From the streets of Kashmir, the political war will soon be taken to cyberspace. Political parties are now trying to woo the English-speaking population of the world on the internet by launching websites that will put across their point of view.

In a few weeks the National Conference will be launching a website which will display, among other things, its autonomy document. The PDP is likely to follow suit in a few months. Its website will highlight the demand for demilitarisation of the region.

But the mainstream parties have been lagging. The moderate separatists have already had their websites for some years. The Hurriyat website (www.hurriyat.net), which was not functional for some time, was relaunched this February. Earlier this year, Sajjad Lone of the People’s Conference put on the internet his vision document for Kashmir (www.achievablenationhood.com).

The National Conference website (www.jknc.org) is being designed by Gaggan Virmani, an information technology expert and schoolmate of party president Omar Abdullah. He says it’s almost ready for launch; only some pictures of historical importance remain to be uploaded on the site.

“There is a treasure of documents and pictures about my grandfather Shiekh Mohammad Adbullah and the party, which we are trying to get from international photo agencies and our own party archives. The rest is ready,” said Abdullah, himself a computer buff.

The National Conference website, he said, will be interactive, with a blog, message board, responses from the party president. There will be links to documents such as the autonomy report.

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