The overwhelming presence of the security apparatus may initially make the locals in Pahalgam market feel invisible.
But, I notice their conspicuous presence outside their lonely, desolate shops.
Three shopkeepers sit outside their respective shops, speaking to each other.
“See that shopkeeper is sitting outside, that one also, this one as well, and we here as well,” says Ghulam Mohiuddin as he points to nearly dozen shopkeepers sitting idle outside their shops.
Business was excellent before the attack, and then it was completely zero. Then a handful of tourists started to pour in, but right now, there are almost no tourists, the shopkeepers said, without any contradiction.
“Pilgrims have almost all basic amenities from the government; they come, stay for a night, go to the holy cave, and leave from Sonamarg. Maybe, some 3 out of 100 people buy something from the market,” the shopkeepers said.
Look, the two most renowned places, Café Log Inn and Dana Pani are deserted, Mohuiddin says, pointing to Café Log Inn.
“Dana Pani had long queues waiting to get tokens, but there’s not even a single person there,” Imran, a hotel owner in the market says, pointing to the Dana Pani restaurant.
No Affluent Pilgrims
The administration has declared Pahalgam and Sonamarg as ‘no fly-zones’, resulting in the unavailability of helicopter services for the pilgrims this year.
This move, Imran and the shopkeepers believe has also impacted the economy of Pahalgam.
“That’s Hotel Pahalgam, among the most famous and elitist hotels here. It is deserted too. The room rent for a night there is between Rs 18,000 and 20,000. VIPS, VVIPS, and business class pilgrims who availed the helicopter services used to stay there, but this year, they are not coming,” Imran says.
“Those pilgrims used to shop and contribute to our economy,” the shopkeepers say.
“There were restrictions during the Amarnath Yatra earlier, but not this intense. There are unprecedented restrictions here this year,” the shopkeepers say.
Earlier during the Yatra period, if there were 10,000 pilgrims in Pahalgam, there were also some 15,000 tourists here. So, the pilgrimage didn’t affect the business here, three hotel managers, one home stay owner, and over a dozen shopkeepers told me.
After the drastic drop in tourism since the Pahalgam attack, the government has claimed that Amarnath yatra will help revive tourism.
In an interview with a national news channel on July 20, LG Sinha said that the Amarnath Pilgrims will be the brand ambassadors of Kashmir.
“If four lakh people perform the pilgrimage, they will tell 40 lakh people to come to Jammu and Kashmir,” said Sinha.
Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, also termed the footfall of pilgrims in Pahalgam as “bustling with activity and hailed the revival of tourism.” Interestingly, however, before his election, he took a dig at the government for counting pilgrims as tourists, emphasising that there was little connection.
In striking contrast to these claims, locals connected with tourism complain that severe restrictions are further choking tourism.
Shops Down Shutters by 9:00 PM
This year, the police in Pahalgam have asked the shopkeepers to close their shops by 9.00 in the evening. “Besides, strict limitations on timing of visits and exits to tourist places is not helping,” shopkeepers say.
This time of the year is considered as a season for businesses in Pahalgam, the markets would shut by midnight or an hour past midnight during previous years, shopkeepers said.
Mohammad Ashraf, who has been selling Kashmiri handicrafts in Pahalgam since 1996, believes there are two main reasons holding back the economic gains for the businesses here.
“The majority of pilgrims don’t come with a budget for shopping, and this year it feels like they have been told not to shop here. The media trials following the Pahalgam attack framed Kashmiris as assailants, brewing hate among the people of mainland India for the Kashmiri population,” Ashraf says.
Earlier, the pilgrims used to buy shoes, raincoats, and umbrellas which contributed nearly one lakh rupees to many shopkeepers. However, this year, they already have these things with them, Ashraf says.
As Ashraf speaks, three women pilgrims stop by his shop. “This bag is beautiful, but let’s go,” the women tell each other pointing to a hand-made bag and then move ahead.
