While the world's gaze was on the ruinous earthquake that wrecked Kashmir, the scars of war continue to haunt the troubled region, reports Rajeshree Sisodia in Srinagar Ishfaq Ahmed Dar is one of the forgotten faces of the Kashmiri insurgency. The 14-year-old's father Abdul-Ahad became a separatist who fought against the Indian army and was shot and killed by security forces close to India's border with Pakistan 12 years ago. Ishfaq cannot remember his father, but stories relayed through his 35-year-old mother Fatima Begum have filled in the blanks. "He was killed on the Pakistani border while fighting the Indian army. I miss him but I am not angry [with the army]," says Ishfaq. The teenager now lives in the Shehjaar Home for Special Children, in Indian Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, where he has lived since 1998 after moving from his home in Kupwara -- a northern district in Indian Kashmir. Ishfaq rarely sees his mother or his younger brother Shaid. He misses them but says he is happier at the orphanage, a sanctuary where he has received counselling to overcome the trauma of losing his father. Such treatment constitutes a vital step towards rehabilitation and breaking the cycle of violence in a region where armed retaliation spawns fresh carnage and further suffering on daily basis. Ishfaq adds, "I like the orphanage, I have friends here. I want to be a doctor, to be able to help poor people." The 14-year-old is one of 24 youngsters at the children's home to have been orphaned or part- orphaned by the region's ongoing political insurgency. The conflict has so far claimed more than 100,000 lives since 1989. Kashmir's volatile political state -- and with it the increase in murder, rape and kidnappings -- has been well chronicled. The psychological impact it has had on 60,000 parentless children and widowed women, many of whom have witnessed the killing of loved ones, however, has often been pushed to the periphery. In Kashmir men are traditionally the bread- winners. The death of a husband, father or brother marks the loss of a vital economic and emotional safety net for women and children. While bereavement in itself can lead to trauma and stress, for women and children living under the constant threat of political violence, the psychological impact of Kashmir's armed insurgency has been resounding. Figures from the Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital in Srinagar, the state's only psychiatric facility, reveal 1,700 men, women and children were treated at the clinic in 1989. By 2004, the figure had leapt to 62,000, with widows and orphans suffering from symptoms including phobia, panic attacks and depression. It is precisely the suffering of these marginalised communities that the HELP Foundation sought to alleviate when it opened the orphanage Ishfaq calls home seven years ago. A privately funded Non- Governmental Organisation, HELP provides children at the home with meals and accommodation; it also funds their education at private schools in Srinagar. Nighat Shafi, HELP Foundation chairman and founder, describes the situation: "There are so many psychological problems here and it's growing, it's a huge problem. The patients have increased many folds over the years. When there was no problem of this turmoil, we had few psychological problems." The HELP Foundation was also the first organisation to establish an advisory and financial service for women widowed in the insurgency and runs Kashmir's only voluntary Child Guidance and Counselling Centre. "Women and children are already the most vulnerable sections in society -- here even more so. Everyone lives on a knife edge, and it's not just the Kashmiris, even the Indian army forces suffer," explains Shafi. With the help of doctors, speech therapists, paediatricians, psychologists and psychiatrists, the centre has counselled and provided free medicine to more than 2,000 children since it opened in 2003. Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Margoob, a leading Kashmiri psychiatrist and associate professor at the Post Graduate Department of Psychiatry in Srinagar's Government Medical College, said it was common to see children internalising and expressing the violence they had witnessed through play. "If you visit Kashmir during festive periods like Eid, you will find children going for the toys which resemble any kind of weapon and their play is related with a kind of 'shoot out' [scenario] which was not the process before this conflict. This is simply a reflection of the child's home and family [life]. Unfortunately, the trauma and conflict has meant that they are not isolated from that kind of impact or influence," he added.
