Tanveer Ahmad, a second-year undergraduate student at Srinagar’s Amar Singh College, was hit by a tear gas shell during a protest against the rape of a minor girl in Sumbal in Baramulla district.

But these munitions are far from non-lethal, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of MHA data and Srinagar hospital records.
We found that:
 

• Tear-gas shells killed five between January 2010 and May 2019, and injured 176 between July 2016 and February 2019. 

• Chilli-filled shells killed one and caused respiratory problems in 51 of 294 respondents (non-combatants) surveyed for a medical study in downtown Srinagar. Of them, 97% developed cough and irritation within few seconds of breathing the gas.
• Metal pellets have killed 18, blinded 139, injured 2,942 and caused eye injuries to 1,459 between July 2016 and February 2019.

These munitions killed 24 persons between January 2010 and May 2019, and injured 4,577 and blinded 139 between July 2016 and February 2019.

Over 100,000 tear gas canisters and almost 50,000 rounds of chilli spray have been used in over 4,000 incidents of stone-pelting in different parts of Kashmir since 2010, a senior security official who did not wish to be named told IndiaSpend. This situation worsened after July 2016 when militant commander, Burhan Wani, was shot dead by forces. There are no figures available on the use of pellets.

Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have expressed outrage over the crowd control methods used in Kashmir and demanded a ban on these, especially pellets, which have blinded victims.

While the impact of pellets on victims has been documented extensively, there are few reports available on the effects of tear gas and chilli spray. We found in our investigations that these gases, which spread quickly, cause widespread damage to the health of those exposed. Those affected are not just those targeted by the forces but also passersby and those at home in the vicinity of the protest. Inhaling these gases causes paroxysms of cough and burning in the eyes, victims told us.

These accounts were confirmed by a May 2014 study published by Parvaiz Koul, professor and head of department, internal medicine at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar, and his colleagues at the department of internal and pulmonary medicine.

The researchers at SKIMS surveyed 294 bystanders exposed to pepper gas (as chilli-filled shells are referred to in the study) used against stone-pelters in Kashmir. Around 97% had developed cough and irritation of the throat within a few seconds of breathing the pungent gas as we mentioned earlier.

Exacerbation of lung diseases

“Among our interviewees, 16 developed exacerbation of their underlying respiratory disorders and one patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) developed a severe exacerbation of COPD immediately following exposure (She died in the hospital, three days later),” the SKIMS study said. “Symptoms lasted for one day to a week (median 24 hours), and in 94 percent of re-exposed individuals, symptoms recurred with similar severity on re-exposure.”

Exposure to tear gas and pepper gas is dangerous for human health both in the long and the short run, said S Balamurugan, principal investigator at the Chennai Chest Research Institute. Those exposed to them could become vulnerable to lung disease earlier in life, he warned.

“If there are asthma and COPD patients in a locality where these gases are used, they are bound to suffer and have exacerbations,” he said. “There is a 100% chance that children and elderly people will get affected. It can cause long-term effects, especially in a high-altitude place like Kashmir. Used frequently in a certain locality, it will cause problems for healthy people as well.”

Despite these documented effects, the Jammu and Kashmir police have issued a tender for fresh supplies of tear gas munitions.

Ages of some killed: 13, 17, 76

In 2010 the unrest in the Valley turned particularly violent, with the massive involvement of people in protests including stone-pelting. Since then, residents of Srinagar and other towns like Anantnag, Baramulla, Pulwama and Shopian have been witnessing regular use of metal pellets, tear gas and chilli sprays to quell protests and stone-pelters. The security situation in some south Kashmir towns has been particularly fragile in recent years.

One of the most widely discussed cases was of tear-gas victim Tufail Mattoo, 17, of Saida Kadal, Srinagar, who was killed after he was hit by a shell while government forces were dispersing protesters on June 11, 2010 at nearby Rajori Kadal. Mattoo was on his way to his coaching class when he was hit, newspapers had reported.

Another victim was the 13-year-old Wamiq Farooq, who was killed on January 31, 2010 when a tear gas shell, fired at point-blank range, hit his head. These killings triggered a series of protests which later resulted in agitations all across Kashmir.

There were two other tear gas deaths during protests: Gowhar Nazir of Zainakote HMT, on the outskirts of Srinagar in November 2014 and Irfan Ahmad, 18, in August 2016 in Malarata in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar. A 76-year-old man, Ghulam Muhammad Khan, was killed in November 2016 at Elahi Bagh when he was hit by a tear gas shell.

‘My wife was going to a hospital when she was hit’

Gowhar Nazir Dar’s brother, Shahzad Nazir Dar, a gaunt youngster with sunken eyes, sat in his home in the Omarabad HMT area of western Srinagar, recalling his loss. “I was not like this when my brother was alive–I was physically very fit,” said Dar, who stopped studying after his second year in BA. “When I look at Gowhar’s laptop, I get very emotional. He had hardly used it when he got killed.” 

