On India’s 75th Independence Day, Kashmiris yearn for resumption of cross-border trade

SRINAGAR: Two years after business activities were halted by India in the town of Uri, close to the border with Pakistan, Kashmiris and traders on Saturday called for the resumption of cross-border trade.
They highlighed the plight of nearly 170,000 villagers whose lives had been upended by the economic crisis in the region.
“After trade stopped in 2019, markets in Uri are badly affected, and they are on the verge of permanent closure,” Tahir Ahmad Khan, a trader in Uri, a connecting point in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, told Arab News.
In April 2019, New Delhi abruptly halted all trading activity in the area, citing “illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency” as reasons for its clampdown.
The Ministry of Home Affairs also suggested that the trade was “misused to fund militancy and separatism” in the volatile region of Jammu and Kashmir.
It led to the suspension of an ambitious economic engagement between the two countries, launched in 2008 when trade routes were opened along the Line of Control (LoC), a de facto border that separates India and Pakistan.
The move was part of measures to ease tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors and served as a boon for its residents, most of whom worked as traders, laborers and drivers.
Today, most are grappling with an “existential crisis,” while three laborers have reportedly committed suicide.
“When the trade was happening, a laborer would earn at least 25,000 rupees ($350) a month, but today they are struggling to survive. Three laborers have committed suicide so far,” Lateef Awan, a labor contractor in Uri, told Arab News.
After launching trade routes in 2008, India and Pakistan had approved 21 items for cross-border trade, including medicinal herbs, honey, dried fruits, Peshawari leather sandals, onions and black mushrooms.
No duty was charged at the border.
For four days a week, nearly 70 trucks would use the crossing along two trade routes — the Chakan-Da-Bagh-Rawalakot route in Jammu or the Salamabad-Chokoti route in the Kashmir region — with the Salamabad trade facilitation center in Uri serving as the hub of activities where trucks from Pakistan would be unloaded.
“More than 100 laborers were working under me in Uri’s Salamabad. Today, they don’t have any work; their children no longer go to school. It’s a very sad state of affairs,” Awan said.
Mohammad Maqbool Awan, a 40-year-old trader, said that he used to earn at least $300 per month earlier but today survives on the “doles handed out by traders and others.”
“There is no work, no income. All four of my children are at home because I can’t afford their schooling. With trade gone, our lifeline has also disappeared,” Maqbool told Arab News.
“Trade should be resumed again for the larger interests of the people. But I feel that the government in Delhi is not keen to serve the interests of the people of Kashmir,” he said.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. Both claim it in full and rule it in part and have fought two of their three wars over control of the region since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. On Sunday, India marks its 75th Independence Day.
Ties between Islamabad and New Delhi nose-dived on Aug. 5, 2019, when the Indian government revoked the special status of Kashmir by repealing the constitution’s Article 370, which granted autonomy to the region.
In February, both the countries agreed to adhere to a 2003 cease-fire agreement along the disputed border in Kashmir, but there have been no developments in the resumption of economic activities in the area.
“Whatever little hoped we nurtured about the start of the trade was dashed after the Aug. 5 development that brought more hardship. By abrogating Kashmir’s special status, New Delhi has made life more difficult for us,” Maqbool said.
The value of cross-border trade reached 7,500 crore rupees ($1.127 billion) between 2008 and 2019, according to a report released by the Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF) in New Delhi last year.
Trading activities generated freight revenue of about 66.4 crores rupees ($10 million) for transporters in Jammu and Kashmir, while more than 300 traders were involved in the business employing more than 150,000 people.
Sami Ullah Bhat, a trader based in the capital Srinagar, is among hundreds who incurred heavy losses after the trade suspension.
“They closed the trade abruptly without any notice or information. As a result, lots of overdue amounts remained across the border,” Bhat, who is also the vice president of the Salamabad Cross-LoC Traders Union, told Arab News.
“We have become bankrupt. Some have sold off their gold, others have taken loans, they got disturbed after the suspension of the LoC trade,” said Bhat, who incurred a loss of more than $80,000.
He added that Kashmir’s economy had “suffered more” due to the trade closure.
“This trade was helping not only traders but the common people by providing employment. Every trader would employ at least five people while tradeable items used to be distributed across Kashmir. Prices of essential commodities were never high,” Bhat said.
It is a sentiment echoed by Tariq Khan, a trader who suffered losses amounting to $90,000 after trade stopped.
“Not only Kashmir suffered, but the traders in rest of India also suffered losses. We used to get spices from south India and send them across the border. It was a good business,” Khan, former president of the Salamabad Cross-LoC Traders Union, told Arab News.
Others said that the resumption of trade would help to maintain a cease-fire along the India-Pakistan border.
“Kashmiris want that both the nations should talk and find a way to solve the problem. Each and every Kashmiri wants that. Opening the trade is a must. It is a must for peace,” Bhat said.