Srinagar
“Tourist Hamari Jaan hai” ( tourists are our life ) and “Yeh hangama nahi hai, yeh matam sahi hai” ( this is not a spectacle, this is genuine mourning” is the slogan that resonated through the streets of Kashmir a day after the Pahalgam terror attack.
Unlike in the past three decades, when such incidents were often met with hushed murmurs, the streets rang with defiance and a unified condemnation.
For the second straight day on Thursday, people across the Valley poured into streets to express their grief and outrage over the April 22 attack, which claimed the lives of 26 tourist
From summer capital Srinagar to smaller townships, people sporting black headbands hit streets and bazaars to protest the terror attack.
“We want to send out a loud and clear message to the outside world that violence in any form is not acceptable to Kashmiris. It is against Kashmir and Kashmiriyat,” said Bashir Ahmad, a protester at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk.
In south Kashmir towns like Pulwama and Shopian, once known as militancy hotspots, people from different walks of life took to streets and protested against the attack.
“ There is no place for such bloodshed in any civilized society.Kashmir stands with the victim’s families,” said Mohammad Ashraf Wani, president Fruit Mandi Shopian, who along with scores of fruit growers and traders staged a protest on Thursday.
Unprecedented protest
For the first time in over 35 years of militancy, the Valley saw unprecedented protests and shutdown calls from both religious and mainstream political leaders—signalling a rare moment of collective outrage and unity against the horrific terror attack.
On Wednesday, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq led Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulama (MMU), a conglomerate of various religious groups, called for the strike. Former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti also issued calls for Kashmir bandh against the tourist killings. The strike effectively shut down life across the Valley, halting commercial transpiration and leaving the streets deserted. Although life returned to normal on Thursday, protests against the attack persisted.
Prof Noor Ahmad Baba, a Srinagar based political analyst, believes that a relative calm in the Valley spurred people to express their outrage publicly.
“People never approved the killing of innocent people. Previously, the people were caught in between guns, so they were unable to express their outrage publicly”, he said.
Baba also said that, in the recent years, tourism saw a revival and people developed stakes in business related to tourism and in such a situation killing a large number of tourists did create ripples and shock people.
Protests for lives not business
“We are not concerned about economic losses right now. This is not the time to talk business. We are mourning the loss of precious human lives. This tragic incident should never have happened,” said Javed Ahmad Tenga, president of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce.