Writer Mod Date & Time PARTITION: Tape 41 255MODEM 255MODEM Mar 12 11:28 TAPE 41 Side A AJIT BHATTACHARJEA interviewed at his office in Delhi, 12 March 1997 now director of Press Institute of India (Sapru House, Barrakhamba Road), a distinguished and thoughtful veteran journalist; travelled to Srinagar (unofficially) in Oct 47, and to cover military campaign in 48, on that occasion saw a lot of Sheikh Abdullah has written: 'Kashmir: the wounded valley' (UBS, Delhi - 1994) 2 - thinks flew to Srin on 30 Oct 47, 'I was a young reporter on the HT ... a friend of mine was a pilot on one of the plans that was carrying supplies, oil and petrol into the valley, so he asked me if I'd like to come along, and I did' 15 - 1 as we apprd the valley, a fantastic sight, really imprinted in my memory, cos we flew very low ... it was a Dakota DC3, and just cleared the Banihal with the load we were carrying; it was so beautiful the valley, until we apprd Srin when we cd see wisps of smoke on the horizon and came down to land' 30 - 'Delhi had since September, partition riots had gripped D, many of the Muslims had been forced to leave, others were really surviving with fear of their lives ... so you seldom or never saw anybody with a beard or who looked like a Muslim on the streets; ... [at Srinagar airport] ... there was a line of people who were obviously Muslims ... ferrying supplies to the place where the Pathan raiders had been held, just about 5 miles away ... that itself was quite a sight' 54 - 'then my friend ... and I were taken in a jeep into Srinagar which was about 5 miles away ... the city was open, mind you the police, the Mah and his admin had fled, there was no sign of them ... yet it was funct'g, not cos troops were there cos there were v few of them, but the entire city was being handled by the NC volunteers, 90% of them again Muslims; they were guarding the bridges, the shops - most of the shops were open'; returned to Delhi same day 74 - next year, aged 23 or 24, was sdnt to cover what had become an open war with Pak; never any sense of insecurity 83 - 'I accomp'd Skeikh Abd on a tour of the valley, or that bit of the valley that was still with I ... this man's personality was always v striking, v tall, more thn 6 feet high, v strong voice, v committed to K's autonomy sd I say, and that was his ms^all along, I was cert impressed by him' 94 - 'the Crowds came out' [for SA] ... 'he had no protectionn ... how much supportn he had i| wd be