US embassy cable - 04NEWDELHI7673

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 007673 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PK, Kashmir 
SUBJECT: INDIAN JOURNALISTS RAVE ABOUT VISIT TO PAKISTANI 
KASHMIR 
 
 
Classified By: DCM Robert O. Blake, Jr.  Reasons 1.4 (B,D). 
 
1.  (C) Summary: Participants returning from a November 
19-December 1 trip by 26 Indian journalists to Pakistan have 
reported overwhelming popular support in Pakistani Kashmir 
for opening the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road.  The media 
representatives were generally surprised by what they saw, 
and noted widely diverging notions on the shape of a final 
settlement of Kashmir, including strong pro-independence 
views in Mirpur (less in Muzaffarabad), and a much-reduced 
terrorist presence.  We summarize the main observations of 
several of the participants, as related to us and reported in 
the press, for their insight on what the Indian political 
class is hearing from the other side of the LOC.  If 
travelers are correct about the strong sentiment in Pakistani 
Kashmir for roads to open, this mirrors the views of their 
cousins in the Valley, and endows the December 7-8 Indo-Pak 
talks on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus links with special 
significance.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (C) Organized by the South Asian Free Media Association 
(SAFMA), this was a return visit after a group of Pakistani 
journalists came to J&K in October under SAFMA auspices 
(Reftel).  Indian participants (including several Kashmiris 
who traveled with Indian passports) reported that the Lahore 
and Islamabad legs were useful for their opportunities to 
interact with senior GOP officials, including President 
Musharraf, and politicians, but were most enthusiastic about 
their travel in Pakistani Kashmir (Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, and 
Gilgit), which most had never seen before (a few had traveled 
to the state in past years, but none more recently than four 
years ago).  They were able to travel where they wished, but 
lamented that their full program allowed less time to explore 
their special interests. 
 
3.  (C) In conversations following their return, the Indian 
journalists praised the warm reception and hospitality they 
received almost across the board, and the access they were 
given -- to most of those they wanted to see except Hizbul 
Mujahideen (HM) supremo Syed Salahuddin (one visitor claimed 
he was axed from the program because Islamabad did not wish 
to admit that he was living openly in Pakistan).  Another 
traveler said the President of the Muzaffarabad Press Club 
praised the group for "doing a great job to heal the wounds 
of a battered humanity." 
 
India and Pakistan: Open This Road! 
----------------------------------- 
 
4.  (C) Kashmiri reporters told us their strongest impression 
was the yearning in POK for an opening of the 
Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road, hopefully to be followed by the 
Jammu/Suchetgarh-Sialkot, Poonch-Kotli, and Kargil-Skardu 
crossings.  An overwhelming majority of interlocutors in POK 
reportedly saw this as the most important CBM India and 
Pakistan could adopt.  There was no interest in using a visa 
and passport system, on the grounds that the LOC would take 
on characteristics of an international border.  Yusuf Jameel 
from the "Asian Age" said a large number of Kashmiris he met 
who had crossed the LOC since 1989 wanted to return to the 
Valley, regardless of the consequences, but claimed that the 
Fence was making it more difficult to do so. 
 
Other Observations 
------------------ 
 
5.  (C) Trip participants also made other observations on 
their experiences in POK, the most interesting of which we 
summarize below: 
 
-- Tahir Mohiuddin (Chattan/Srinagar) was impressed that he 
no longer saw militants traveling openly on the roads, as he 
had four years ago, an indication that Musharraf and the ISI 
were "at least doing something against terrorism." 
 
-- V Sudarshan (Outlook) reported that nostalgia, hate, 
metaphor, reality greeted the journalists in Mirpur. 
Interlocutors reportedly told him residents of POK were "not 
even allowed to go to Gilgit."  Other POK residents 
considered the governments in both POK and J&K "puppets," and 
opined that the only way to determine the views of the people 
of pre-1947 J&K was to allow travel.  The Mirpur Bar 
Association President reportedly told him "(we) are prepared 
to fight for 2000 years," to deafening applause. 
 
-- Shujaat Bukhari (Hindu) was struck by the size of the 
migration from J&K to POK since the insurgency began in 1989, 
observing that 35,000 Kashmiris from the Valley were "eagerly 
waiting to board the first peace bus."  Migrants in POK 
complained about dreary lives, and thought of themselves as 
"kings at home but dependents" in POK.  The cease-fire has 
allowed them to travel up to the LOC to wave at their 
relatives in J&K, but go no further.  He reported "hardly a 
voice of dissent" over free movement between POK and the 
Valley, although there was no consensus on a final solution 
to Kashmir. 
-- Sushant Sareen (Observer Research Foundation, Delhi) 
reported widely diverging views on the shape of a final 
settlement of Kashmir.  He was particularly interested in the 
views of former Azad Kashmir PM Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, who 
had changed his mind over time and now argued that "given 
ground realities in J&K, there does not appear to be a 
permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute in sight.  Maybe we 
should only look for a series of interim solutions."  Sareen 
considered Qayoom the most realistic of all the politicians 
the group had met during their stay in POK, in that he was 
willing to consider other steps to improve Kashmiris' lives 
before settling their final status.  Other politicians were 
"caught in a time warp," or (in the case of the Amir of 
Jamaat in POK) were "consumed by hatred of India," and 
strongly supported the jihadis, he stated. 
 
-- Other journalists reported a session they had at Azad 
Kashmir University in Muzaffarabad, where they heard strong 
pro-independence and pro-accession (to Pakistan) views (as 
well as complaints of large numbers of ISI agents in the 
auditorium, impeding free speech).  Advocates of an 
independent Kashmir told the Hindu's Bukhari that there were 
at least 16 cases of student expulsions there for these 
views. 
 
-- Indrajit Hazra (Hindustan Times) was amazed to see Tarun 
Vijay, Editor of the RSS weekly Panchajanya, "barely able to 
hold himself back from launching forth on India-Pakistan 
amity." 
 
-- Hazra also reported that "azadi" ("freedom") is "on all 
minds" in POK, more so in Mirpur than in Muzaffarabad, where 
she noted a radically different tone, "almost as if 
independence was an abstract afterthought."  Sareen commented 
that the pro-independence lobby is well aware that there is 
"no question of Pakistan ever allowing control over Azad 
Kashmir or the Northern Areas to slip out of its hands." 
This prompted some to ask why India does not call Islamabad's 
bluff by conceding the plebiscite principle.  He reported 
that local journalists had described "a change in mindset in 
POK in favor of independence," primarily as a result of their 
treatment at the hands of the Pakistani establishment. 
 
-- Several found significant improvements since previous 
visits 4-10 years ago.  They were impressed with 
infrastructure improvements in Gilgit.  A Jammu-based editor 
was amazed at the excellent roads and uninterrupted power 
supply (in sharp contrast to what Indians are used to). 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
6.  (C) As with the October visit by Pakistani journalists to 
J&K, this visit was unusually successful in exposing 
influential Indian and Kashmiri opinion leaders to realities 
in Pakistani Kashmir, areas most know only from reading and 
hearsay.  A couple of the travelers considered the trip one 
of their most important foreign trips ever.  If participants' 
dominant conclusion -- that there is strong sentiment among 
Kashmiris in POK for roads to open -- accurately reflects 
local views, it mirrors those of their cousins in the Valley. 
 New Delhi and Islamabad can ignore this popular opinion as 
they bicker over travelers' documentation, but from the Delhi 
perspective the desire for people-to-people contact on both 
sides of the LOC seems strong.  This endows the December 7-8 
Indo-Pak talks on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus links with 
all the more significance. 
MULFORD