This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 007673 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2014 
TAGS: PREL PK

SUBJECT: INDIAN JOURNALISTS RAVE ABOUT VISIT TO PAKISTANI  KASHMIR 
 
  Classified By: DCM Robert O. Blake, Jr.  Reasons 1.4 (B,D). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary: Participants returning from a November  19-December 1 trip by 26 Indian journalists to Pakistan have  reported overwhelming popular support in Pakistani Kashmir  for opening the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road.  The media  representatives were generally surprised by what they saw,  and noted widely diverging notions on the shape of a final  settlement of Kashmir, including strong pro-independence  views in Mirpur (less in Muzaffarabad), and a much-reduced  terrorist presence.  We summarize the main observations of  several of the participants, as related to us and reported in  the press, for their insight on what the Indian political  class is hearing from the other side of the LOC.  If  travelers are correct about the strong sentiment in Pakistani  Kashmir for roads to open, this mirrors the views of their  cousins in the Valley, and endows the December 7-8 Indo-Pak  talks on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus links with special  significance.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (C) Organized by the South Asian Free Media Association  (SAFMA), this was a return visit after a group of Pakistani  journalists came to J&K in October under SAFMA auspices  (Reftel).  Indian participants (including several Kashmiris  who traveled with Indian passports) reported that the Lahore  and Islamabad legs were useful for their opportunities to  interact with senior GOP officials, including President  Musharraf, and politicians, but were most enthusiastic about  their travel in Pakistani Kashmir (Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, and  Gilgit), which most had never seen before (a few had traveled  to the state in past years, but none more recently than four  years ago).  They were able to travel where they wished, but  lamented that their full program allowed less time to explore  their special interests. 
 
¶3.  (C) In conversations following their return, the Indian  journalists praised the warm reception and hospitality they  received almost across the board, and the access they were  given -- to most of those they wanted to see except Hizbul  Mujahideen (HM) supremo Syed Salahuddin (one visitor claimed  he was axed from the program because Islamabad did not wish  to admit that he was living openly in Pakistan).  Another  traveler said the President of the Muzaffarabad Press Club  praised the group for ""doing a great job to heal the wounds  of a battered humanity."" 
  India and Pakistan: Open This Road! 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Kashmiri reporters told us their strongest impression  was the yearning in POK for an opening of the  Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road, hopefully to be followed by the  Jammu/Suchetgarh-Sialkot, Poonch-Kotli, and Kargil-Skardu  crossings.  An overwhelming majority of interlocutors in POK  reportedly saw this as the most important CBM India and  Pakistan could adopt.  There was no interest in using a visa  and passport system, on the grounds that the LOC would take  on characteristics of an international border.  Yusuf Jameel  from the ""Asian Age"" said a large number of Kashmiris he met  who had crossed the LOC since 1989 wanted to return to the  Valley, regardless of the consequences, but claimed that the  Fence was making it more difficult to do so. 
  Other Observations 
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¶5.  (C) Trip participants also made other observations on  their experiences in POK, the most interesting of which we  summarize below: 
 
-- Tahir Mohiuddin (Chattan/Srinagar) was impressed that he  no longer saw militants traveling openly on the roads, as he  had four years ago, an indication that Musharraf and the ISI  were ""at least doing something against terrorism."" 
 
-- V Sudarshan (Outlook) reported that nostalgia, hate,  metaphor, reality greeted the journalists in Mirpur. 
Interlocutors reportedly told him residents of POK were ""not  even allowed to go to Gilgit.""  Other POK residents  considered the governments in both POK and J&K ""puppets,"" and  opined that the only way to determine the views of the people  of pre-1947 J&K was to allow travel.  The Mirpur Bar  Association President reportedly told him ""(we) are prepared  to fight for 2000 years,"" to deafening applause. 
 
-- Shujaat Bukhari (Hindu) was struck by the size of the  migration from J&K to POK since the insurgency began in 1989,  observing that 35,000 Kashmiris from the Valley were ""eagerly  waiting to board the first peace bus.""  Migrants in POK  complained about dreary lives, and thought of themselves as  ""kings at home but dependents"" in POK.  The cease-fire has  allowed them to travel up to the LOC to wave at their  relatives in J&K, but go no further.  He reported ""hardly a  voice of dissent"" over free movement between POK and the  Valley, although there was no consensus on a final solution  to Kashmir. 
-- Sushant Sareen (Observer Research Foundation, Delhi) 
reported widely diverging views on the shape of a final  settlement of Kashmir.  He was particularly interested in the  views of former Azad Kashmir PM Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, who  had changed his mind over time and now argued that ""given  ground realities in J&K, there does not appear to be a  permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute in sight.  Maybe we  should only look for a series of interim solutions.""  Sareen  considered Qayoom the most realistic of all the politicians  the group had met during their stay in POK, in that he was  willing to consider other steps to improve Kashmiris' lives  before settling their final status.  Other politicians were  ""caught in a time warp,"" or (in the case of the Amir of  Jamaat in POK) were ""consumed by hatred of India,"" and  strongly supported the jihadis, he stated. 
 
-- Other journalists reported a session they had at Azad  Kashmir University in Muzaffarabad, where they heard strong  pro-independence and pro-accession (to Pakistan) views (as  well as complaints of large numbers of ISI agents in the  auditorium, impeding free speech).  Advocates of an  independent Kashmir told the Hindu's Bukhari that there were  at least 16 cases of student expulsions there for these  views. 
 
-- Indrajit Hazra (Hindustan Times) was amazed to see Tarun  Vijay, Editor of the RSS weekly Panchajanya, ""barely able to  hold himself back from launching forth on India-Pakistan  amity."" 
 
-- Hazra also reported that ""azadi"" (""freedom"") is ""on all  minds"" in POK, more so in Mirpur than in Muzaffarabad, where  she noted a radically different tone, ""almost as if  independence was an abstract afterthought.""  Sareen commented  that the pro-independence lobby is well aware that there is  ""no question of Pakistan ever allowing control over Azad  Kashmir or the Northern Areas to slip out of its hands.""  This prompted some to ask why India does not call Islamabad's  bluff by conceding the plebiscite principle.  He reported  that local journalists had described ""a change in mindset in  POK in favor of independence,"" primarily as a result of their  treatment at the hands of the Pakistani establishment. 
 
-- Several found significant improvements since previous  visits 4-10 years ago.  They were impressed with  infrastructure improvements in Gilgit.  A Jammu-based editor  was amazed at the excellent roads and uninterrupted power  supply (in sharp contrast to what Indians are used to). 
  Comment 
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¶6.  (C) As with the October visit by Pakistani journalists to  J&K, this visit was unusually successful in exposing  influential Indian and Kashmiri opinion leaders to realities  in Pakistani Kashmir, areas most know only from reading and  hearsay.  A couple of the travelers considered the trip one  of their most important foreign trips ever.  If participants'  dominant conclusion -- that there is strong sentiment among  Kashmiris in POK for roads to open -- accurately reflects  local views, it mirrors those of their cousins in the Valley. 
 New Delhi and Islamabad can ignore this popular opinion as  they bicker over travelers' documentation, but from the Delhi  perspective the desire for people-to-people contact on both  sides of the LOC seems strong.  This endows the December 7-8  Indo-Pak talks on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus links with  all the more significance. 
MULFORD