Lolab: For the most part of his teenage years, this 19-year-old second-year student from Lolab region in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district knew what he wanted to be in life — a civil servant.
And the inspiration came from way close to home — when he topped the UPSC exams in 2009, former IAS officer Shah Faesal was the very first Kashmiri to achieve that feat.
Faesal hails from Lolab region.
His joining the Indian bureaucracy made him a poster boy around this picturesque region, sparking a craze for the civil services. His success was particularly inspirational as it came despite personal loss — his father was killed by militants in the early 2000s, a time when Lolab was the hotbed of terror.
His detention, however, has dampened the enthusiasm to join the bureaucracy but hasn’t quite killed it yet. The former IAS officer has been under detention for over five months now ever since the Modi government abrogated Article 370 that granted J&K special status.
For the 19-year-old, the ardent desire to crack the UPSC exam is now tinged with apprehension.
“He cracked the most difficult exam of India, but look at what has happened to him now. There is a mismatch somewhere,” say the teenager, adding that he will still prepare for the UPSC exam.
Just like the 19-year-old, youth here are raising questions about Faesal’s detention but are not giving up on their ambitions to join the civil services.
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A craze for the civil services
Despite the apprehensions, there is still a desire to join the bureaucracy.
Mudaiya Bashir, 15, is keen on joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). The bone-chilling cold has done little to deter her from attending extra classes at the Army Goodwill School, Krusan, in north Lolab. It is the thick of ‘chilai kalan’ or what Kashmiris call the 40 coldest days of the winter, but her classroom is full.
“He (Faesal) topped the most difficult exam of India and is an inspiration for all of us,” says Mudaiya, who comes from an underprivileged family in Lolab village.
Like Mudaiya, many of her classmates, too, want to join the the IAS and the IPS.
According to Wasim Raja, the managing director of Ignited Minds Academy, an IAS coaching institute in Srinagar, there are 200 students preparing for the central and state civil services examination at the centre.
Of these, around 30 are from Lolab alone.
“They are all inspired by Faesal, and also by the first woman IPS officer from Kashmir Ruveda Salam, who was also from Kupwara,” he said. “They also look up to IGP Kashmir, Abdul Ghani Mir, for inspiration,” he said. Mir too hails from Kupwara.
There are nearly a dozen IAS coaching institutes in Srinagar, according to Raja.
As for Faesal’s family, his wife, Iram Rashid, who is also a government officer in J&K, told ThePrint that he has been detained in his capacity as a politician.
She said it was a difficult time for the family, particularly for their five-year-old son. “…but we must realise that he made a choice to quit IAS and join grassroot politics,” Iram said, adding, “It was his decision to join politics. And the detention came as part of that.”
Iram, who meets Faesal at the detention center with lots of books said he is reading a lot especially books on world history and politics.
The one-time militancy hub
All this is a far cry from the days that Lolab was a hotbed for militancy.
Located in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, Lolab is in the hinterland but its hilly terrain made it a transit point for militants infiltrating from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
With a population of 1,61,000, there are 41 villages in North Lolab and 36 villages in South Lolab.
“The infiltration was easy because of the difficult terrain, heavy forest cover and also because of its proximity to Sopore and Handwara. Thus Lolab had acted as a staging area and hideout for foreign terrorists,” a senior Army officer, who has served in the area explained.
The relative peace in the region over the last couple of years. Observers say that there are two primary reasons for that. Firstly, a heavy military presence and strengthening of the counter insurgency grid in Kupwara.
And second, the population of Kupwara and Lolab have slowly started putting greater focus on education and jobs and have been veering away from militancy. This is also fuelled by the fact that they feel Srinagar has not done much over the years for Lolab’s development, particularly in terms of infrastructure and health.
Kupwara district magistrate Anshul Garg said instances of militancy were witnessed “a couple of years ago” and no incident has been reported since 2018.
“There was a huge participation in the panchayat elections and a 55 per cent turnout in Lok Sabha polls held in April last year. Funds are reaching the sarpanches from the 14th Finance Commission,” Garg said. “Moreover, the Lolab area is saturated with government schemes such as PM KISAN, Ujjwala, pensions for widows and the specially abled. This is also proved by the fact that there were no protests here after 5 August.”
The fact that local recruitment has significantly gone down in these areas has also contributed to peace. “Moreover, Pakistan has started using the International Border (IB) and other avenues for infiltration,” the senior Army officer said.
Another officer said that peace doesn’t mean eradication of ideologies. “The ideology still exists in pockets of the population. But they have largely refrained from picking up weapons,” the officer said.
The population’s dependence on the Army is evident for daily activities, from labourers clearing snow off the roads to traders supplying goods to the security forces.
The Army also runs two goodwill schools in Lolab and each class has about 40 students.
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The other side
Lolab may have turned its back on terror but it did produce one of the most high-profile militants in recent times.
In January 2018, Manan Wani, a former PhD scholar at the Aligarh Muslim University, created a stir in the Valley after announcing that he was joining the Hizbul Mujahideen. His educational credentials stood out, making him a social media sensation.
By October 2018, however, Wani was gunned down by security forces.
At his home in south Lolab, his father, college professor Bashir Ahmed Wani, sits cross legged on the cold carpet of his living room.
“It is a difficult time for us. Manaan was killed and now our nephew has been arrested. We don’t know what to do,” he says slowly.
Bashir said he never realised that Manan would become a militant one day. “We only found out about his decision when his videos became viral. I knew I couldn’t do anything then. I just told my family members to save themselves,” he said.
The father recounts thousands coming over from across Kashmir following Manan’s funeral. The Army has identified about three villages in North Lolab and 11 in South that it deems ‘grey’ — villages hostiles to forces — and seven in South Lolab as ‘black’.
“Manan was intelligent. In studies, too, he guided so many other students on what to pursue and how to pursue and has inspired many to pursue higher education,” Bashir said. “So what prompted him to take up guns is something which needs introspection.”
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