Greater Kashmir Daily: SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Srinagar, June 30: Entire Kashmir is on the roads, seething against the land grab, ready to explode any time. And rage is also spreading fast among the police and troops. Stretched to limits, they may even run amuck, itching to show their hands to the “Pakistani crowd” (overheard outside a bank, where this writer had gone to withdraw some cash from ATM). While Rome is burning, Romeo is playing the flute. Since Friday evening a section of the electronic media was agog with the rumors that settlement of the issue is just hours away but for almost two days, there is nothing forthcoming. And on Sunday morning, after so many more casualties and a long wait, the chief minister tried to push down the throat of Kashmiris a half-baked solution. But people are in no mood to take the bait and oblige him. Thus the situation becomes rife with the apprehensions of more bloodshed.
Had the government been really serious to diffuse the explosive situation in its initial stage, it could have convened the cabinet meeting to revoke the order formally, once the Raj Bhavan started the ball rolling on the Friday evening itself. But it did not want PDP and NC to take the credit. On their part also, the PDP and NC played criminal; in the zest for the credit taking they spilled the beans about the likely settlement after their meetings with the governor. While power hungry politicians were hunting for the credit where there was none, people continued to die. Who is to blame for these gory deaths? And, who should be held responsible if there is any further loss of life, particularly when people from all over the valley will try to throng Jamia Masjid today.
Irrespective of Pakistani ruling elite’s oblivious behavior, and complete black-out of the issue by PTV, sentiment of Azadi has hit the people of Kashmir with new found vigor. It has hit the critical mass once again; an avalanche of emotions is for everybody to see. One wishes one could have Salman Ali of Junoon here once again and show him the real Junoon for Azadi. Srinagar ki betiyan— daughters of Srinagar, full of passion— ready to die to protect their honour and honour of Kashmir as well. For New Delhi and Islamabad, the massage is loud and clear, the events of last week may be precursor of an indigenous and non-violent movement to follow. And the Indian media (with very few exceptions) is busy spreading canards, trying to label the peaceful assertion as ‘Islamists protestors.”
In the days of so called “war on terror” ‘Islamists’ is a slur, a western jargon to describe the ilk of Osama bin Laden and Alzahawari. But people of Kashmir, in spite of the worst kind of suppression, have not lost their moorings. On the contrary, even when their identity is under siege, not a single Yatri had been obstructed to fulfill his or her religious obligations. When entire Kashmir has come to a grinding halt only Yatri vehicles ply on the roads here. People of Dalgate, Chandanwari and other places have made Kashmir proud by feeding stranded Yatris and tourists, from their own meager resources. Can the Swamis and doyens of Indian journalism show us one such example from the land ridden with Godhras, Ahmedabads and Bhiwandis. It happens only in Kashmir. And, to set the record straight— the flag hoisted on the clock tower was green with crescent not a Pakistani flag, and it does excite the huge agitating crowd there.
I was out early morning and the protests were still going on. People were pelting stones onto civilian vehicles. 
Now the situation is worsening every day. There is chaos and confusion everywhere 
