Month that was...

August 2008 was a remarkable month in Indian sporting history as well as a month that will be remembered for long in jammu as well as kashmir. India finally won a gold medal in individual competition at the olympics and to top it off there were 2 bronze medals to add to it. Also India for the first time wona bilateral odi series in srilanka. Now to some serious news: The pro amarnath land revocation protests continued from july and showed no signs of dying down with people in jammu looking to do what it hadnt done for the past 55 years since Praja Parishad movement. Unite and Fight for injustice. Well was it really injustice some might ask. Anyhow things went onto overboil with continous bandhs in jammu causing disruption in traffic on NH-1A to srinagar. This caused a lot of inconviniences to the locals of kahsmir as they complained of economic blockade. This was just the ignition temp for the pro azadi sentiments to make its way back after being subsided for some years now. Even though the protests in jammu were for amarnath land the protests in kashmir were to gain freedom (पता नई क्या करेंगे इंडिया से अलग होके ) and this took and ugly turn with the hurriyat combining and raising muzaffarabad chalo slogans. I dont know what the people over there were thinking (पासपोर्ट नाम की भी कोई चीज़ होती है कि नई कल को वहा चले भी जाते तो वापिस कौन आने देता बिना पासपोर्ट के और ऐसे भी कौनसा पाकिस्तान welcome कर रहा था उनको ) anyhow what was bound to happen , happened. Indian forces had imposed curfew and then with protesters not relenting in came firing orders killing many protestors including Sheikh Abdul Aziz. Indian force as well as NSA still says firing wasnt done by Indian forces and no such orders were given but noone really believes that. But if actually they are to be believed then this could have been a handiwork of ISI sponsored people trying to put petrol int the fire. Whatever be the case Geelani died and this triggered more protests defying curfews and hence more killings in retaliation by force. Similar thing happened in kishtwar with peoplw killed in a grenade explosion and the majority community there levelling charges against police. But here I doubt cause Indian police does not have access to grenades cause they are for supressing such protests even Indian army cant take out such weapons without a grenade launcher and I have no doubts that Indain army wont take out grenade launchers to stop protests( अकाल क्या घास चरने गई है आर्मी लोगों पे ग्रेनेड फेंकेगी ये कोई बच्चो का खेल है क्या? और फ़िर protests रोकने के लिए रबड़ bullets और tear gas use करते है and firing in air to disperse and firing on people is done as a last resort) anyways its simple and easy to spread misinformation in such volatile areas but what people need to understand is to use brain. In the first instance see how the kashmiri locals were misled. The order was always to provide land for temporary shelter to the pilgrims. How the hell was it going to change demography of kashmir remains a mystery. And then how was it going to counteract 370 ?? I still don't know. Anyhow with curfew continuously imposed and trucks supplying necessary commodities to kashmir under army supervision has led to some subsiding of protests in kashmir.Mean while bandhs continued in Jammu and in the last week some solutions started making its way out.3 rounds of talks in one day with finally a marathon talk in the intervening night of 30 and 31 gave a much needed relief to jammuites and smile and happiness spread all over the province. People on 31 woke to alarming sounds of bullets and grenades only to find out that it was only diwali crackers burnt to show the happiness. People even lit up their homes on 31 night with candles to show the happiness with the agreement after 2 month long agitation. Bam Bam Bhole