It's a sight that would not have been seen in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir a couple of years ago, when sipping a whiskey could have meant a bullet in the head from hardline Islamic militants.
But as violence ebbs in the Muslim-majority state wracked by insurgency since 1989, Kashmiris are lining up in front of the two liquor shops open in the summer capital Srinagar.
“We’re doing really brisk business. People aren’t afraid any longer. They stop their cars near the shop and buy a bottle — or sometimes two,” said a salesman at one of the outlets.
PHOTO: AFP
The customers are from all strata of society even though it is traditionally forbidden for Muslims to consume alcohol, and the Koran labels intoxicants “the abominations of Satan’s handiwork.”
“I’m here to buy a bottle of whiskey,” businessman Abrar Ahmed said.
“A year ago I wouldn’t have been at this shop buying a bottle but now things are almost normal,” he said before speeding off in a four-wheel drive car on the avenue that skirts shimmering Dal Lake.
That’s not to say the threat of action by militants against people buying liquor has vanished all together.
But as calm slowly returns to Indian Kashmir against the backdrop of a four-year-old peace process between India and Pakistan aimed at settling the future of the disputed region, people are returning more openly to old lifestyles.
“Normalcy has lured me back to my old pastimes,” said a middle-aged, cultured Kashmiri man who did not wish his named to be used. “My friends and I like to get together to enjoy a drink once in a while and we can nowadays.”
The state government’s liquor statistics are a sign of the more relaxed attitude in Kashmir where at the peak of the militancy, thirsty drinkers would bring in alcohol from outside the state.
Liquor sales climbed to 414,000 bottles last year from 385,000 in 2006.
Beer sales grew even faster, jumping to 409,000 bottles last year from 165,000 bottles a year earlier.
All this marks a big change from nearly two decades ago when the insurgency erupted against New Delhi’s rule of the Himalayan region.
Liquor stores and cinemas became early targets of Islamist militants who forced their closure in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir’s urban hub of the revolt that has claimed at least 43,000 lives.
Srinagar hotelier Joginder Singh gave up in 1999 and converted his bar into a vegetarian restaurant. He now says tourists “come here to enjoy [the] region’s beauty and not liquor.”
Alcohol, however, has always been available at Srinagar’s five-star establishments and at a few guest houses where owners would produce a bottle from under a counter.
But now there are five privately-owned liquor shops in the scenic Kashmir Valley as the number of insurgency-related deaths has dropped to two a day from 10 at the height of the violence.
Traditionally, such shops were mostly run by non-Muslims, but after many of them fled the fighting, the new shops are operated mainly by Muslims.
“You have to be brave enough to run a liquor shop in Kashmir,” one Hindu worker at the shop said, vividly remembering militants targeting a liquor outlet three years ago in Srinagar and killing its owner.
Some hard drinkers even open bottles in front of the store and swig the tawny liquid in public.
“I know Islam forbids liquor but I don’t want anyone to force me to toe their line,” 35-year-old Farooq Ahmed said.
Many locals regard the shops as a curse.
“We’ve asked the authorities to close them,” said Imtiaz Ahmed, a middle-aged engineer. “It’s not good for the neighborhood — it’s bad for our youth.”
But the sellers are unmoved.
“We’re not forcing anyone to come to us. People come on their own,” said one salesman.
Kashmir’s main opposition National Conference and separatist alliance Hurriyat Conference have called for a liquor sale ban, but the government has decided to provide licenses for more outlets.
Authorities say they believe liquor shops will boost tourism in the snowcapped “Switzerland of the East,” as the region is known.
“It’s a shame that some Muslims in Kashmir use liquor,” cleric Ali Mohammed Wani said. “There aren’t that many but Allah will certainly punish them — or bring them back onto right path.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of