Tral, the former hotbed of terrorism, rocks to the music of democracy, discovers Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.
Every outsider is looked at with suspicion, and that is the norm of Tral in south Kashmir.
And every outsider asking questions is being photographed by unknown faces.
There is an eerie silence in the air, and you can feel it only if you know the history of this town.
Yes, it is mandatory to carry your Aadhar ID card on you.
Be prepared for security agencies to scan your QR code to confirm your Aadhar ID and address.
Every resident is mapped with his address, so lying to security agencies is out of the question.
And the reason for all this surveillance is obvious: Burhan Wani.
Welcome to Tral, Wani's hometown.
Wani became the poster boy of terrorism in Kashmir after he started posting his pictures with guns and encounters with the Indian Army on social media in early 2016.
By July 2016, Wani was eliminated and his body was buried in Tral, with thousands of protestors shouting slogans of 'Azaadi'.
Wani's death was followed by a phase of protests, stone pelting and a jump in terror cases, only to subside later with the removal of Article 370.
Eight years later, Burhan Wani's ghost still haunts Tral.
But right this moment, Tral,which votes on September 18, is gripped in election fever and people are waiting for the new political messiah of Kashmir, Engineer Rashid.
Unlike Wani who took to arms, Engineer Rashid speaks of democracy and a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir issue.
Rashid Tantray, 26), has travelled from his village Midora, which is in Tral constituency, to attend Rashid's rally.
Asked what attracted him to Rashid's Awami Ittehad Party, Tantray says, 'Hope, to be followed with change in my life.'
He points out that the government school in Midora has been the same since his grandfather's days.
"The school building and the classes are the same, with little change. I feel for the last 100 years there is no change in my village. There is no hospital for us. I hope all this will change with Engineer Rashid's victory," Tantray adds.
The Awami Ittehad Party has fielded Harbaksh Singh Sassan from the Tral assembly seat.
The Congress in alliance with the National Conference has fielded another Sikh candidate, Surinder Singh Channi, and the Peoples Democratic Party has fielded Rafiq Ahmad Naik.
Asked about two Sikh candidates in Tral which has 93 percent Muslim voters, Manzoor Ishi, an engineer, says, "The people of Tral are very secular. They do not see the religion of a person, and we love India."
Manzoor was with the PDP before the assembly elections as the youth president. He dumped the party after he realised that PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti only speaks of the people living in Tral, he says, and not the 110 villages that surround the town.
Asked if Burhan Wani was an issue in this election, Manzoor says, "Burhan Wani is forgotten in Tral now. Terrorism is over. People are happy there is normalcy in Tral."
Tral with other parts of south Kashmir like Shopian, Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam and Rajpora was a hotbed of terrorism till 2022. At any given time it was said there were 100 terrorists roaming the south Kashmir area.
It has not been an easy life for youngsters in Tral as they were constantly cornered by terrorist organisations to join them or by intelligence agencies asking them to work for them.
"For residents of Tral and its adjoining villages it was always a choice between the devil and the deep sea," recalls a young man who wishes to be anonymous.
"And not to forget the torture which many youngsters had to undergo either from intelligence agencies or terrorist organisations."
Life had only two outcomes for the youth of Tral: Become a militant or become a police informer.
"If you joined a terrorist group like the Hizbul Mujahideen you are sure to get killed by the security agencies, and if you become an informer for the intelligence agencies your death is imminent at the hands of terrorists," recalls the afore-mentioned youth.
By 2022, every known terrorist in south Kashmir was neutralised; terrorist activity is mostly restricted to the Jammu region.
Asked why terrorism took off in Tral in the last decade, Ayaz Ahmed, a mutton seller, says, "Nobody back then knew the final results of terrorism. When we look back, we know terrorism was poison. Therefore, no youngster is ready to take up the gun and fight against India now."
"The tragedy of Tral is that it runs on waves," Ahmed adds. "If there is a hate wave everyone falls for the hate wave. If there is a terrorism wave, everyone falls for the terrorism wave. Luckily, that is gone and now everyone is falling for the election wave."
Ahmed predicts that Tral may be known for Burhan Wani but in this election he says it will be known for a record voter turnout.
"What a politician needs, Engineer Rashid has it," affirms Ahmed. "It is called understanding the pain of the people. NC and PDP leaders don't have it."
But was Tral not a strong base of Mehbooba Mufti's PDP? "She and her party are history in Kashmir after they joined hands with the BJP," says Ahmed adding, "Mehbooba lost to the National Conference candidate in June from Anantnag in which the Tral assembly seat falls."
"There will be a shift of power in Kashmir which will be led by Engineer Rashid," predicts Ahmed. "This is what my gut feeling says."
