Marxist MP and PTUDC president Manzoor Ahmed was recently in Kashmir with the PTUDC’s third revolutionary solidarity caravan. Shortly after arriving at the devastated city of Muzaffarabad, Comrade Manzoor Ahmed addressed reporters covering the arrival of the caravan from India and explained that “this calamity has exposed the class nature of the Musharraf Regime.”
Comrade Manzoor was chairing a meeting of the PTUDC’s Relief and Rehabilitation Committee when another tremor from an aftershock measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale was felt. He saluted the courage and commitment of PTUDC /YFIS members for the enormous amount of work put into the relief effort in most difficult of conditions. He also read out solidarity messages to the Kashmiri comrades and people from parliamentarians and PTUDC supporters in India.
Manzoor also sharply criticized the regime and its handling of the disaster. He explained that Kashmiri people will face extreme difficulties in the days ahead when relief goods begin to dry up in a few days time. He also explained that the regime has humiliated millions of people by failing to reach those in outlying areas. And by making people wait for hours in long queues only to receive inadequate supplies. Manzoor asked the question: “How can people survive in this chaotic and tragic situation?” and answered by saying that “the people of Kashmir will have to rebuild their lives on their own. They will have to pick up the pieces from the rubble because decent housing did not exist before this calamity struck, and it will not exist afterwards because the rehabilitation plans of the Musharraf regime will not work under capitalism.”
Manzoor also pointed to the neglect of the international community, explaining that the Kashmiri people could not rely on the generosity of the West. Help will come in the form of donations and assistance from the workers and poor of the world, referring to poor peasants in Bihar and West Bengal, who shunned traditional charities and NGOs and contributed time, money, and goods to the solidarity caravan from India. Manzoor summed up his speech with the slogan, “from the rubble… forward”.
Shujaat Kazmi, president of the JKNSF (Jammu-Kashmir National Students’ Federation) thanked the Indian people for their contributions to the solidarity caravan and praised the selection and quality of goods. He also presented his plan of action for the swift distribution of goods to the various PTUDC solidarity committees. He emphasized the need for the political rehabilitation of the Kashmiri people as well as the material rehabilitation. He pointed out the seriousness of the class question in this disaster zone and explained how it could materialize in the future. He explained that no amount of international aid could solve the problems caused by the disaster or the centuries of deprivation and oppression the Kashmiri people have suffered.
On the next day, the morning of October 28, Manzoor and a number of PTUDC / YFIS workers visited the battered campus of Muzaffarabad University. One could still see the pile of rubble under which almost 100 students were buried alive.
Manzoor then met with local people from Muzaffarabad and listened to their complaints about the problems they face. He also inspected a relief camp set-up by the Pakistani Army where almost 2,000 people were waiting to collect relief supplies. Most of the people do not have access to the items they need due to the long queues. Many end up returning to their homes empty handed.
Crushing poverty is a major problem alongside the hike in the price of construction and other materials. Comrade Manzoor criticized the inefficiency of the army camp and advised the head of the army relief camp, Major Jahnangiri, to create a mechanism for delivering relief goods through peoples’ committees.
Manzoor then spent the rest of the day traveling through the rough terrain to get to Bagh and the remote villages of Ratnoei, Herjah, Harigill, Naparah, as well as some of the villages and towns in the mountains where relief goods have yet to arrive. The PTUDC’s Relief and Rehabilitation Committee has identified these places and is planning to distribute relief goods there as soon as possible.
In Bagh, Manzoor visited the camps set-up by the different solidarity committees of the PPP (AJK), where many PTUDC and YSIF members are active. He praised the efforts of these committees and put forward some suggestions to help them in their work.
In another development, Nirmala Deshpande, A.R. Shaheen and Hanan Mullah, all MPs from India, have managed to organize the delivery of more relief goods from India. They are constantly in touch with Comrade Manzoor and have discussed the different items the PTUDC needs for their relief and rehabilitation efforts. This caravan will arrive at the Wagha border near Lahore in two days. A number of Lok Sabah and Raj Sabah members will be arriving at the Wagah border along with the caravan where they will be received by Manzoor Ahmed and members of the PTUDC. Renowned actress-cum-political activist Nandita Das has expressed her solidarity for the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan to Manzoor over the telephone and has pledged a contribution to the PTUDC Revolutionary Solidarity Caravan.
To see the photos of Manzoors visit to Kashmir please click here.