“When I look at Gowhar’s laptop, I get very emotional,” says Shahzad Nazir Dar of his brother, an engineering student, who had been killed when a crowd was tear-gassed at a protest on the outskirts of Srinagar. “He had hardly used it when he got killed.”

Gowhar was a computer-applications engineering student who had nearly completed his degree when he was killed. 

“My younger brother, Farnosh has developed a cardiac problem, while my mother is in depression,” said Shahzad. “Doctors have told us that we should never leave her alone.” Their father, Nazir Ahmad Dar, has been told that his son, Shahzad, will be given a government job as compensation but the offer is yet to arrive.

“Despite CID (Criminal Investigation Department) police and CIK (Counter Intelligence Kashmir) verification, my son is not being given employment under SRO 43 (statutory rules and order which guarantees employment to the next of kin of the innocent killed),” said Nazir.
“Instead, they recently offered us Rs 4 lakh in cash which we refused.”

Arsalan Bhat, 19, of Dangarpora, Pulwama, was hit by a tear gas shell causing severe facial injuries in April 2018. He has already undergone two plastic surgeries at SKIMS and is waiting for the third.

“Doctors told us that he has to go through another surgery after six months and have advised against exposure to sunlight,” said Rayees Ahmad, Bhat’s cousin. “He is a student and has lost many weeks of studies because of the surgeries. It has cost his family Rs 60,000 so far and they don’t know how much the third surgery will cost.”

Tanveer Ahmad of Zainakote, Srinagar, a second-year undergraduate student at Srinagar’s Amar Singh College, was hit by a tear gas shell outside his college while he and his fellow students were protesting against the rape of a minor girl in Sumbal, in Baramulla district, an incident which evoked massive protests in May 2019.

“The government calls them non-lethal weapons for dispersing protesters but how are they not lethal if they are doing this to people?” asked Ahmad. 

For Zahoor Ahmad Bhat of Shalteng in Srinagar district, the spring and summer of 2017 have been traumatic. His wife, Nighat, had to undergo several facial surgeries after she was hit by a tear gas shell when women were protesting against the lack of power supply in their area.

“She was not even part of the protest when women had blocked the main road outside our locality,” he said. “She had to go to the hospital for a check-up. But police fired tear gas shells indiscriminately and one of the shells hit her in the face. Thank God, the plastic surgeries gave her back her face. But, she has turned somewhat temperamental after that incident. She was very shy but now she loses her temper with the children and other family members.”

The young and old suffer the most

People with respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the elderly and very young suffer the most when tear gas and pepper gas are used, said a report in Greater Kashmir published in October 2016, quoting senior physicians.

The medical file of a tear gas shell victim at a Srinagar hospital. Upto 97% of those exposed to tear gas and chilli spray complained of cough and throat irritation, found a study conducted by doctors at SKIMS.

Tear gas is poisonous, Sundeep Salvi, director of Pune-based Chest Research Foundation, said. “It is meant to kill a person; it is meant to cause harm,” he pointed out. “But how much harm it is causing in Kashmir, I have no knowledge. I need to study cases before I comment on that.” 

“Tear gas under the Geneva Convention is characterized as a chemical warfare agent, and so it is precluded for use in warfare, but it is used very frequently against civilians,” Sven-Eric Jordt, a nerve gas expert at Yale University School of Medicine, told National Geographic on June 12, 2013 in an interview. “That’s very illogical.”

Incidents of exacerbation of COPD and asthma, and the number of patients suffering from these arrive in larger numbers from areas which report more tear gas and pepper gas use, said doctors at Srinagar’s Chest Diseases Hospital (CDH) and Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital. There are no data available to back this statement but the number of patients goes up every time a violent protest is dealt with using gas, the doctors said.

Sound cannons next? No, says govt

Despite this, media reports on June 24, 2019 claimed, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is now considering using sound cannons for crowd control in Kashmir instead of pellet guns. The use of long range acoustic devices (LRAD) could cause hearing damage, concluded a study by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPRD), published in March 2017.

“High-intensity directed acoustic devices (HIDA) devices such as LRAD are designed to deliver audible warning messages over long ranges (up to 1km),” the study said. “However, at closer distances it is considerably more incapacitating and can produce 120 db (decibles) of sound at 60m and peak levels of 130db at 4 meters. Hearing damage can occur at levels as low as 80 db, if exposure is over a long period.” These are high decibel levels–120 db is equivalent to the noise made by a thunderclap.

The media reports followed a notification or request for information put out by the CRPF on its website, asking manufacturers to submit details of long-range acoustic devices, or sound cannons, by June 30, 2019.

