Srinagar - a city of Bunkers

Peerzada Arshad Hamid

Srinagar when seen from a distance is a city with an impressive landscape. Tugged on the Himalayan foothills, its misty lakes have romantic boat house hotels dotted on it and shikaras roving on the placid waters.

It gives the place a heavenly look! However entering this once known 'paradise on earth' is not hassle free. The 18-year-old conflict going on in this region makes its presence felt with every blast and gunfight between militants and Indian Para-military forces engaged in a guerilla war since 1989.

The manifestation of the conflict is writ large in and around the city. This has changed the iconography of city's open space to a large extent.

Security bunkers made up of piled up sand bags became a common sight in Kashmir after 1989 and Srinagar was not an exception. Making the region look like a battlefield these bunkers create an aura of fear.

At many places the sand bunkers later gave way to concrete ones constructed in brick and mortar– a signal that the army is here to stay.

Now there are sand bagged, makeshift metal sheeted, wooden framed bunkers is ubiquitous in Srinagar city. Inside them are the jawans with fingers at the trigger of their automatic rifle and ogling at everyone.

Encroaching the busy roads, outside the bunkers are coils of razor wire having empty whisky and rum bottles dangling from it. They serve as the bottlenecks for the traffic besides creating an ugly landscape.

Of late government decided to remodel the bunkers to make them "presentable" to visiting tourists in Srinagar. In a phased manner the old structures were replaced by new ones, with a beautiful wooden-hut like exteriors and concrete structures or sand bags on the inner side for security.

The construction of each unit cost the state exchequer over rupees 20,000 and first phase investment was around rupees 300,000.

Inside and outside the bunkers the gunmen in combat gear is the authority. These are the points where people are subjected to intense but clumsy frisking in the name of 'security'. Here I-Card merits and the person has to learn the entries whatever in the card by heart. failing of which may prove harmful.


There are instructions, sometimes irritating one's outside the bunkers that read as

Switch off your mobile.

Stop engine.

Get down from vehicle

Prove your identity.

And last but not the least

Sorry for inconvenience.