After six decades of controversy and 18 years of heightened conflict since the Kashmiri intifada began in 1989, Kashmir is a changed place. Forget the stereotype of a man dressed in his pheran cloak, conical cap atop his head, rowing a shikara over the waters of Dal Lake. Nowadays, the picture of the typical Kashmiri is incomplete without a gun-toting trooper in combat gear nearby. The ubiquity of such personnel has made them part of the new Kashmiri folklore.
Today there is hardly a village or community where paramilitary soldiers have not been stationed at some time over the past two decades. And where there are troops, there need to be barracks. In the early years of the conflict, the army and paramilitary set up barracks in schools, government offices, heritage buildings, the abandoned houses of Kashmiri Pandits, cinema halls, orchards – anywhere they found a convenient bivouac. Even road intersections and private buildings were not spared, and the culture of sandbagging has now taken hold everywhere. These camps have now become so intertwined with Kashmir's residential areas that few really notice them anymore; or rather, they try not to, with varying degrees of success.
Besides housing the armed forces, these taken-over premises gained notoriety for their use as torture cells and veritable concentration camps. Those who survived recall these facilities with a mixture of awe and horror; for the relatives of those who were tortured to death within, they are remembered as death chambers. Although in recent years many of these places have been vacated by the security forces, their infamy continues to haunt the local communities. Such places are scattered throughout the Kashmir Valley; although there is no public record of their locations, a stark map of them remains in the collective Kashmiri mind.
Hari Niwas, Papa II
Papa II and Hari Niwas in Srinagar city are two such buildings, situated in the picturesque Zabarwan foothills, by the banks of Dal Lake. It is hard to find anyone in Srinagar who has not heard of Papa II and Hari Niwas, and of the horrific torture that was meted out there.