Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, travelling on Srinagar-Jammu highway continues to be a nightmare due to regular, long halts enforced to make way for Indian forces’ vehicles throughout the day.
The worst affected remains the Srinagar-Qazigund section where no exceptions are made by the Indian forces who sometimes make even ambulances wait.
“Every morning I have to spend more than an hour at different spots as Indian forces make way for the convoy, which is being made to ply in smaller lots of 10 to 15 vehicles at a time,” said a daily commuter who travels to his office in Srinagar from Islamabad town. He said that the new practice of moving convoys in smaller lots was making travel on the highway all the more cumbersome.
“It means that we are stopped multiple times. Sometimes the halt is as lengthy as 45 minutes. I can speak on behalf of hundreds of people who reach their offices late every day.
It has become a nightmare,” the commuter said. “Regardless of the number of forces’ vehicles moving, we are stopped, even for the movement of a single vehicle of forces,” said a cab driver who shuttles between Islamabad town and Srinagar.
“I had a flight to catch and was getting regular calls from the airline I was travelling by. But I was stuck for more than 40 minutes near Barsoo on the highway. When I tried to reason with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men on guard, they came charging towards me and would have beaten me if I had not shut my mouth,” an employee from Kulgam told media men.
He said that similar incidents were a common sight every day. “I fear for the day when an altercation will spiral out of control,” he added.—KMS
