DELIMITATION DISTRESS

JAMMU & KASMIR

- Moazum Mohammad

On New Year’s Eve, Kashmir was a picture-perfect destination with peaks and meadows draped in snow and visitors crowding tourist destinations for night-long celebrations. But as morning arrived, Srinagar’s Gupkar Road—home to three former chief ministers, along with government officials and the offices of security establishments—saw chaotic scenes, with barricades and security personnel blocking vehicular traffic toward the highly secured area. The move was aimed to scuttle the joint protest scheduled for later in the day by the leaders of the PAGD (People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration)— Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar and Mehbooba Mufti—against the ‘divisive’ delimitation commission draft. Then, the inevitable: the three, along with PAGD spokesperson M.Y. Tarigami, were also put under house arrest.