Anantnag/ Rafiabad:Haji Abdul Kareem Sheikh doesn’t understand, or care, about the politics of demilitarisation. The proposal may have sparked a political crisis in Jammu & Kashmir, but all Sheikh wants is for the troops to leave his apple orchards, which were turned into army camps one night more than a decade ago. For him, troop withdrawal is linked to his livelihood. “I lived like a king and overnight I became a beggar,” he says. “The army didn’t let me visit my own orchards. I went to the police and the deputy commissioner, but nobody helped.”

So Sheikh formed an organisation of the apple farmers in south Kashmir whose orchards were occupied by the security forces. Despite more than a hundred members and a struggle that has gone on for over a decade, nothing has changed. “It’s a lost battle. We have approached the senior army officers in Srinagar and have met every chief minister in the past decade, but nobody has helped us get our orchards back,” he says. “My family had an apple orchard spread over 45 kanal at Chak Wagund and another over 18 kanal at Larkpora. Both are with the army.”

After several years, the army has decided to pay him a yearly rent, which is negligible compared to what they have earned from apple sales. “They (army) sell the fruit from my orchards and it breaks my heart. I feel helpless.”

For a majority of farmers, and worse, the small orchard owners, even the meagre yearly rent is not forthcoming. And unlike Sheikh, who has an alternative business, a shop, to feed his family, they have nothing to fall back on.

Take Javaid Ahmad Sudagar, who had a small orchard at Puongon, Achawal. “It had 110 fruit-bearing trees. Then one day in 1997, they (army) came and destroyed it. I went there the next day and they didn’t allow me to go in.” Sudagar never returned.

The story is no different in Kashmir’s apple bowl of Sopore-Rafiabad-Baramulla in north Kashmir, where a majority of people are directly linked to apple trade. So in Baramulla, the 21-kanal orchard of Abdul Khaliq Channa, 40, was taken over by the army and turned into a firing range. “I see my trees drying after being hit by bullets. I used to sell 4,000 apple boxes every year and now they don’t even let me go in,” he says. “I don’t need any compensation. I just want my orchard back.”

The problem stretches from Anantnag to Uri, says Ghulam Rasool Bhat, president of the J&K Fruit Growers Association. “Even if the army decides to vacate the orchards, it will take a decade to restore the yield. The apple orchards are in ruins.”

The army, however, has a different view. “Whatever land has been taken over by the army across Kashmir has been done with the consent and knowledge of the civil administration,” says defence spokesman, Lt Col A.K. Mathur. “The Ministry of Defence has already paid adequate compensation to the state government and land owners.”

As per the J&K Government figures, the army has unauthorisedly taken over 11,609 kanal and 11 marlas of orchards since 1990, while they pay a yearly rent to farmers for another 4,000 kanal and 16 marlas, and of the total 6,81,839 kanal of government land, the army has unauthorisedly occupied 3,10,184 kanal.

Sheikh, meanwhile, has his own list of orchards and land occupied by the army with no compensation given to the owners. “In Anantnag, around 4,000 kanal are with the army, at Lakutpora in Ashmuqam, there are 800 kanal, at Dooru, there are more than 400 kanal of orchards in three villages—Chakapeth, Larakpora and Lokibawan—at Qazigund, there are over 400 kanal each in Chak Wangund and Woojur villages.

Farmers like Sheikh are spread across the Valley, the constituency that makes People’s Democratic Party’s demilitarisation demand such a potent political slogan in Kashmir ahead of next year’s assembly polls. Whatever the outcome of the political crisis that has put the PDP on a collision course with its coalition partner, the Congress, and the Centre, demilitarisation is bound to affect lives and livelihoods. Even if the PDP doesn’t get support from political opponents like the National Conference or the separatists, it will be difficult to ignore its demand.

The Proposal and the Players

Various political parties and groups have reacted differently to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s four-point proposal, including demilitarisation, to push a resolution on Kashmir.

Hurriyat: The moderates, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, supported Musharraf’s proposal and demanded troop withdrawal.

PDP: It supported demilitarisation but linked with it the issue of unauthorised occupation of land, especially that of apple orchards by the Army.

National Conference: The largest political party in J-K Assembly didn’t support demilitarisation for obvious political reasons, but has not opposed it as well.

Congress: It is the only major party in Jammu & Kashmir which opposes demilitarisation outrightly, citing security concerns. But its opposition too is rooted in politics as it feels the BJP will turn troop withdrawal into an emotive issue concerning national security.

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