But these reports were denied by Sanjay Kumar, the CRPF spokesperson. “We have no information that CRPF is now going to use any sound cannons in Kashmir,” he told IndiaSpend. “In the first place, let me inform you that stone-pelting incidents have considerably declined. We don’t feel the need of using force anymore. We observe utmost restraint. But if the need arises, we resort to tear gas or pepper gas shelling in a responsible manner.”

Kashmir Police too denied the reports. “I don’t procure the supplies (the authentic information can be had from police headquarters),” said Swayam Prakash Pani, the inspector general of police.

The state had conducted trials in 2010 in Sopore and old Srinagar city and found the use of sound cannons unfeasible, said senior superintendent of police, armoury, Gulzar Ahmad. “So, I don’t think there is any probability of using sound cannons in Kashmir,” Ahmad told IndiaSpend.

The report could have been planted by “some munitions manufacturers for business opportunities”, a top official of Jammu & Kashmir police, who did not wish to be named, alleged. “Surprisingly, these reports have come at a time when the security situation in Kashmir is much better as compared to the past two-three years: Stone-pelting is now witnessed quite occasionally.” 

A June 26, 2019, ministry of home affairs statement backed the claim that there has been a sharp decrease in number of stone-pelting incidents across Kashmir. “The Government [has] constituted a Joint Monitoring Committee involving all concerned agencies at the central level and a Multi-Disciplinary Terror Monitoring Group (TMG) at the State level for sustained action against terror funding,” it said. “This has, inter-alia, resulted in a significant decline in the incidents of stone pelting in 2019 so far, compared to the number of incidents during the corresponding period last year.”

Only 40 incidents of stone-pelting have been reported in the first six months of 2019 against 1,458 incidents in 2018 and 2,653 in 2016, a media report on July 14, 2019 stated, quoting figures from the union home ministry.

Solutions Box

Crowd control should not end up maiming and killing people. I think alternative methods of crowd control such as water cannons, baton charges and rubber bullets should be deployed to avoid injuries and casualties among protesters and prevent collateral damage. 
   
Parvaiz Koul, Professor and Head of Department of Internal & Pulmonary Medicine, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar. 

The government should not treat the stone-throwing mobs and innocent citizens alike. Tear gas and pepper gas don’t distinguish between innocent people and those involved in rioting. The government should either stop using such methods or provide protection to innocent citizens.

S Balamurugan, Principal Investigator, Chennai Chest Research Institute.
 

(Parvaiz is a Srinagar-based journalist.)

Courtesy: India Spend

The post ‘Non-Lethal’ Crowd-Control Methods Have Killed 24, Blinded 139 In Kashmir appeared first on SabrangIndia.

An artisan puffs on his hookah as he weaves a basket in Ganderbal-Kashmir.

COPD, typified by coughing, wheezing and breathlessness, is the second most frequent killer disease in India, responsible for the death of almost 1 million Indians in 2017, IndiaSpend reported in March 2018, citing the Global Burden of Disease study by the University of Washington, US. Caused by the inflammation of the lung’s airways, it destroys the air sacs that extract oxygen and expel carbon dioxide.

Air pollution and smoking have been established as the primary reasons for COPD in India, according to a 2018 study published in The Lancet. 

J&K witnesses widespread burning of biomass fuel for cooking and heating, as well as widespread smoking, which together cause a 16-18% prevalence rate for COPD in the state, while the national average is 5-7%, said Sundeep Salvi, director of the Pune-based Chest Research Foundation in this interview to IndiaSpend on March 3, 2019.

J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana report COPD figures equal or greater than 4,750 per 100,000 population — the highest across India. 

In J&K, acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) in about 470,000 chronic patients annually costs around Rs 210 crore, enough to set up four maternity hospitals, one study has estimated. 

“Jammu and Kashmir is fast emerging as the ‘smoking capital’ of the north,” The Economic Times reported in February 2015, citing sources at the Voluntary Health Association of India, a nonprofit. 

One in five, or 20.8%, of J&K’s people smoke, against the national average of 10.7%, according to the Global Tobacco Survey 2016-17. The state ranks the sixth highest among Indian states by smoking habits, behind Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram in ascending order, as per this survey.

To understand how widespread the use of tobacco and tobacco products — including cigarettes and bidis — is in J&K, IndiaSpend accessed data over seven years to 2017-18 on sales taxes collected in the state on these items. 

We found that tobacco and tobacco products fetched the state’s sales tax department its highest revenue among more than 70 commodities, including automobiles and electronic gadgets.

Source: Jammu and Kashmir sales tax department
Note: Total consumption of tobacco and tobacco products is our analysis of the data

Users in the state consumed tobacco products worth Rs 5,530 crore over the seven years to 2017-18, according to our estimates, based on the 40% sales tax imposed on these items by the government. (After the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax regime in the state in 2018-19, the tax rate is now down to 28%.) Annually, the state consumes tobacco products worth an average Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion), our analysis revealed. 

