SRINAGAR: Few people leave Anchar, a neighborhood surrounded by barricades of steel and barbed wire in occupied Kashmir, where police have imposed a week-long repression to quell protests.
The densely populated area of the working class in Srinagar is a bag of resistance to the removal of India last month of special status for Jammu and Kashmir.
read more: & # 39; Passionate, forceful & # 39 ;: Twitterati, unanimous, praises Prime Minister Imran's statements about Kashmir at UNGA
While normalcy has returned more than seven weeks after the repression began, there is little evidence of an end to the confrontation in Anchar, home to approximately 15,000 people. The entrances to the area are protected by young people who handle barricades made of tree trunks, electricity poles and barbed wire to keep the police away.
Roads have been unearthed to block security vehicles.
At nightfall, groups of young people, many with masks and armed with stones and tree branches, huddle around the fires, drinking tea provided by the neighbors.
"I am spending the night outdoors to be able to protect my family and not allow the Indians to enter, who have been committing atrocities," said Fazil, a 16-year-old student.
"There is no fear in me," he added, holding a thick tree branch while looking at the street from a checkpoint.
Indian authorities have arrested almost 4,000 people in occupied Kashmir since the decision provoked outrage and intensified tensions with Pakistan.
India cut Internet and mobile services and imposed curfew restrictions to avoid protests. More than seven weeks later, some normality has returned to the region in dispute and many of the detainees have been released. Landlines work again, although mobile networks and the Internet remain suspended.
However, Anchar remains a prohibited area for Indian forces, and government services such as schools are still closed in the area, leading residents to find solutions.
Four university students have established an impromptu school in a three-bedroom house to teach 200 children every day. They keep coming in, girls with their heads covered, books in their hands, from lullabies to math.
“The education of students in this town is suffering due to the turmoil. We will not let our future generations suffer, "said Adil, a university student who has become a teacher.
Another student teacher, Walid, said: "These children only see bullets and pellets every day."
Other students are providing basic medical care, so people do not need to go to other areas of the city for fear of being arrested.
Rubina said her 15-year-old son was injured by pellets shot by Indian forces while returning home from Friday prayers. The boy's head is heavily bandaged and has not spoken since the incident, but the family prefers to treat him at home than to take him to a city hospital, for fear that the police will stop him.
"If you have to go out for a bandage change to the nearby government hospital, you will be accompanied by six or seven women, so they don't take it away," Rubina said.
Posted on Dawn, September 28, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1507768/barricades-and-books-life-in-a-srinagar-neighbourhood