Despite deteriorating business, Ashraf and many shopkeepers in Pahalgam are pinning their hopes on the autumn season.
“Tourism will see some life pouring in it in the month of October as tourists from Bengal visit in huge numbers during their holiday period,” says a shopkeeper adjacent to Ashraf’s, speaking of hope.
Hoteliers in Pahalgam have informed the traders that they are receiving some booking for the autumn season, traders say.
Negative Kashmir portrayal
Ashraf checks his phone and opens a Facebook link forwarded in a WhatsApp group of traders.
J&K CM Omar Abdullah is in Kolkata for a tourism fair and at the same time, Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP state president, Suvendu Adhikari, tells people not to visit “Muslim majority areas in Jammu and Kashmir.”
“Don’t go to Muslim majority areas,” Adhikari said during a public interaction on Friday, July 11.
“If you want to visit Jammu Kashmir, go to Jammu. Otherwise go to Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha-there are plenty of places to travel. In Pahalgam they asked tourists their religion before killing them,” Adhikari said.
When these kinds of statements keep coming from a leader of such a stature, it dashes all hopes of tourism revival in Kashmir, especially Pahalgam, said Mohammad Ashraf as he puts his phone back in his pocket.
The traders in Pahalgam want the government of Jammu and Kashmir to organise a trip across India and foreign nations for the representatives from the government and from the traders.
“We see this as a solution, as it will help promote and rebuild the image of Kashmir as a safe destination for tourists,” the traders said.
The J&K and the central government should also take measures to prevent statements like those of Adhikari.
Some 300 metres from Ashraf’s shop, a 19-year-old boy, Farhan from main town Anantnag sells thrift clothes displayed on a bed outside his small shop.
He is standing alone, screaming the price: Rs 200 per piece.
“I used to sell these for Rs 300 a piece, but since nobody walked to me since morning, I am selling for a lower price,” says Farhan, as wind gently blows his curly hair.
Farhan started to come to Pahalgam when he was 15-years-old. “I decided to help my father. Previous years, the business was good here. This year, business is only 10% of what it used to be,” he says, as his friend Zahid, who has been accompanying him for two years, agrees.
“I think I should start selling them without any profit, so at least I will have some cash in my hand to eat and to fill my car’s gas tank,” he says.
In the next breath, Farhan starts screaming, “Rs 100 a piece, 100 a piece.”
A nearby shopkeeper promptly gets up and purchases a sweater from Farhan for Rs 100.
“Thanks for supporting me,” Farhan tells the shopkeeper.
“We used to come here at 7:00 PM and sell till midnight, but this year, the market will close soon, and it is affecting business negatively,” says Zahid, his sea-green eyes focused on my notepad.
If the situation remains the same, Zahid and Farhan say they will try to sell their stock across the tunnel in Banihal.
There are only two horses in one of the four pony stands in Pahalgam. The other 30 horses are hired by a group of 30 tourists for the ride.
“Today, we have got work after nearly one and a half months,” says Adil Manzoor as he comes back to drop the tourist at the stand.
After a long time, a tourist group has come here, the horsemen say.
“They aren’t very happy, because we couldn’t take them to different viewpoints including the Golf Club of Pahalgam. It is restricted for tourists,” say the horsemen.
Sonamarg has Lesser Restrictions
While security is intense along the Pahalgam road and in the town itself, it is comparatively lenient in Sonamarg-some 200 kilometres away from Pahalgam by road.
The new tunnel has bypassed some dangerous curves that came along the Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri Road.
It is Sunday, July 13, and there has been a good footfall of local visitors to Sonamarg, the person at the Toll Post says.
Sonamarg, like Kashmir’s other tourist destinations, also bore the brunt of economic fallout after the Pahalgam attack, says Furqan, President of Sonamarg’s Beopar Mandal.
Furqan, who runs a hotel each in Srinagar and Sonamarg says that following the Pahalgam attack, the government order to refund the money to tourists who had pre-booked hotels made him pay Rs 25 Lakhs back to his clients.