Year-wise data from these sales figures suggested that the consumption of tobacco products is rising in the state. The only decline was in 2017-18. 

28.2% of smokers have COPD
“Our studies have revealed that there is a very high prevalence of biomass burning and smoking in Kashmir,” said Parvaiz Koul, head of general medicine department at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar. “Both of them are responsible for causing COPD. Smoking itself is a form of biomass burning.”

Smoking is also responsible for reduced lung function among those living in Kashmir, a study carried out by Koul and others, and published in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in October 2016, concluded. The team measured the incidence of chronic airflow limitation or CAL, which reduces pulmonary functioning.

“Most patients we receive in all seasons suffer from COPD,” said Naveed Nazir Shah, senior consultant at the Chest Diseases Hospital (CDH), Srinagar. “And we have observed that most of them have a history of tobacco use.” 

Yet another September 2018 study concluded that there is high prevalence of COPD in Kashmir and this is associated with smoking.

COPD prevalence was 2.7%, 22% and 28.2% among non-smokers, ex-smokers and current smokers, respectively, as per this study. Also, 59.5% of COPD subjects have had a history of tobacco exposure.

 Low awareness of hazards
Tobacco use, especially cigarette smoking, is socially acceptable in Kashmir because of the lack of awareness and inadequate advocacy, said Arshad Hussain, senior psychiatrist and professor at the Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar.

“What is aiding this huge prevalence of tobacco use enormously, especially smoking, is the fact that Kashmir has become a highly stressful zone where people are facing not only challenges associated with daily life, but also those posed by the turbulent security and political situation,” Hussain said. “When people experience anxiety and stress, they tend to manage the unpleasant feelings by resorting to the use of substances such as tobacco.”

Upto 45% of J&K’s population experiences mental distress, a survey on mental health in Kashmir, published by Medicines Sans Frontiers (or Doctors without Borders, the international medical humanitarian organisation) in May 2016, revealed. “Nearly 1.8 million adults (45% of the population) in the Kashmir Valley show symptoms of significant mental distress,” the report said.

Hussain pointed to the lack of aggressive public campaigning against smoking in the region. “For example, some time back, an order was issued that incidents of smoking in offices or public places be reported — but it has been taken lightly and people continue to smoke in offices and public places,” he said.
The growing prevalence of smoking, Arshad observed, is not only one of the major causes of respiratory diseases but also a gateway to drug abuse among the youth. “The authorities should focus on how to involve youth in activities like sports which can potentially help avoid this situation,” the psychiatrist said.
The fresh waves of armed and political conflict in the region are pushing tobacco use, said Malik Roshan Ara, who teaches psychology at Srinagar’s Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASE). “The repeated incidents of violence and political unrest often confine people to their homes that too in a state of anxiety,” she said. “So, people must be using tobacco as a stress-buster especially when the use of tobacco is considered acceptable in our culture.”

COPD and its high cost for patients and attendants
A recent study published in the Annals of Global Health on January 22, 2019, analysed data on out-of-pocket costs of hospitalisation and missed work-days of patients and their attendants.

“Our study estimated the costs of AECOPD (Acute Exacerbations of COPD) in India to be INR 44,390 per admission and mostly (71%) related to direct hospital costs,” the study said. “Importantly, about 30% of the total costs were related to transportation, medications and diagnostic tests and out-of-pocket expenses. These results suggest that AECOPD generates substantial costs that could be a major economic burden to patients and their families.”

The study calculated the financial burden of the disease thus: The state’s population, as per the 2011 census, is close to 12 million. Given “expected prevalence” of 19% of COPD in individuals over 40 years of age, there are an estimated 470,000 patients with the disease in the state. “Assuming that at least half of COPD patients will have two exacerbations per year, we can estimate that approximately Rs 2.1 billion are spent on AECOPD in Jammu and Kashmir.” 

This story was first published here on HealthCheck.

(Parvaiz is a Srinagar-based journalist.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post Tobacco Gives J&K Its Highest Tax Revenue, And A COPD Crisis appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Srinagar: Curfew in Srinagar
 
The Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party formed a coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir in March 2015. Data suggest an increase in violence and related deaths since then, particularly after the July 2016 killing of militant commander Burhan Wani–209 militants were killed in 2017, up 65% from 136 in 2016.

 
The data also attest to a spurt in incidents of stone pelting, pellet and bullet injuries, as well as damage to homes and private property.  
 
“The alliance between PDP and BJP was sold to the people with the promise that it would lead to a peace process. But the peace process never took off,” Noor Ahmad Baba, political commentator and former head of Kashmir University’s political science department, told IndiaSpend, “On the contrary, the protests and political dissent in the aftermath of Burhan Wani’s killing is being met with repression. It has further alienated the people especially the youth.”
 
