Denemek ALTIN - Özgür

A Return to the Ballot?

Outlook

|

May 01, 2024

Separatist politics may not influence the general elections in Kashmir this time

A Return to the Ballot?

Naseer Ganai in Kulgam, Shopian and Budgam

A solitary house fortified with high walls, topped with concertina wire, and guarded by a paramilitary bunker provides the only visibly political footprint after a 70-km journey towards Damhal Hanjipora in Jammu and Kashmir's (J&K) Kulgam region.

In its front yard flies a National Conference (NC) flag. Inside is a large hall decorated with portraits, where party workers meet. The portraits that stare down from the walls feature the illustrious lineage of the party's past and present-day protagonists, NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah; his son and current president Farooq Abdullah; and the former's grandson, Vice President Omar Abdullah. Prominently placed alongside is a photograph of Wali Mohammad Itoo, a veteran party leader, former Speaker of the J&K assembly and the man to whom the house once belonged.

Itoo was assassinated by militants at point-blank range on March 18, 1994. The fortified house now belongs to his daughter, Sakina Itoo, a former state minister. At the time of her father's death, she was a college student pursuing medicine. In 1996, just before the erstwhile state of J&K held its first state assembly election after a gap of nearly a decade, Farooq Abdullah convinced her to contest the polls. She ended up winning the Noorabad seat in southern Kashmir, a stronghold her father had secured three timesin 1977, 1983, and 1987. During her 2002 campaign, Sakina survived six assassination attempts. She was luckier than her deceased father. In another incident in July 2006, she narrowly escaped a grenade attack as well.

As she walks into the hall, Sakina says that militants have targeted her house at least 13 times over the past 25 years.

"But now we are being doubted. We are asked to obtain permissions for all aspects of our political activities,

Outlook

Bu hikaye Outlook dergisinin May 01, 2024 baskısından alınmıştır.

Binlerce özenle seçilmiş premium hikayeye ve 9.000'den fazla dergi ve gazeteye erişmek için Magzter GOLD'a abone olun.

Zaten abone misiniz?

Outlook'den DAHA FAZLA HİKAYE

Outlook

Free the Word

Book bans are about fear, control and the desperate need to manage public imagination

time to read

7 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye to Kya Hai

Guru Dutt, whose birth centenary falls this July, created cinematic masterpieces amid the fog of his own uncertainty

time to read

6 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

When the Words Stop

Our worst algorithms have come home to haunt us. The nightmare is no longer something we dream up. It is dreamt on our behalf

time to read

16 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Rath Jatra

Is Mamata Banerjee's embrace of Lord Jagannath the latest counter to the BJP's Ram-centric politics?

time to read

5 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Zan, Zindagi, Azadi

As missiles fall silent—for now—it's time to explore whether the heart of the Iran-Israel conflict lies in a deeper battle over culture and values

time to read

3 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

The She Voter

Political parties in Bihar are looking to woo women voters—who constitute almost half of the vote bank—ahead of the state Assembly election

time to read

7 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Veil, Women and Warfare

Policies—whether in the West or in the Muslim world—are imposed on women, not developed with them or for them. How they dress becomes shorthand for community honour, nationalism or piety

time to read

8 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Forever Hotel

This novel is a flawed, luminous, maximalist love letter to Kolkata’s layered soul

time to read

4 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Regimentation

The US has zero moral authority to want to tell the Tehran regime to behave itself or be nice to its own people

time to read

5 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

The Way We War

Modern warfare is a shape-shifting entity and the information explosion has expanded the battlespace far beyond the battlefield

time to read

5 mins

July 11, 2025