Tens of thousands of people flooded the Pampore town this weekend in response to the call mooted by Hurriyat Coordination committee to observe the Rasm-e-Chahrum (fourth day ritual) of slain Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz.

Seeing a sea of people gathering at a particular place reminded me of the 1990s. Gathering at Pampore was akin rather bigger than earlier one’s when people were swarming the streets demanding independence from India. Boarding buses, trucks and other vehicles, the people carrying green flags and chanting slogans has shattered the feeling that sentiment has died in Kashmir.

It was at its zenith after a gap of twenty years.

Pampore is hometown of Sheikh Aziz a militant turned separatist leader, who was killed when police fired into a massive procession heading towards the LoC last Monday near Uri. Aziz was part of the fruit growers group who had planned to take their fruit to Muzaffarabad in wake of the economic blockade and threat to the Kashmiri truckers at Jammu.   

Again on Monday there is a call from Hurriyat Coordination for a march to UN office in Srinagar. The organization has urged all the people to visit the venue to impress upon the international body about the happenings in Kashmir.

Hurriyat Coordination have plans to hand over memorandum to the office of United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) in Srinagar. Toping the list of demands would be immediate reopening of trans-LoC Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for unrestricted movement, withdrawal of disturbed areas act and armed forces (special powers ) act, setting free political prisoners and withdrawing cases against them.

There is raging debate going on in New Delhi that Hurriyat is stoking the fire and raising the flames in Kashmir. But to me Hurriyat is a beneficiary. Actually people are tired of the ongoing conflict and want an end to their sufferings. The sea of people that one sees on roads, defying restrictions and braving bullets are the ordinary common men. They are not activists of any regional party nor have any affiliations with Hurriyat. It is a group of young leaderless mob demanding an end to the impasse Kashmir is in.

Twenty years have gone by and the insurgency is going on. There have been attempts to paint the picture in a rosy way but the fresh uprising has defined the sentiment again and put the credibility of such attempts at stake.

Contrary to the Pakistan bashing and the hand of foreign agencies, today’s national newspapers carrying Kashmir as a special has in its columns  suggestions “let India try a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir” for its own good.