After nearly 16 years of fighting India's military, Kashmiris now consider it their saviour, following extensive relief operations launched by the army and air force across remote earthquake-hit regions of their northern province.
The military, heavily deployed along the de-facto Kashmir border with neighbouring Pakistan, has taken the lead in relief work, with teams of soldiers trekking through rugged terrain in the two worst-hit and remote areas of Uri and Tangdar. At least 950 people died and nearly 2,500 others were injured in Saturday's quake, which flattened border villages in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Hundreds of Indian soldiers guarding the disputed Kashmir border and combating the insurgency that has claimed 65,000 lives, began helping locals dig out bodies from under the debris, sometimes with their bare hands.
This has earned them the gratitude of locals who until recently considered them their oppressors. "The army is the only one that has bothered to come to our help," a villager said.
The local district authorities were nowhere around, he complained adding that affected villagers even wanted the army to take charge of distributing damage compensation rather than corrupt civilian officials.
Others in the region said army and air force helicopters had continuously ferried the seriously injured from mountain tops to regional army hospitals. Army teams with rescue dogs had worked to locate casualties under the debris, distributed 20 tonnes of medical supplies, 200 tonnes of emergency rations including drinking water and hundreds of tents. "We are merely reinforcing the policy of adopting a humane approach to winning the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri people," India's army chief Gen JJ Singh told The Irish Times.
India said yesterday it was dispatching 25 tonnes of relief and medical supplies to Pakistan after Islamabad accepted its offer of help. An Indian foreign office spokesman said the aid package would be the first such consignment in several decades between the countries which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
"It's not a question of one-upmanship" Pakistan's foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri said. "But we will indicate to India what aid we want and where we want it, just like we are doing with other foreign donors." But he ruled out the possibility of India conducting joint relief operations with Pakistan across the heavily militarised line of control that divides Kashmir.
The Jihad Council, an amalgam of 14 organisations based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, has announced a "temporary suspension" of hostilities in Indian-controlled Kashmir.