‘Line through our hearts’: A Kashmir village, 75 years after partition

By Fayaz Bukhari and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam

TEETWAL, India/CHILEHANA, Pakistan (Reuters) – A roaring Himalayan river and one of many world’s most militarised borders separate the Khokhar household in Kashmir, a mountainous area divided between India and Pakistan – arch rivals that gained independence from Britain 75 years in the past.

Abdul Rashid Khokhar lives on the Indian facet, within the village of Teetwal.

Throughout the fast-flowing waters of the Neelum River, often known as the Kishanganga, his nephews – Javed Iqbal Khokhar and Muneer Hussain Khokhar – run small shops within the hamlet of Chilehana in Pakistan.

Above them, on each side, loom tall, inexperienced mountains from the place the militaries of the nuclear-armed neighbours have intermittently rained mortars, shells and small arm hearth on one another via the a long time.

Since early 2021, the Line of Management (LOC), a 740-km (460-mile) de facto border that cuts Kashmir into two, has been largely quiet, following the renewal of a ceasefire settlement between India and Pakistan.

After years of bombardment and destruction on this a part of Kashmir, farmers have returned to deserted fields and orchards, markets are bustling, small companies are increasing and colleges are again to regular routines, residents on each side mentioned.

However the damaged diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan, who fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, proceed to solid a darkish shadow over the area. Kashmir, claimed by each nations, stays the largest unresolved challenge between the 2, a lot the identical because it was in 1947.

India and Pakistan haven’t any viable commerce hyperlinks and their diplomatic missions are downgraded. Visas to go to from both facet are extraordinarily restricted.

The image-postcard valleys and mountains of Kashmir are divided into Pakistani and Indian sectors, whereas China controls a slice of the area within the north.

The slender rope bridge that connects Teetwal to Chilehana is blocked on each side by barbed wire, and no crossings have been allowed since 2018.

Sentry posts stay on each side of the bridge, which straddles the LOC.

“The road runs via our hearts,” mentioned Khokhar, a 73-year-old who’s the village council head of Teetwal, referring to the LOC.

“It is rather traumatic that you could see your family throughout however cannot discuss to them, meet them.”

The Khokhars are among the many tens of millions of households that discovered themselves divided following the partition of colonial India into the unbiased nations, Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan, at midnight on August 14/15 in 1947.

MORE THAN A MILLION KILLED

The hasty splitting of the subcontinent by Britain triggered a mass migration, marred by bloodshed and violence, as about 15 million folks sought to swap nations primarily primarily based on their faith.

Greater than 1,000,000 folks had been killed in non secular riots, in accordance with many unbiased estimates.

Carnage swept via Teetwal throughout partition however extra destruction adopted throughout the 1971 India-Pakistan conflict that ultimately led to the institution of the LOC, mentioned Khokhar.

By the Nineteen Nineties, components of Jammu and Kashmir, the one Muslim-majority state within the primarily Hindu nation, had been within the grip of a full-blown insurgency that New Delhi accused Pakistan of fomenting.

Islamabad has denied the allegation, saying it solely supplies diplomatic and ethical assist for Kashmiris in search of self-determination.

Pakistan additionally accuses India of human rights violations within the components of Kashmir beneath its management, a cost that New Delhi rejects.

In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reorganised Jammu and Kashmir state into two federally-controlled territories, drawing Pakistan’s ire and renewing tensions.

On the Pakistan facet of the Neelum River, Khokhar’s nephew, Javed Iqbal Khokhar, mentioned he remembers a time they could not change on the dimmest of lights of their house in Chilehana due to the danger that they could possibly be hit by shelling.

The endless shelling and mortar hearth on the time compelled the household to maneuver their elders and most of their youngsters away from the border to the relative security of Muzaffarabad, a metropolis 40 km (25 miles) away in Pakistan, he mentioned.

“They’re nonetheless there – since you by no means know what occurs after which getting them out will probably be a problem,” mentioned the 55-year-old.

‘IT’S BEEN 75 YEARS’

On a heat afternoon this week, his brother Muneer Hussain Khokhar stood exterior his small store, overlooking an Indian settlement throughout the LOC, and doled out cones of vivid inexperienced and white ice cream, matching the colors of Pakistan’s nationwide flag.

For years, enterprise exercise within the space had nearly fully stalled and site visitors on the highway that hugs the Neelum thinned to a trickle due to the fixed clashes, he mentioned.

For the reason that 2021 ceasefire, vacationers have returned and the Khokhar brothers have been capable of broaden their enterprise, organising two new outlets.

“The ice cream has been doing effectively,” the 32-year-old mentioned, serving up a cone.

There isn’t a cell phone service in Chilehana, and the Khokhar brothers mentioned they hadn’t spoken to their family throughout the border in years. The youthful sibling mentioned he had final visited the Indian facet in 2012.

“It is unusual,” he mentioned, “We reside so shut to 1 one other, however do not, or cannot, discuss.”

There are not any sightseers in India’s Teetwal, however residents of the once-bustling city and the settlements that encompass it say they’re additionally experiencing some advantages of the cessation in hostilities.

In Dildar, a village that abuts Teetwal, native college principal Aftab Ahmad Khawaja mentioned he used to hurry his 550 college students right into a protected room throughout cross-border firing.

“And after the shelling solely 25% of scholars used to attend the college,” mentioned Khawaja, 33. “For final one-and-a half years, there is no such thing as a challenge.”

Nonetheless, many are nonetheless counting the price of the preventing that roiled the realm.

On the night time of September 19, 2020, a shell landed within the courtyard of Nasreena Begum’s house within the Indian village of Gunde Shaat, killing her husband – the one breadwinner for a household of 4.

“The hostilities and shelling has taken the whole lot from me,” mentioned 35-year-old Begum, who now helps her two daughters and a son.

Alongside the Neelum in Pakistan, Umar Mughal is hoping for the peace to proceed, partially as a result of it’d present him an opportunity to broaden his small restaurant that gives sweeping views of the Indian facet.

“It has been 75 years,” mentioned Mughal, a 26-year-old.

“There must be some kind of long-term resolution, no matter it’s, for the sake of Kashmiris. Will we wait for an additional 75 years?”

(Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari in Teetwal and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam in Chilehana; Extra reporting by Abu Arqam Naqash in Chilehana; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Enhancing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)