In the name of Tosa Maidan

Arvind

One might not have heard of Army being ill-treated in its own country itself. But that was the case of yesterday. Tosa Maidan, a magnificent meadow on Pir Panjal mountain Range in central Kashmir’s Budgam district was leased to the army in 1964 for setting up an artillery firing range. With the 50-year lease ending on April 18, the locals and the state government are against its own army opposing the extension of the lease.

The National Conference-led coalition government has its own strategy in denying the extension to garner the votes of the villagers for three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir and putting the State’s and its peoples’ life in danger. We should know that, for Pakistan the route to Srinagar is via Tosa Maidan. Presence of the Army here has always been disadvantageous for Pakistan. Once Army removed, this area can also prove most suitable route for the smuggling and infiltration purpose.

Since 1964, Army has made sure of all the safety measures and it not only informs all the village panchayats but also makes announcements and takes all precautions into account before starting any artillery exercise in the region. At present, interviews and article with anti-Army stances for Tosa Maidan lease are on the rise in the valley centric Media. In the area where some take stone pelting as a daily wage, agitators are waiting for signals to project their agitation a mass movement against Army. In the name of safety and human rights, pawns of Pakistan are about to start a hubbub against Indian Army and thereby India. To give a humanitarian face to their free Tosa Maidan agitation, planners of the hullabaloo have come up with the some statistics. They have a figure of human loss and injuries for last fifty years. Although there is no record or complain of such kind with the administration, these activist say that 63 persons have lost their lives (in 50 years) while 41 have received injuries due to unexploded shells in the Tosa Maidan.

Episode of Tosa Maidan lease had suddenly made many people of the region environmentalists, economists and expert on tourism. There is not even a single water body in the region of Tosa Maidan. While throwing points related to the environment, planners of the agitations claim that water bodies of the region are being destroyed/ polluted due to the Army exercise. Similarly, self proclaimed saviours of the Tosa Maidan region inform media that their life is in danger due to the nuclear wastes in the region when Army uses no nuclear weapon for the exercise.

Not only that, a organisation named Tosa-Maidan Bachao Front (TBF) has emerged general Secretary Molvi Maqbool said “If the lease agreement is extended to the army for firing purposes, the people from 52 villages of this area will have a sit in at the place of shelling. We demand complete shifting of this firing range from the government and we will continue our fight till Tosa Maidan is vacated,” Also, a new political party, AAP, said granting an extension of lease to the Army for using Tosa Maidan pasture would be human rights violation.

People of the region know that Army has a major role in maintaining peace of the region which eventually brings business for locals by attracting more of tourists. It’s not that vacating the area would help region to flourish, instead presence of the Army in the Tosa Maidan is the reason for the well-being of the region. Land, if vacated by army is bound to go to encroachers, grabbers and land mafias, who are supporting the agitation.

(The writer is a researcher at J&K Study Centre, New Delhi)