Gilgit: Down the Memory Lane…

I was living in an area located somewhere in the middle of Yadgar Chowk and the army cantonment of Jutial (also spelled as Jutyal). Close to the airport too. A 10 minutes walk down the “only” road (in Gilgit at the time) from my place used to take me to the main bazar or 10 minutes walk in the opposite direction, up the hill, would take me to Sarena Lodge (now: Sarena Hotel) – and from there it use to take a shape of a loop – encircling the entire cantonment. Right behind my place were open fields bordered with cherry, plum, almond and apricot tress and in one corner was this little cluster of mud and stone houses of Kachraut a predominantly Shia neighborhood. Across a few more fields on its west was another cluster of mud and stone houses of Sunni neighborhood. I visited both the villages, had friends in both the places and used to be invited for lunch, dinner or to chit chat with other girls in both the neighborhoods. I was really NOT aware of the seriousness of the sectarian divide under the surface.  Over the years, to belong to one sect or the other is considered worst than being an atheist in this whole country not just Gilgit-Baltistan. This had to happen since a lot of money, time and energy was spent on such a useless but very deadly game that Pakistani state played with its people. Now, we are sitting on a time bomb – ready to explode.

Read complete at: http://sarahinsouthkorea.blogspot.kr/2012/04/gilgit-down-memory-lane.html

Pamir Times

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Pamir Times is the pioneering community news and views portal of Gilgit – Baltistan, Kohistan, Chitral and the surrounding mountain areas. It is a voluntary, not-for-profit, non-partisan and independent venture initiated by the youth.

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