KISHTWAR - THE FORT THAT ISN'T

 KISHTWAR - THE FORT THAT ISN'T

Kishtwar was always on my bucket list. The famous Rajmahs, untouched scenic beauty, its border with my Himachal, shared Chandrabhaga or Chenab river, the infamous terrorist acts in composite Hindu - Muslim demography and not to forget - the one and only Dr Kishtwaria - that flamboyant teacher we had in vet college, all kept the place alive in subconsious mind. A visit to Kishtwar was bound to happen someday. 

Then I came to know of direct access road from Srinagar to Kishtwar over 'Sinthan Pass' in the Pir Panjals. Mountain passes have a charm of their own. It was the only motorable pass in Kashmir left for me. So  finding myself free for a week I decided it was time to visit Kishtwar.

We got delayed and started at around 11. Drove past the saffron fields of Pampore and reached Anantnag. I find Anantnag to be the ugliest of  Kashmir towns - congested, devoid of the typical Kashmiri beautiful houses, haphazard, with an apology of Jhelum (small, muddy, polluted), badly ravaged by the unplanned habitation all aroung. The crystal clear waters of Jhelum from Verinag and other tributeries that tumble down the hills reach the valley flats and suddenly become placid - grey nallah that seem like on death bed. Even before the suspension of Indus Water Treaty, I feel much of the waters were already diverted from the system what with evergrowing population and corresponding rise in needs and pollution. Our rivers have a bleak future.

From Anantnag the climb begins. We reached the notorious Kokernag that has seen deadliest terrorist encounters with Army in recent past. Number of school buses had brought children for picnic in the gardens here and bellied the fierce encounter on in the forests beyond since past 10 days. Kokernag onwards its a very beautiful journey with thick deodar forests and a beautiful hill stream gurgling by your side. As the road gains altitude, the vegetation becomes scarce and you reach alpine pastures where flocks of sheep and goat with some lone Bakkarwal sleeping nearby can be seen. Sinthan Pass is a desolate place with not even a board to announce it. Two young men were looking for tourists with saddled ponies. They seemed bored of waiting and mounted the ponies themselves losing all hopes.

Beyond Sinthan the road is not in a good shape and you go down steeply to a huge ground called 'Sinthan Maidan' A small market there was having lot of typical Gujjar Bakkarwals roaming around. In their turbans, beards and salvar kameez they were indistinguishable from the Afghans you see on TV and movies. Further down there is a small town called 'Chhatroo' where Shuja - the Tehsildar was waiting for us. He took us to the Dak Bungalow for tea. Shuja is from Srinagar and was posted to Chhatroo an year back prior to assembly elections in a sudden shuffle. He was terribly home sick and waiting for transfer back to the metropolitan Srinagar. "This place is very remote. There's absolutely nothing here. The road you took was opened recently to traffic and closed down in winters" He lamented. "The land is not suitable for Apples. Only some potato grows here" He told me. Next to Dak Bungalow was police station outside which there was a huge hoarding with photographs of wanted terrorists. There were rewards upto 30 Lakhs! "I would become a 'Bounty Hunter" but for the fact that these guys look like any other guy in Chhatroo market" declared Reyan.

All around us were thick deodar forests over high mountains with scant population. Terrorists from Kashmir spill over to Kishtwar whenever there is heat on them by RR. They have over the years killed hindus in remote villages which had led to migration but then Army was deployed and it contained the situation. The villagers have been armed and trained to face the terrorists. Periodically they still kill innocent villagers.

The rivulet flowing along the road was met by another big mountain stream and became a large river which I thought was Chenab till we reached 'Bhandarkot' where it met another truly mammoth river which was the Chenab. The earlier river is Marusudar that arises from Nunkun (I like the name) glacier of the Warvan valley. There's a precariously sited ziarat of Baba Zainudin Rishi here and a small temple. It is believed that at Bhandarkot, Lord Ram had cremated 'Jatayu' and then offered a 'Bhandara' or community feast. Alternately, it derives its name from a dilapidated fort that used to store (bhandar) food grains.

From Bhandarkot there is a 10 km narrow one way road to Kishtwar. Being late we straightaway went past a huge ground in the town to our guestrooms and hit the bed. 

Next day, I went to explore the town and was struck by the huge ground in the middle of the town. The town is nestled between a kind of plataeu surrounded by high rising mountains on all sides. This is the ancient pasture or chogan. Its around 65 acres in size and enclosed by a beautiful wall. Deodars and Chinars line the ground. It being sunday, scores of teams were playing cricket and football. But what was striking was the large number of livestock - cows, sheep, goats and ponies grazing side by side. It was a strange scene of co existence. I was told that people were averse to let go of the grazing rights and moreover without the livestock, whole chogan will go wild with chest height grass! The chogan is famous for its highky nutritious grass. Soldiers were having icecream cones in the shade of a chinar - rifles hanging from their shoulders.

In a corner I saw something like a graveyard - many small tombstones. They carried words in urdu. Suddenly I was urprised when I saw few of the stones with hindu names in hindi! I was flummoxed! I knew Kishtwar was having 45 percent hindu population and was by and large very tolerantbut to find a common graveyard was out of question! There were some muslim stones with 'Om' on top!! I called a local friend Arjun who dispelled the doubt. ' Oh! that's hindu cremotorium. You will find many along the periphery. We used to put those memorial stones earlier but now there's no space. In old days, urdu was the lingua franca here for all'. It truly is a multi utility ground - that Chogan! Few years back we had some devastating riots. They arose from cricket matches between hindu and muslim teams and ended up in burning down the 'Hindu' or the 'Muslim' petrol pump in the town. But now people have understood the futility of such carnage and peace prevails'.

In  vicinity, there's the Gauri Shankar temple which is huge but modern. Alongside is a historic water tank with a board that tells of a PM scheme to clean it which was launched couple of years back. But the effort was a failure as borne by the stinking algae filled tank. 

I ventured towards the hill on one side of chogan. Through congested alleys I pressed on to the top which had the ancient fort as per google. When I reached the top, I just found a modern park kind of place with a rain shelter. Whole Kishtwar town was visible from here. Mosques and temples were visible in equal number though the mosques and ziyarats were bigger. I tried hard but could not find any remnant of fort. Google said that the fort was razed to the ground when Dogras had taken over the town but there was a stone throne left. I could not find anything. On way down I crossed the famous ziyarat or Dargah  of Baba Farid u din Baghdadi who came there in 1551 AD. He is responsible for spread of Islam in the area. Then Raja also became his disciple and converted. After that all ancient temples were demolished and that's the reason you don't find any old temples in Kishtwar.

I had plans to move on to Padder in Chenab valley famous for its saffron fields and Sapphire mines and try to visit the famous Machhel Mata temple but Rina was not feeling well and we returned to Srinagar. After 3 days, there was the devastating cloudburst of Paddar in which more than 60 people lost their lives. As per some accounts Kishtwar name has originated from - Kishat Rishi who lived there. Some Kashmiri accounts (They faught periodically)  say it derives from 'Kasht' or 'discomfort'. Looking at the plight of people caught in cloudburst today, alas the latter only seems apt today. 

But I am sure the place will soon be back on its feet. Also I pray the terror to end and the beautiful valleys be freuented by tourists rather than terrorists.