Power corridor Gupkar Road wears deserted look

Azhar Qadri

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 25

Till early last month, Gupkar Road was synonymous to ‘power corridor’ of the Kashmir valley and the mighty of the region’s politics called it home.

Gupkar circles the Shankarcharya hill, also known as Sulaiman Teng or the Mount of Solomon, as the stretch begins near the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan office and ends near the palace of Kashmir’s last monarch.

In between the milestone terminals of Gupkar are the residences of Kashmir’s powerful political families, the headquarters of the Special Security Group, which protects them round-the-clock and also a gateway to the Army’s Corps Headquarter.

The aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370, which saw an unprecedented crackdown against the region’s political leadership, including former Chief Ministers and lawmakers, has left the Gupkar area desolate.

Its high-profile addresses are locked and its most powerful residence of Farooq Abdullah turned into a jail. For the last 50 odd days and counting, since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, Gupkar Road no longer hosts the VVIP bulletproof motorcades that took the three former Chief Ministers home.

A white Ambassador car now barricades the gate of Farooq Abdullah’s Gupkar residence as the state’s three-time former CM is under arrest and his home is a jail. Nearby, his son Omar Abdullah’s residence is locked and his daughter Safiya’s house hoists a black flag in protest.

“This road was not only a home to the leaders but it was also a guiding path for us,” a veteran member of the National Conference, who was a frequent visitor to Farooq’s house, said.

He made several attempts to meet the senior Abdullah at his house only to be shooed away. “Every time I came here in the last two months, I was turned back from the gate. It never happened before, not even in the 1990s,” he said, referring to the early years of militancy.

The ubiquitous commandos dressed in grey suits, who guarded the residences of Abdullahs, have disappeared and so have the armoured vehicles that were stationed round-the-clock.

Omar is jailed a few hundred metres away at Hari Niwas, a state-owned guest house on Gupkar Road that has its roots in royalty. A coil of concertina wire blocks the entry to the guest house-turned-jail.

Mehbooba Mufti, who lived in a state-owned bungalow at Gupkar Road, is also under arrest at Hari Niwas. The gate of her house, which was also the residence of her father and former CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, remains shut.

The last major political activity at Gupkar took place a few days ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 when the leaders of several mainstream political parties had met at the senior Abdullah’s house and discussed a united way forward to defend the state’s special status.

The meeting had ended with the signing of a declaration that the leaders named after the road: The Gupkar declaration.