The coalition partners have been at loggerheads over many issues, the latest disagreement having been about the current ceasefire–the PDP’s proposal to New Delhi had been opposed by the state BJP unit, as The Telegraph reported on May 11, 2018, and also by the union defense ministry, as the Hindustan Times reported on May 13.
 
The central home ministry relented eventually and announced a ceasefire. “It is important to isolate the forces that bring a bad name to Islam by resorting to mindless violence and terror,” home minister Rajnath Singh said on Twitter on May 16, 2018.
 
 
To be sure, Wani’s killing is not the only reason why militancy has registered an increase in Kashmir.
 
“The continuous vicious cycle of violence in the absence of a political dialogue is leaving a huge impact on the mindset of the youth,” Baba said, adding that a new phenomenon is visible in Kashmir in which people risk their lives and rush to encounter sites to support trapped militants during cordon-and-search operations. This, he said, is due to the lack of a meaningful peace process.  
 
Nevertheless, the ceasefire is “a step in the right direction,” Baba said, adding that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Srinagar on May 19, 2018, he must make clear whether he intends to kickstart a long-term peace process. “Mr Modi recently went to neighbouring China and then to Nepal. Would he be interested in Pakistan as well? It remains to be seen,” Baba said.
 
By the end of 2016, the number of active militants across Kashmir was 209 (136 militants were also killed in that year), according to a map published by the Crime Branch of Jammu & Kashmir Police in its annual crime gazette.
 
Between 2012 and 2014, the army had estimated that fewer than 100 militants were active in Kashmir, most of them non-locals, as the Hindustan Times reported on April 7, 2015.
 
The spurt in militancy is reflected in the increase in the number of armed encounters between militants and security forces. Between 2012 and 2014, 129 encounters or incidents of cross-firing between government forces and militants were recorded, in which 227 militants (including 60 Kashmiri militants) and 101 security forces (including 48 army personnel) were killed, Jammu & Kashmir Police data show.
 
Encounters registered an increase of 53%, with 247 encounters recorded from 2015 to 2017, in which 439 militants (including 156 Kashmiris) and 200 government forces (including 109 army personnel) were killed.
 
As many as 4,799 incidents of stone pelting took place from 2015 to 2017, as per home ministry data cited in a parliamentary response on February 7, 2018. Stone-pelting is a relatively recent phenomenon, so no comparative figures are available.

 
However, its human toll has been well-documented, and was evident when IndiaSpend visited Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, where most pellet victims with eye injuries come for treatment. Hospital records show that 1,398 patients have been treated here for pellet wounds from January 2015 to May 10, 2018.
 

Ashfaq Ahmad Chohan, a pellet victim.
 
“As you can see, my eye is totally damaged,” 20-year-old Ashfaq Ahmad Chohan, a pellet victim from Chek-Hayin village in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, who was visiting the hospital to obtain a disability certificate, said. However, he said, he was being given a document certifying only 30 percent disability, which would impair his chances of getting commensurate compensation.
 
The government of Jammu and Kashmir had announced in November 2017 that it would provide jobs to the worst-affected pellet victims, but until January 2018 only 13 people had got the promised jobs, Greater Kashmir reported on January 25, 2018. Last year, human rights NGO Amnesty International’s India chapter had started a Ban Pellet Guns campaign, urging the Jammu & Kashmir government to ban pump-action shotguns which fire metal pellets.    
 
Owners of houses where militants hide often become unwitting victims as their homes get cordoned off by security forces, and crossfire results in loss of life and extensive damage or total destruction of their property.
 

People looking at the house destroyed during an encounter in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district
 
As many as 105 houses have been destroyed since 2015 in encounters in Pulwama, one of the two worst militancy-hit districts in south Kashmir, for which IndiaSpend was able to access official figures.    

 
News reports have noted that during encounters, local youths as well as youths from adjacent and even far-off villages have started helping the militants escape, as The Week reported on June 12, 2017. They distract the security forces by hurling stones and raising slogans so that the militants can flee.
 
In response, the security forces have started conducting search operations during the night so that civilians cannot gather in support of militants. However, at a recent encounter during the intervening night of May 12 and 13, 2018, four militants escaped while incidents of stone pelting by civilians were recorded, the Business Standard reported on May 12, 2018.
 
Hundreds of people reached the spot shortly after they heard gunshots, a local resident of Wagum-Pulwama, where the latest encounter had taken place, said. “Once we felt our young boys have been surrounded by army men, the darkness didn’t deter us and we came out help them,” another resident said, speaking to IndiaSpend without wishing to be named.
 

The house of Bashir Ahmad Ganie of Wagum-Pulwama was destroyed during an encounter on May 13, 2018. He was also hit on his left arm by a bullet.
 
Sitting in a tent outside his gutted house, local resident Bashir Ahmad Ganie alleged that the security forces had burned his house down on suspicion that militants were hiding inside. Ganie had also sustained a bullet injury during the encounter.
 
