Kashmir Valley's sympathy for Pakistan

I was watching Kamal Mustafa, a senior member of National Conference, showing strong sympathy towards waving of the Pakistani flag in Kashmir. He was unabashed about his opinion.

The Valley's sympathy for Pakistan is not something new. During my college days in REC (now NIT) there was  unprecedented violence over in Srinagar. Those students from Odisha, who used to study in Srinagar REC were shifted to ours, as their institute was closed due to prolonged disturbances. They narrated their interesting and certain harrowing stories. (One of them is Ashutosh Mallick, who was asked SALIM MALIK TO MUSALMAN HAI TU KAISE HINDU BAN GAYA, "Salim Malik is Muslim, how come are you a Hindu", ascribing to his last name ).

 

The students from the Srinagar Valley were in a majority, kept to themselves and were completely segregated from their mostly Hindu and Sikh counter[arts from Mainland India. Except perfunctory interactions of exchanging academic notes and greetings on festivals of Ed and Diwali, there were hardly any interactions between them. Pakistan was seen as the Promised Land, the land of freedom and opportunity. When  Zia Ul Haq died that fateful day in August, 1988 the mostly Muslims Kashmiris felt bereaved while the rest rejoiced in silence.

 

Nothing reflected the mental partition and the hiatus based on faith than cricket. The rooms of the Kashmiri Muslims adorned the pictures of Imran, Akram, Miandad and Salim Malik. In their common room, during Indo-Pak cricket encounters they used to sit segregated, with the Kashmir Muslims cheering for Pakistan. Only Indian players who ever got an occasional cheer from the predominantly Muslim Kashmir students were Azharuddin and Arshad Ayub.

 

Unfortunately for the students from Mainland, India used to lose often from their traditional rivals. Their hapless supporters had to bear the brunt of taunts from the Pakistani supporters from Srinagar. It's no surprise for a politician from the Valley to sympathize with Pakistan, for he has correctly assessed the pulse of the locals.