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Short journey to a martyr's grave

With war and elections on the horizon, a prominent Kashmiri separatist is murdered, writes Luke Harding
It was a tranquil spot for an assassination: a grassy patch of wasteland next to Srinagar's martyr's graveyard. The death of Abdul Ghani Lone early last week threw Kashmir - a province used to violent endings - into a state of further confusion. In the end Mr Lone's final journey was one of only 50 metres, from the patch of scuffed earth where he collapsed to the raised sunny cemetery planted with roses and gladioli.

Mr Lone was a leading Kashmiri separatist, and his murder by unknown gunmen has added further uncertainty to an already troubled region now on the brink of war. Some two hours' drive from Srinagar, down a razor-straight road lined with silver-green poplars, Indian and Pakistani troops yesterday continued to exchange gunfire across the line of control. Shelling in these cool Himalayan mountains is nothing new. What is new is the bellicose rhetoric that now goes with it.

Last week, during a three-day trip to Kashmir, India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, visited the frontline at Kupwara in the north of the state. He told his troops to prepare for a "decisive victory against the enemy". But among mourners who turned up at Mr Lone's freshly dug grave yesterday there was scepticism that India was about to attack Pakistan. "Vajpayee is only bluffing. He doesn't want war. He is 78 years old. It is a political game," Altaf Ahmed, a 30-year-old businessman, pointed out.

"This is not 1971 [when Pakistan and India last went to war] and there were no atom bombs. This is the 21st century. India and Pakistan both have the atom bomb. They can destroy each other's cities."

"For the last 12 years this kind of shelling has been going on. There is nothing new in it," he added.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir, and since 1990 the Muslims of the Kashmir valley have waged a bitter revolt against Indian rule. New Delhi insists Pakistan-backed militants have sustained the insurgency. India is now threatening Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, with attack unless he puts an end to "cross-border terrorism". And yet last Friday, the crowds who had gathered at the Idgah, the wide expanse of parkland that surrounds the martyr's graveyard, made it clear where their sympathies lay by shouting pro-Pakistani slogans. Indian soldiers watched sullenly but did nothing.

"India doesn't think about Kashmir people. It just wants Kashmir land," Manzoor Ahmed, a 29-year-old student, said. He accused India's Hindu nationalist government of hypocrisy - for wanting to wage war after the deaths of 31 Hindus in last week's massacre near the town of Jammu, and for ignoring the deaths of thousands of Muslim Kashmiris since 1990.

Several of the attacks blamed on militants were actually carried out by Indian security forces, Mr Ahmed claimed. "I saw a Sikh Indian soldier open fire on Hindus on a pilgrimage in the Kashmir mountains. The attack was put down to militants."

During his three-day trip to Kashmir, the Indian prime minister repeated his pledge to hold "free and fair" elections in the state in September. Previously, New Delhi has rigged the polls in favour of the National Conference, part of the ruling government coalition, and its pro-India chief minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah. In many villages, Indian soldiers forced locals to vote at gunpoint. The suspicion that Mr Lone, a member of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference, was considering taking part in the elections may have led to his murder.

And yet other moderates believe the elections could mark a turning point for a population profoundly tired of fighting. "There has to be an honourable way out for people in this state. They are fed up with the gun," Mehbooba Mufti, one of Kashmir's few women politicians, said. Ms Mehbooba's recently founded People's Democratic party intends to contest September's elections. Dr Farooq Abdullah is widely reviled in Kashmir, and his administration is seen as both decadent and corrupt. But the likelihood of a massive boycott means that Dr Abdullah will most probably hang on to power.

"The government of India has to create an atmosphere where people have confidence in the outcome. Then they will vote," Ms Mehbooba said.

Back at Idgah, most of the mourners had dispersed, or had moved to Srinagar's huge cedarwood mosque, the Jamia Masjid, for Friday prayers. Only a few horses were left grazing where Mr Lone fell, leaving behind an uncertain legacy.

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