Jammu: Ground Zero, Danger Ahead

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After we were chased back by the crowds at Kathua, we speed back to Madhopur, a dusty, dirty, muddy water pool area which is the last Punjab outpost. We park along with the lines of trucks on the roadside. After transmitting video footage of the Kathua tension to Noida we go to the Coral River Resort to have a bite and decide what to do next. The resort is a welcome contrast to Madhopur's dullness with open dining next to a winding green canal.

We decide we will try and enter Jammu when night falls and people are off the streets. We have heard that the Army has been deployed on the Kathua-Jammu highway and it will be safe to travel. Dusk comes and night falls. We gear up once again. I pick up a walkie talkie from our OB van so we can at least communicate if there is no cell signal, but the walkie talkies are more like toys and the batteries go dead after a few minutes. We decide on a pattern. The Innova will travel ahead and check the road, the OB will follow a short distance behind with headlights on high beam so the OB silhouette is not seen. We will try and travel at a minimum speed of 80 kmph. The Innova can go much faster, but the OB cant. If we switch on our blinkers, it means trouble and the OB should immediately stop soon as it sees the blinking lights and should start reversing and turning back until we give it an all clear. And if they are in trouble they will dip heir headlights up and down.

Off we go. Peering ahead along the headlight cutting into the darkness. We see ominous looking military trucks with red flags parked in the shadows and gun toting soldiers standing around. Soon we are again at Kathua and pray that none of the afternoon crowd is there, for they are sure to get furious on seeing us again and after what happened, they would think we cheated them. Kathua pases by safely. We are speeding on. Suddenly short of Samba we come to a road that looks sinister. There are hundreds of round stones on the road and up ahead we see people with sticks. Ok, so the stones are to slow us down so we can't speed by. This is dangerous. Do we go ahead or do we turn back? Going ahead would get our OB to Jammu if these guys let us pass. But if they don't, we had it. And no soldiers in sight. The risk is too much. We switch on the blinkers and we see the OB suddenly slowing down and falling behind. We also stop and turn around and speed back even as we see commotion up ahead as the mob senses that here are two vehicles that have something to fear. The OB also turns and now it is leading the way back and we are following. I call up office and tell them, it is too dangerous to get the OB to Jammu, but that I can carry on without it. They say, `fine'. We escort the OB back to slightly ahead of Kathua, and tell them to go back to base at Chandigarh. They speed off and we turn back once again to Jammu.

It is almost 10.30 pm. The roads are emptier now. We are now driving at 120 kmph through the night. We see an army convoy up ahead and for a few minutes pull into its middle and feel safe. But it is on patrol and is moving too slow for our comfort. We pull out and again speed up. And then after passing through the rock strewn road we find that the mob there has dissipated and we move on.

Suddenly, I see a few young men on the road with handkerchiefs across their faces and sticks in hand. One of then swings his hand back and I know he is going to throw a stone. There is nothing we can do and as the Innova whizzes past, the stone comes hurtling at the car and hits the rear window just where I am sitting with a big thud. And then a man comes rushing at us with a long stick, I tell the driver to swerve and speed up, but the guy is relentless and just as we scoot past, he hits the car hard on the side putting a dent on it. The thick tempered glass saves me, but a few kilometers on, it shatters. And now the noise of the wind is like a jet revving to take off. I wonder why those men wanted to hurt us. They did not know I was from the media. It was dark. Why were they so senseless and so furious? They could have killed us. No one would have ever been booked. It was a mob.

It was then that I felt I could understand why soldiers and officers sometimes open fire at mobs. They are blamed for it afterwards. But I feel it requires superhuman control to resist the urge to squeeze the trigger of a machine gun when you have crowds pelting you with boulders and intent on hurting and killing you even when you have nothing to do with the problem.

We move on silently. I tell the driver to speed up as much as he can. We cross Samba, where riots had broken out just a day before and then on to Jammu. The roads are now empty save for occasional army trucks. Soon we are in Jammu, a crowded city that is desolate tonight. There are hundreds of soldiers and army trucks at roundabouts, roadsides, and driving slowly. We are stopped and checked. Finally we reach Hotel Asia in Jammu and see its gates closed with a big board saying `closed'. But it is open and we are ushered in. As I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I think of the mobs, of the fury over a patch of land and over the intractability of the problem. I again wonder, how will this ever be solved? Any solutions?