Srinagar-based defense ministry spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia refuted the allegations. “We don’t destroy any property intentionally,” he said, “Whenever local terrorists get trapped during our cordon and search operations, we give them the opportunity to surrender. But, when they resort to firing, the encounter happens and in the process property also gets damaged.”
 
(Parvaiz is a Srinagar-based journalist.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post Kashmir Ceasefire Comes After 50% Rise In Armed Encounters, Killings During 2015-2017 Over 2012-2014 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A Shikara wala navigating his boat at Dal Lake, Srinagar. Until July 2016, nearly 1.3 million tourists had poured into Kashmir over the year. This year, at the height of the tourist season, only a few thousand arrivals have been recorded.

 
This summer, the lake and its shores are empty of tourists and the smartly-dressed boatman is upset. “Look at our empty boats,” said Bhat, 31. “We have nobody to take on a ride.”

 

Rizwan Ahmad Bhat, standing near his Shikara (boat) at Dal Lake in Srinagar. His Shikara hardly gets any visitors this summer.

 
Half-a-dozen other boatmen, dressed in T-shirts and jeans, stood around, listening to the conversation. They complained that the media is scaring tourists away from Kashmir. “When people watch TV, they think Kashmir is burning and we should not go there,” said one of them, and others agreed.
 
Until July 2016, when young militant leader Burhan Wani’s killing sparked a prolonged chain of violence in the Valley, Bhat and other boatmen used to earn Rs 1,000-Rs 1,500 a day. Now they count themselves lucky if they make Rs 400 a day.
 
It is the same story at Ali Shah Carpets on Saida Kadal Road, 7 km off Srinagar’s city centre. Unsold rugs and shawls worth crores of rupees are piling up to the dismay of general manager Rafiq Ahmad Shah. “Tourism is a flop this year, so is our production,” he said. Orders were given to artisans in winter for summer sales as no one had foreseen crisis.

 
The ebbs and flows of violence and tourism
 
Tourism is important for Jammu and Kashmir’s economy, contributing 8% to the state’s gross domestic product. In 2016, the state had recorded 1,299,112 (1.29 million) tourists. The sector employs over 100,000 people, directly and indirectly, according to approximate industry estimates.
 

The 33-hectare Tulip Garden in Srinagar is the new addition to Kashmir’s tourism spots since 2008. However, in recent months, after the national media have been swamped with stories of violence in the Valley, tourist arrivals declined.
 
But tourism is also highly sensitive to issues of law and order. In recent months, the national media have been swamped with stories of violence in the Valley and between April and early June this year, only a few thousand tourists arrived, said tourism officials who did not wish to be named.
 
The Valley has seen a decline in insurgency-related violence in recent years but there has been a rise in street violence, mostly stone-pelting, as IndiaSpend reported on May 30, 2017. Tour operators and tourism officials argue that this violence is too sporadic and localised to affect travellers.
 
For tourists, however, any trouble, big or small, is avoidable. Bengaluru resident Badri Raghavan scrapped a long-awaited Kashmir vacation with his wife and three children in June 2017 though the cancellation cost was steep. The family’s plans had included a houseboat stint on the Nageen lake in Srinagar and homestay in Sonamarg.
 
“The tour operator insisted that it is safe but if I have all of seven days in hand for a vacation why would I spend it looking over my shoulders all the time?” said Raghavan.
 
Tourism figures for the Valley have had a direct link with its law- and-order situation. Kashmir was a strong favourite among national and international tourists until 1988, with over 700,000 arrivals. But in 1989, armed violence began in the Valley and the numbers dropped by 200,000. That year, there were 1,500 violent incidents which included bomb blasts and firing.
 
In 1990 and 1991, there were 4,211 and 3,780 violent incidents reported, respectively, thereby bringing tourist arrivals to a meager 6,287 tourists, a 98% decrease from tourist arrivals since 1989.
 
In 1995, violence eased in the Valley and in early 1996, assembly elections were conducted after eight years of governor’s rule. With a civilian government in place, tourist confidence too returned. In 1998, over 100,000 visitors arrived in Kashmir.
 
Four years later, India and Pakistan were at the brink of war following the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament. Assembly elections held in the same year in Jammu and Kashmir in September were also marred by violence. Consequently, tourist inflow declined sharply in 2002, falling to 27,356.
 
With the start of the India-Pakistan peace process in 2003, and up until 2012, tourist figures climbed steadily to over 1.3 million. In 2015, the numbers fell below 1 million, but this time because floods had devastated Kashmir in September the previous year, affecting its tourism infrastructure badly.
 

Source: Department of Tourism, Government of Jammu & Kashmir

Note: Includes domestic & foreign tourists
 

Hotels fully booked last year; now, only 25% occupancy
 
Two top sales officials at two leading Srinagar hotels, who requested anonymity, said April-June occupancy is down by 70-80% this year compared to 2016.
 
