By Ahmad Adil
SRINAGAR, Indian-held Kashmir
Indian forces attempted to thwart anti-government protests to mark a year since devastating floods by arresting prominent pro-independence and business leaders in Indian-held Kashmir.
The business community had called for a shutdown Monday to mark the anniversary of floods that killed around 300 people in Indian-held Kashmir and a similar number in Pakistan-held Kashmir.
They complained that the Indian government had not kept its promise to rehabilitate victims of the flood which marooned most of the region last year, including much of the capital Srinagar.
“Police arrested many of our leaders today to prevent them protesting against the failures of the central government,” President of the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation Mohammed Yaseen Khan told Anadolu Agency. “The Bharatiya Janata Party government consider people of Kashmir as their enemies and they are not interested in the rehabilitation.”
Khan’s federation has pegged cost of the floods at 1 trillion rupees ($15 billion) but the central government has given only a fraction of that, 50 billion rupees, to the regional Jammu & Kashmir government.
After the flooding, which started on Sept. 7 2014, settled down the Indian government promised to rehabilitate the victims and rejected offers from the international community to provide assistance.
Traders are angry that international agencies have not been allowed to help and that the Indian government, in their eyes, has not done enough.
“When floods hit Kashmir last year, the international community came forward to help. But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected it and said the government will help people on its own,” said Showkat Chaudhary, Chairman of the Kashmir Economic Alliance, a conglomerate of trade bodies in the region. “One year has passed, but nothing happened. So the government should now allow the international community to help people in Kashmir.”
Other victims of the flood say both the regional and Indian governments have failed to help them with rehabilitation.
Arjumand Shafi, 38, told Anadolu Agency that his house in Shivpora, one Srinagar's worst effected areas, was under water for three weeks but his family has only received compensation of 12,000 rupees against damage of 700,000 rupees.
“The central government several times said they will announce a big package for Kashmiri people,” he said. “Everything proved wrong and the government has done nothing for us."
Shabir Ahmad, a flood victim from North Kashmir's Kanyari village, had a similar opinion of the administration's response.
“Government is not bothered to address our problems post-floods. My single story house got completely damaged due to the floods last year,” he said. “None of the villagers have been paid any kind of aid by the government.”
Ahmad now lives in a makeshift house in the village and is awaiting compensation he says was promised by government officials.
Leaders in the regional government claim however that the Indian government will soon announce a significant rehabilitation package.
“The process to provide compensation is going on,” said Nayeem Akhtar, the spokesperson of the regional government, a coalition of India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the regional Peoples Democratic Party. “We have distributed some relief to the victims and much more will be provided.”
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
The two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.
Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in Indian-held Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
More than 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed so far in the violence, most of them by Indian forces. India maintains over half a million soldiers in the Indian-held Kashmir.
A part of Kashmir is also held by China.
