Sadly I have never given AJK much time as it deserves. I have never been to the AJK resports. i must correct that on my next summertrip
Footloose, NOS, The News International
A true retreat
Dhir Kot has deodar jungle, proud people and a lot more
By Saadia Salahuddin
They say getting there is half the fun, I prefer the other half. Evening had set in when we reached Dhir Kot, a tehsil in District Bagh of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It took five hours from Islamabad to reach there. The good thing is that the public van, that runs from Islamabad to Dhir Kot, drops you right at the foot of the Forest Department’s rest house, a true retreat.
The Forest Department’s rest house reminded me of the dak bungla in old films with a staircase in the centre of the bungalow leading to a wooden balcony in front of the house and a slanting red and green roof above it. Comfortable cane chairs and table laid in the terrace for tea made a perfect setting to relax.
The rest house stands on a clearing in the pine forest with pine trees all around. It was July and it rained almost every night but never for long. When the night would be dry, the sky was worth watching. Nowhere have I seen more beautiful starry nights.
Come morning, girls and boys in school uniform are seen passing by the rest house. They go to school even when it’s raining. Some have umbrella, others don’t, walking fast to their centres of learning. Among the early goers is a tall, slim, college girl in black burqa carrying a stunningly beautiful three-year-old child dressed in black and white pant shirt. The little girl does not talk to strangers.
This is Noorushimaan which means ‘Faith is her like’. Conceived around the massive earthquake that hit Kashmir in October 2005, she is a symbol of faith and hope. Noorushimaan accompanies her sister to college every day. Her sister is a first year student who walks ninety minutes to reach her college and takes about as much time back home in the evening. All the children and young people attend schools and colleges here. This is truly heartening.
At present there is massive unemployment in Dhir Kot. Still you will not find a beggar there and there is no crime. The rest house remains open throughout the day virtually with no fear of anyone walking in. There is no Talibanisation, no radicalisation. The people here do not try to fleece, harass or mislead tourists. They speak only when they are spoken to, are courteous and hospitable beyond explanation.
The housekeeper at the rest house is amazing too. How he juggles with so many people’s demands, is hard to make out. Children happily eat whatever he makes. The first day he asked me what would we like to have in the breakfast and I said kulcha. The kulchas when they came to the table, were the size of biscuits. That is kulcha of Kashmir. Luckily, the children liked the taste and wanted them every day at breakfast with tea.
Bagh District is known for fruits but this year their apricots and pears were destroyed due to early snow. Otherwise, everything is available and the prices are the same as in big cities of Pakistan.
To the left of the rest house is a stream and a path which leads up to the mountains where there is a forest of deodar but much before that there comes a tree people call the ‘Mother tree’. There is no signboard to guide people but you instantly know which one it is the moment your eyes meet it. Its 300 years old and may be 300 feet tall. It fills one with awe.
Further up is the deodar Forest one would think nobody treads. There are no insects or anything dangerous in the woods. I was barefoot because I had forgotten to keep my joggers and the sandals refused to take me far. After an hour’s walk we came to a clearing with jungle all around. We had taken food and drinks with us so we had a picnic there. A group of women were out collecting wood for fuel. They guided us to take a different path which might have been short but full of surprises - grooves and moss. The children loved the way back very much. They would run into the most unlikely places where adults won’t dare to tread but it was fun throughout.
Pakistanis who do not know about many places in Azad Kashmir, are aware of Neela Butt as the place where first, the Mujahid-e-Awwal (Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan) fired his famous shot to launch a campaign that eventually freed what is now Azad Kashmir, and later ‘Farzand-e-Kashmir’ (Muhammad Nawaz Sharif) made the announcement that Pakistan actually had a nuclear weapon capability, thereby abandoning the country’s traditional ‘strategic ambiguity’. Nobody I talked to expressed any pride or joy for either. Instead, the only pride and joy they expressed was on account of guests — a disarming if not entirely sincere compliment.
You can get an overview of Islamabad and Abbottabad from Neela Butt. Public vans and taxis are always there. It’s half an hour drive from Dhir Kot.
Bagh district was the hardest hit in the 2005 earthquake. There is construction work still going on at Dhir Kot. Roads, schools, hospital and basic health unit are under construction. A school opened on July 24 while we were there.
There is no lady doctor at Dhir Kot. There are many girls who are trained nurses from this area but they are posted elsewhere. New hospitals are being constructed and there is hope they will be posted here. Reconstruction will take another 2-3 years, says Prof. Mumtaz, Principal of Dhir Kot College for Boys.
There is no concept of fans and there is no need either. Power supply is cut off for only two hours in a day. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) prime minister recently said 14000-mega watt hydro electricity can be produced in AJK while the AJK needs only 400 MW. Can Pakistan buy electricity from them?