“From April to June last year, we had no vacancies at all given the huge influx of tourists,” said one of the hotel officials, requesting anonymity. “But this year, we have just managed 25% occupancy. It is because of the fear psychosis being created about Kashmir, especially by TV channels.”
 
Currently, only 15 of 80 rooms in his hotel have guests staying in them.
 
In recent years, media portrayal of events as well as non-events in Kashmir have become a serious concern for Kashmiris, especially for those who rely on tourism and related activities.
 
“In a place like Kashmir, tourism inflow is often dependent on peace. But the media reportage about Kashmir is disrupting tourism by creating a false narrative about the situation in Kashmir,” Mahmood Ahmad Shah, director-tourism, Kashmir, told IndiaSpend. “In winter itself, TV channels were predicting the start of a bloody summer in March.”
 
Most early bookings were cancelled last year and there were hardly any new bookings this year, according to one of the two hotel officials IndiaSpend spoke to.
 
Tour operators also accused the media of prompting a Kashmir “boycott”. “Messages like ‘avoid travelling to a place where Indian flags are burnt’ were being circulated on WhatsApp group (sic). Who would dare to come now?” Farooq Kuthoo, secretary-general of the Travel Agents Association of Kashmir, was quoted as saying in The Hindu on July 6, 2017. The newspaper went on to quote a Gujarati student activist Rimmi Vaghela: “There is a concerted effort to shoo away Gujaratis from travelling to Kashmir this year online. Besides the social media, the vernacular press in Gujarat plays up the incidents of violence like never before.”
 
Prominent Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Pervez tweeted recently:

 
 
At a recent leadership training session for academics at the Kashmir University, the trainer asked an academic from Rajasthan for the first word she associates with Kashmir. ‘Militancy’ was the answer. For the Kashmiri academics in the classroom, this seemed like a reflection on how Kashmir is portrayed in the media, an assistant professor later said.
 
“We are the victims of media propaganda,” said Abdul Hamid the manager of a hotel in north Srinagar. “A stone-pelting incident takes place somewhere, someday in Kashmir and it is shown repeatedly on TV for days together as participants on talk shows keep debating stone-pelting and militancy in Kashmir. This is creating a negative message about Kashmir.” Only three of the hotel’s 14 rooms had guests.
 
Either unemployment or wage cut for workers
 
The tourism crisis has affected workers more than owners, said Hamid. “Hotel owners at least get tax rebates when the tourism industry suffers, but most workers are either laid off or have their salaries slashed up to more than 50%,” he said.
 
In his late 20s, Shabir Ahmad from Tangmarg (Baramullah), was employed as a service boy by a Srinagar hotel in March 2015. He was asked to either accept a 60% wage cut or leave. “I preferred to stay as I have no other skill,” said Ahmad. “Now, I and other employees are just hoping that the tourist inflow to valley improves.”
 
Foreign tourists scarce, exacerbating tourism woes
 
Many countries including US, UK, Germany and France issued travel advisories against Kashmir.
 
“We used to love dealing with foreign tourists because they stay for days and weeks together,” said Tariq Ahmad Patloo, a houseboat owner at Dal Lake pointing to the pages of his old log books at his houseboat New Sea Palace. “Now, our houseboat gets just three-four foreign tourists a year.”
 

Tariq Ahmad Patloo showing the entries of foreign guests during 1980s from an old log book of his house-boat New Sea Palace.
 
Between 1990 and 2005, the number of foreigners travelling to Kashmir remained way under 20,000. It witnessed a steady increase after an improvement in the security situation across Kashmir.
 
In 2011 and 2012, the number of foreign tourists was 32,110 and 37,166 respectively. But, from 2013, this number declined again.
 

(Parvaiz is a Srinagar-based journalist.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post Thousands Lose Jobs, Wages As Restive Kashmir’s Tourism Economy Dwindles appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Security personnel guard a college as students enter to take secondary school exams in Baramulla town in Kashmir on November 14, 2016. An analysis of various surveys and reports shows that since July 8, 2016, educational institutions in the Kashmir valley have stayed open on 80 out of 197 working days.

The killing of Wani’s successor, Sabzar Bhat, on May 27, 2017, threatens to further stoke the fire raging since the April 9, 2017 by-elections for a parliamentary seat. On May 27, 2017, separatists announced three days of strike and protests to mourn Bhat’s death while the police imposed curfew to prevent people from gathering. Yet, clashes took place between protesters and personnel of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force resulting in the killing of a youth and injuries to 70 others.
 
In all, 2016 witnessed 2,690 incidents of stone-pelting, violent demonstrations, firing and use of shotgun pellets. This was 79% higher than the 1,500 insurgency-related incidents recorded in 1989, when the armed rebellion in Kashmir marked its beginning. The figure, shared by a top police official on condition of anonymity, for four-and-a-half months into this year–up to May 18, 2017–is 1,031, and a repeat of last year is not unlikely. Since Bhat’s killing, 30 incidents of stone-pelting have been reported on Saturday and Sunday, according to top police officials quoted in the local press.
 
