I mention this to Asiya Indrabi the next evening. Leader of the separatist all-women organisation Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of Faith), the pan-Islamist Indrabi is among the most vocal advocates of prohibition and purdah in the valley. She has led liquor raids since the 1980s -- in fact, she is one of the original 'enforcers' -- and I am curious to know what she thinks of this symbolic change to Srinagar. Her response points to the understanding that seems to have developed among the Indian and Pakistani establishments and the separatists.
"At this point we are not in a position to close the wine-shops," Indrabi tells me. But do not think the mujahideen has gone away. Because it is a bit calm, don't think the movement has died. Perhaps it is time for calm, perhaps it is a change of strategy."
"The other things you mention, tourists at the Dal, why should there not be? If no tourist is attacked, that's because our mujahideen has given the green signal to tourism... our jihad is anti-India, not anti-tourists. But the trouble is the Indian establishment always says, look, tourists are coming, so everything is normal in Kashmir. Don't say that -- if you say that, tourists will not come to Kashmir; the mujahideen can do that."
Image: Kashmiri girls play cricket in Srinagar. Until recently, girls and women were discouraged from indulging in such activity given the conservative environment. Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images
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