Kashmir Affairs - Security & Conflict Analysis of Kashmir

Samavar (pronounced sum:v'aar in Kashmiri): Traditional tea pot used to brew and make Kashir chai, Kashmir's traditional pink salt tea. It uses charcoal to boil tea. The Samavars are mainly two types - plain or qandakaeri (above) which is decorated with motifs and is expensive. It is widely believed that Samavar was introduced by Hazrat Shah-e-Hamadan, Mir Sayyed Ali Hamadani, who brought it with him from central Asia. He is considered the founder of Islam in Kashmir.

This is the shrine (in Srinagar) and tomb of Mir Sayid Ali Hamadani, popularly known as Shah-e-Hamadan in Kashmir. He is the founder of Islam in Kashmir and visited it in the 14th Century in the company of nearly 500 of his companions, locally known as Sa'daat, who transformed the whole Kashmir. The voluntary conversion and transformation of the Kashmiri society stands out as a unique example in the region. Shah-e-Hamadan is burried in Kulob or Kulyab in Tajikistan where he is known as Amirjon. Photos of tomb: (right) Garth Willis, (left) Zuhra Halimova

A delegation of Pakistani journalists from SAFMA (South Asian Free Media Association) watching keenly a special dance performance. The delegation visited the Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir in September 2004, the first visit of its kind. Imtiaz Alam (left), Secretary General SAFMA, later described the visit saying that his group “kept their cool and behaved the way they should have on a good will-cum-reporting mission to ensure the window to access no-go areas” (‘Visiting Jammu and Kashmir’, The News International, October 18, 2004).
Like every ‘peace move’, the visit of the Pakistani delegation generated a lot of interest. While it was welcomed by the local pro-India government and the journalists, the majority of the local population, including some politicians and militant groups, grew suspicious that it was part of the India-Pakistan efforts aimed at undermining the Kashmiri position. Imtiaz Alam, mindful of the impact of his visit, wrote that suspicion was created “in the eyes of some conspiracy theorists or certain sick minds, who in fact suspect every move towards confidence building between India and Pakistan.”
One could argue that every such move is ‘suspicious’ in the eyes of the Kashmiri public simply because the rhetoric of peace which is so pervasive and at times persuasive for some, has in fact yielded nothing for the Kashmiri people. In fact, the whole process of peace has been turned into a kind of pornography, an orgy of desperados who do not see the sufferings and demands of the Kashmiri people and want to whitewash all the sacrifices under the carpet of the ‘peace’ that guarantees the status quo; killings, torture, rapes, plunder, no representation and of course delegations and conferences in the name of Kashmir and Kashmiris.