MUZAFFARABAD: For the Baig family, travel to India-held Kashmir (IHK) is no less than a pilgrimage, no matter what situation prevails across the Line of Control (LoC).

Comprising Z.R. Baig, a 51-year-old Kashmiri with a construction business in Rawalpindi, and his two single sisters, it is the Baig family’s second journey via the Chakothi-Uri crossing point to Srinagar, the summer capital of IHK currently under curfew.

Since the killing of Burhan Wani on July 8, India-held territory is once again on the boil.

Anti-India protests are no longer restricted to the urban areas of the restive Kashmir region but are being held with more vigour in the rural areas, with people defying security restrictions and clashing with government forces daily, notwithstanding the brutish measures adopted by the latter.

At least 90 civilian protesters have been killed and over 15,000 injured since Wani’s assassination.

Among the wounded are around 500 with eye injuries, and there are reports that while most may not be able to see, others may survive with merely five to 10 per cent of their vision intact.

Nearly 6,000 protesters have been taken into custody; of them 300 booked under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) described by the Amnesty International as a “lawless law”.

A prolonged curfew, communication blackouts, including internet blockade, and everyday crackdown, have failed to stop pro-Azadi protests and processions in Kashmir, with separatists terming it Kashmir’s third intifada against Indian rule since 2008.

In this backdrop, cross-LoC travel to Kashmir Valley may put one’s life in peril. But bonds of affection and family commitments continue to drive people across to the land of their forefathers.

“The love of Kashmir cannot keep us away from it, particularly when we have a permit to make the much-cherished journey,” says Baig, as the family boards a coach outside the Cross-LoC Travel and Trade Authority (TATA) in Muzaffarabad early on Monday morning.

I see no fear in their eyes; instead they appear cheerful.

The bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was launched in April 2005 as one of the several Kashmir-specific ‘confidence-building measures’ by India and Pakistan.

Raja Tasneem Turk, an official at the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) TATA, says that of the thousands who have travelled back and forth, 8,453 AJK residents and 4,740 IHK residents used the Chakothi-Uri crossing point, located in the vicinity of the Indian army installation that came under alleged attack by militants on Sept 18 and started a war of words between the two countries. However, despite tensions escalating, there has been no disruption in the service.

“Even after July 8 no crossing was cancelled except the one immediately before Eidul Azha, and during this period, 33 people from AJK and 21 from IHK have travelled. No doubt, the number has shrunk,” says Turk.

On Monday, the Baig family members are the only fresh travellers from AJK.

“We were in Srinagar in October last year when the situation was calm. Since our permit expires early next month, we want to avail this rare facility,” says Sylvia Baig, an academician.

A traveller can make three trips in a year within the issuance of the permit. However, the process is cumbersome and time-consuming. Those intending to travel have to intimate TATA regarding their plans. They have to buy return tickets for the bus from TATA, but are at liberty to travel on their own to and from the Chakothi bus terminal, where documents are examined and luggage manually searched.

Even if empty, the bus has to leave the TATA office in Muzaffarabad for the Chakothi terminal at 9am, because it has to ferry passengers from the terminal to the Kaman bridge for on-foot crossing.

The Baig family has purchased three tickets, but they leave in their own rented coach.

Though the trip is a week long, their luggage appears to be heavy. “There are gifts as we are going to attend a wedding later this week,” says Sylvia.

At the Chakothi terminal in the afternoon, eight new travellers and three returning residents arrive.

Among those returning is Faiza Gillani, born in Muzaffarabad, whose marriage in Srinagar to her policeman cousin Owais on Aug 30 attracted wide attention.

Faiza travelled to Srinagar from the Chakothi-Uri crossing point with 13 family members on Aug 29. The couple’s Nikah was solemnised in Muzaffarabad in 2014. However, the rukhsati took place two years later; one of the reasons was delays in the preparation of documents and grant of permission for the cross-LoC travel.

At the Chakothi terminal, her father, Zameer Gillani, receives his children. I ask him how long Faiza intends to stay and how she plans to return; will she use the same crossing point or return via the Wagah border?

He has no idea, at least immediately. “Let’s hope there is some solution to this problem,” he says.

A man standing nearby quickly pipes in: “The present form of travel should blossom into free and frequent cross-LoC movement without any hiccups, and without compromising our basic stance on the principal dispute.”

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2016