Changing face of violence
 
Violence, coupled with curfews and shutdowns, has repeatedly disrupted education in the Kashmir region. However, unlike the 1990s and early 2000s when violent incidents were mainly bomb blasts, grenade explosions and cross-firing, violence since 2010 has mainly taken the form of stone-pelting by protesters and use of force by security personnel by way of firing bullets and pellets to disperse protesters. Between January 1, 2010, and May 18, 2017, as many as 6,897 such law and order incidents have taken place, as against 1,970 insurgency-related incidents, data shared by the J&K police official show.    
 

Schools, colleges in the crosshairs
 
So far this year, amid apprehensions that the security situation might flare up again, schools have pulled through, although instruction in colleges and universities has been interrupted repeatedly since the April 9, 2017, by-election for the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency. Widespread violence during the election had resulted in eight civilian deaths and closure of schools and colleges for four days.      
 
Afterwards, some torture videos had gone viral and fuelled a gathering sense of anger   among college and university students. Now, students, including women–who had thus far steered clear of stone-pelting and similar activities–are staging frequent protests.
 
The Jammu and Kashmir government has responded by repeatedly ordering educational institutions, particularly colleges, to remain closed as a “precautionary measure” against student protests. For example, Srinagar’s SP Higher Secondary School has been ordered shut on at least six occasions, including, most recently, on May 18, 2017. An April 2017 order had ensured closure of educational institutions across Kashmir for five consecutive days.
 
Losing more than an academic year
 
Educationists and civil society activists have been making fervent appeals on Facebook urging students to go back to class, now that they have expressed their anguish. Since the government’s April 27, 2017, decision to block 22 social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter, Kashmiris have been using virtual private network (VPN) applications–which extend a private network across a public one, essentially how companies connect geographically-separated offices–to access social media.
 
J&K education minister Syed Altaf Bukhari warned protesting students on May 18, 2017, that those falling short of attendance will not be allowed to take their exams.  
 
Educationists are worried. “We need our youth educated. We can’t afford more ill-educated generations,” Roshan Ara, who teaches at Srinagar’s College of Education, said referring to the chaos of the 1990s and early 2000s when heightened political turmoil had resulted in violence across Kashmir, depriving two generations of proper education.
 
A detailed look at the newspaper files of the time gives a clear sense of the intensity of violence in those years–the overwhelming majority of lead stories on newspaper front pages was about violent incidents.  
 
Statistics from J&K Police, as revealed by the official, are even more revealing: Towards the end of 1989, over 1,500 violent incidents were recorded, which included 351 bomb blasts. The frequency of explosions, grenade launches, cross-firings, abductions and demonstrations registered a sharp increase in the years that followed. As many as 4,211 violent incidents which included explosions, improvised explosive device blasts and grenade attacks occurred in the year 1990 alone. The number of incidents went up and down over the years, to close 2016 with 2,690 incidents. This year has seen over 1,000 incidents in its first four-and-a-half months.
 

Source: Data shared by an official of the Jammu & Kashmir police (1989-2002), and from the annual reports (2003-2016) of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
 
Right after the onset of conflict in Kashmir, the working of schools and government offices was affected. After initial hiccups due to intermittent strikes, the functioning of schools came to a halt when employees of all educational institutions, in sync with employees of all government departments, went on strike for 73 consecutive days from September 14 to November 28, 1990, to protest against human rights violations. As many as 125 strike calls were issued by separatist organisations in the year 1990 alone, according to data compiled by the crime branch of the J&K Police.
 
Again, there were phases when the situation improved or deteriorated, and 2016 saw 130 days when curfew or shutdown was imposed. This year, since schools and colleges reopened on March 1, 2017, curfews and strike calls have disrupted normal life on more than 15 days–nearly a fifth (19%) of working days–an analysis of media reports shows.

 
In Srinagar, Akhtar remembers how her young child had to stay indoors for four months in 2016. An analysis of various surveys and reports shows that since July 8, 2016, educational institutions have stayed open on 80 out of 197 working days, meaning they have remained closed on 59.39% of working days.
 
“Thankfully, so far schools have remained open,” she said. “But everybody says that if the situation worsens, it might not be possible to keep the schools open.” Over the last 27 years, Kashmiris have become inured to political turmoil, security mayhem and human rights abuses. However, closed schools, and home-bound children, bring the realities of the conflict home, quite literally.
 
(Parvaiz is a Srinagar-based journalist.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 
 

The post Since July 2016, Kashmir Schools & Colleges Have Been Shut On 60% Of Working Days appeared first on SabrangIndia.