“The total amount which I would have earned was Rs 75 Lakhs, out of which the clients had paid an advance amount of Rs 25 Lakhs, which I refunded within three days after the Pahalgam attack,” says Furqan.
Furqan says all the four villages of Sonamarg depend on tourism, except for some 4-6% of the population who are into government service.
Besides tourism, trekkers contributed massively to Kashmir’s tourism economy, but the administration’s move to prohibit trekking and closing of many places axed that source as well, Furqan says.
“Thajiwas was not in the list of the places ordered to close, however, tourists in Sonamarg are not allowed to visit there,” said Ahmad, a pony owner in Sonamarg.
The main Sonamarg market comprises 150 hotels and shops and all of them have witnessed a huge negative impact of the Pahalgam attack.
“Every shop and hotel here on an average has five people working for them, almost 800 families are suffering economically in just this market,” says Farhan.
Ahead of the Amarnath Yatra, security has nearly been doubled in Sonamarg as well, says Mohammad Amin, a cook at one of the army camps in Sonamarg.
Amin, who is on his way back from Nilgrar camp where he was getting his finger checked by an army doctor says that he and his co-workers used to cook food for 5000 men, and after the yatra, the number has gone up to 8000 men.
The business in Sonamarg has seen a slight uptick since the start of the Amarnath Yatra this year. However, 87-year-old Wali Mohammad Tantray, who has been running a hotel here for the last 20 years believes if the restrictions are lifted, it will greatly help to revive the hospitality sector here.
“The administration doesn't let pilgrims and tourists roam freely and that is affecting the business,” Tantray says.
Tantray’s hotel has eight rooms, only three are accommodated by local visitors, he says.
Before the Pahalgam attack, the tourism business was blooming in Kashmir, compelling many people to take out loans to invest.
In October last year, 45-year-old Tanveer from Srinagar’s Natipora purchased a cab on EMI, he earned more than expected in the first six months.
“But after the attack, there was no work, and the monthly installments were mounting. So, now I am working as a contractual driver for a semi-government company in Srinagar,” says Tanveer.
Though not decent money, at least he is able to pay his monthly EMIs, he says.
“If the restrictions are not lifted, and serious actions are not taken to revive Kashmir’s tourism economy, many people will be under debts as huge as mountains,” says Tantray.
Tantray, a resident of Manigam-some 50 kms away from Sonamarg, stays with his two employees at the hotel. He will go back to his family, including his wife, children, and grandchildren, in the month of November, he says.
“I hope the business gets going by that time,” he says.
In Sonamarg as well, many horsemen have been denied permission to go up to the holy cave, said Rameez Wani, a 33-year-old graduate, who works as a pony operator.
The area is under heavy surveillance, “you will not know where a camera is, but you are being watched,” says Amin.
Everything is Good and Secure for Some
When asked, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) spokesperson, Ifra Jan said, “we have been demanding that the tourist destinations be opened up at least for locals.”
Jan said that her party is constantly pushing for security measures “that would be easy on everybody.”
Jan said that her party is “trying our best to cooperate with the LG government but at the end of the day how much we can do depends on how willing the central government is to revive Kashmir’s tourism sector.”
“Security is entirely the domain of the central government, and we can’t do much,” Jan added.
While many pilgrims are unhappy with the restrictions, many are feeling secure amidst it.
“We believe in the Indian army,” says Rashmi Malhotra, a 27-year-old pilgrim from Maharashtra as she walks along the footpath in Srinagar’s Ghanta Ghar.
Rashmi, her mother, two sisters, and five aunts returned to Srinagar from Sonamarg on July 19 and will leave on July 20, they said.
“Everything is good and safe here,” they said.
Despite intense fortification, reports say that the centre is lining up over 20,000 more troops to be deployed in Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmir Times has reached out to CRPF, JK Police, SASB with questions, but didn’t receive any response till this report was filed. The report will be updated if and when the response comes.
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