revocation order for the Kausar Nag Yatra from its south Kashmir route snowballs as the Amarnath land row did in 2008, nobody in the state will be surprised. The real questions over whether the yatra should be permitted are actually about possible environmental degradation and resource depletion, but the debate was soon converted into a political one. Separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had called a bandh on Saturday on the issue, has accused the government and a few Hindu groups of adding another yatra destination to “eliminate the Muslim identity of the region”. Kausar Nag is a large lake nestled deep inside the snow capped mountains of Pir-Panjal in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, approximately 145 kilometers from the summer capital of Kashmir, Srinagar. An on-foot journey would take two days to reach the Lake from Aharbal, the famous tourist destination in Shopian. On July 1, a group of Kashmir Pandits led by Vinod Pandit, chairman of the All Pandit Migrants Coordination Committee (APMCC), a New Delhi based Kashmiri Pandits’ organisation, approached the Deputy Commissioner Kulgam, Nisar Ahmed Wani, to conduct the Kausar Nag Yatra from south Kashmir. The Deputy Commissioner Kulgam issued a letter to SSP Kulgam, dated July 21, 2014, requesting for fool-proof security arrangements for the smooth conduct of the pilgrimage. A copy of the letter was also sent to commanding officer of 62 RR, for arranging tented accommodation for pilgrims, en-route. According to Sanjay Tikoo, president of the Kashmir Pandit Sangarsh Simiti, Pandits would earlier visit the lake for a pilgrimage in small groups, before the inception of insurgency in Kashmir. Four years back, the Pandit community started the pilgrimage once again, but this time from the Reasi district in Jammu. Both the routes, Aharbal and Reasi, take two days. However, the trek from Aharbal is said to be safer then the Reasi one, in terms of geographical terrain. Protests broke out in the Valley as soon as news emerged that the pilgrimage would be conducted through Aharbal. Residents of Kulgam said the pilgrimage would mean environment degradation, and death of Kashmir’s few surviving fountainheads. Clashes occurred, even in the middle of the night, between police and protesters, who were demanding the immediate cancellation of the pilgrimage. The lake is the source of the Veshu, a tributary of the Jhelum river, which supplies water to large swathes of South Kashmir. Along this tributary falls the famed Aharbal waterfall. In subsequent clashes with police, many people were injured in south Kashmir this past week. The Save Kausar Nag Front (SKNF), a group formed by locals from Kulgam district, organized several protests in the last two weeks against the proposed pilgrimage. General Secretary of the front Sajjad Noorabadi argued that the issue was not a religious one, but was about the protection of natural resources, which belong to Sikhs and Kashmiri Pandits as well. Kashmir, he says, also belongs to Kashmiri Pandits and instead of politicizing the issue; they (Kashmiri Pandits) should help them (Muslims of the Valley) in preserving the environment. “Though they are not living here, one day they will have to come back. This issue isn’t only for us but for them too as they have been living here and protecting the ecology and environment,” Noorabadi said. Especially with the intervention of the separatists, sensing that the issue could snowball into a major political row like the 2008 Amarnath land row, the Omar Abdullah government eventually cancelled the yatra from Aharbal, saying the pilgrimage would operate only through its traditional route in Reasi, Jammu. Pandit, chairman of the APMCC, says the state government’s decision to revoke its earlier order was evidence that the government had succumbed to communal forces in Kashmir. For his part, the deputy commissoner of Kulgam denies that permission had been given at all. “I did not give permission but directed the SP of Kulgam to provide foolproof security if they wish to perform the yatra at Kausar Nag,” Wani said. The pilgrimage was to be taken out on ‘Nag Panchami.’ At least, 4,000 Hindu pilgrims, it was said, would undertake the pilgrimage. On Monday, a little less then hundred people left the base camp in Reasi. Ironically the revocation order has become a burning issue in Jammu with every political party including the BJP now wanting to keep the issue alive until the coming Assembly elections. The cancelling of this pilgrimage, once again, has also furthered the divide between the Muslims of the Valley and Kashmiri Pandits. And the issue could well become the reason for the coming elections to be fought on communal lines.