Indian Kashmir has heard a Catholic church ring its bell 50 years after it was silenced by protestors. Representatives of other faiths, including Muslims and Hindus, also celebrated the reactivation.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Khan
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An inter-religious ceremony sought Sunday to make good on an arson attack that damaged the belfry of Srinigar's Holy Family Catholic church which took place in 1967 during the then-Mideast war between Israel and Arab nations.
Members of the tiny Christian community of about 30 families in the capital of India's portion of Kashmir donated the new 105 kilogram (231 pounds) bell to replace the damaged original.
The church's pastor, Roy Mathews, said Sunday's interfaith bell-ringing ceremony reflected the traditional "composite culture" of Kashmir and was also a call to renounce violence.
"We are all one, no matter whatever faith, persuasion you have, but basically we are all human beings," Mathews said.
Kashmir is administered in two parts by India and Pakistan, which each claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Since the 1980s, secessionist unrest has claimed more than 44,000 lives.
'Happy occasion'
A spokesman for the Church Committee, S M Rath, told the Mumbai-based media concern DNA ahead of Sunday's event that bell ringing was a call to worshippers, "something analogous to the Islamic tradition of azaan from a minaret."
Rath said one of the 30 Christian families living in Srinagar donated the bell.
He said Muslim, Hindus and Sikh representatives had been invited to "jointly ring the new bell for the first time."
"We want everyone to join us in this happy occasion. That is why we are giving the privilege to one member of each community to joint our priest," Rath told DNA.
People gather around Srinigar's Holy Family Church on SundayImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Khan
British legacy
The Holy Family, one of three main churches in Srinagar and Baramulla, dates back to 1886, during the British colonial era on the subcontinent when it was established by Mill Hill Catholic missionaries from north London.
During the 1967 Mideast War that sparked the protest in Srinigar, Israel captured the Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and the West Bank - lands long sought by Palestinians as their future state.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza. Some 400,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in addition to 200,000 Israelis in annexed east Jerusalem - in settlements largely opposed by the international community.
India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price
India and Pakistan continue to clash over Kashmir, a volatile Himalayan region that has been experiencing an armed insurgency for nearly three decades. Many Kashmiris are now fed up with both Islamabad and New Delhi.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
An unprecedented danger?
On February 27, Pakistan's military said that it had shot down two Indian fighter jets over disputed Kashmir. A Pakistani military spokesman said the jets were shot down after they'd entered Pakistani airspace. It is the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have conducted air strikes against each other.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
India drops bombs inside Pakistan
The Pakistani military has released this image to show that Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistani territory for the first time since the countries went to war in 1971. India said the air strike was in response to a recent suicide attack on Indian troops based in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan said there were no casualties and that its airforce repelled India's aircraft.
Image: AFP/ISPR
No military solution
Some Indian civil society members believe New Delhi cannot exonerate itself from responsibility by accusing Islamabad of creating unrest in the Kashmir valley. A number of rights organizations demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government reduce the number of troops in Kashmir and let the people decide their fate.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
No end to the violence
On February 14, at least 41 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing near the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based Jihadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility. The attack, the worst on Indian troops since the insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, spiked tensions and triggered fears of an armed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers.
Image: IANS
A bitter conflict
Since 1989, Muslim insurgents have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir - a region of 12 million people, about 70 percent of whom are Muslim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
India strikes down a militant rebellion
In October 2016, the Indian military has launched an offensive against armed rebels in Kashmir, surrounding at least 20 villages in Shopian district. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants, who cross over the Pakistani-Indian "Line of Control" and launch attacks on India's paramilitary forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/C. Anand
Death of a Kashmiri separatist
The security situation in the Indian part of Kashmir deteriorated after the killing of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July 2016. Protests against Indian rule and clashes between separatists and soldiers have claimed hundreds of lives since then.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
The Uri attack
In September 2016, Islamist militants killed at least 17 Indian soldiers and wounded 30 in India-administered Kashmir. The Indian army said the rebels had infiltrated the Indian part of Kashmir from Pakistan, with initial investigations suggesting that the militants belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which has been active in Kashmir for over a decade.
Image: UNI
Rights violations
Indian authorities banned a number of social media websites in Kashmir after video clips showing troops committing grave human rights violations went viral on the Internet. One such video that showed a Kashmiri protester tied to an Indian army jeep — apparently as a human shield — generated outrage on social media.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/
Demilitarization of Kashmir
Those in favor of an independent Kashmir want Pakistan and India to step aside and let the Kashmiri people decide their future. "It is time India and Pakistan announce the timetable for withdrawal of their forces from the portions they control and hold an internationally supervised referendum," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Pakistani Kashmir, told DW.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Singh
No chance for secession
But most Kashmir observers don't see it happening in the near future. They say that while the Indian strategy to deal strictly with militants and separatists in Kashmir has partly worked out, sooner or later New Delhi will have to find a political solution to the crisis. Secession, they say, does not stand a chance.
