Kashmir Dream Shattered Causes Japanese Suicide Attempt

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Srinagar dream shattered, tourist from Japan tries to kill himself

 

SRINAGAR: Koichiro Takata came to Srinagar from Japan chasing a dream

sold in the travelogues and tourist brochures about the Valley. What

he saw instead was a "bunkered" city, with helmeted and gun-toting

security personnel far outnumbering the happy people he hoped to see.

 

Depressed, the 22-year-old student tried to commit suicide on Friday.

 

Walking down the nine-kilometre stretch from Srinagar airport to Lake

View Boulevard, Takata confesses he went "crazy and anxious" thinking

of all the security surrounding him and stabbed himself several times

with a pair of scissors.

 

Sitting on the SMHS Hospital bed, where he is convalescing, the

ophthalmology student says in broken English: "I was afraid and went

crazy after seeing so many gun-toting men in the city. I thought my

safety is in question and the gunmen will kill me instantaneously."

 

"This is not the Kashmir I have known, learnt and read about," Takata

laments. "It is so different and illusionary. I was deeply hurt and

could not take the shock."

 

Frail and pale, and bearing three-four scissor wounds in his stomach

(which he willingly shows to visitors), Takata is being attended by a

woman official from the all-female Nehru Park Police Station. He

seems to be doing well, the hospital authorities said, and may be

released soon.

 

"I am okay now and will stay in a houseboat for a few days before

flying to Delhi and then back to Japan," the 22-year-old says.

 

Mohammad Amin, an official with the Nehru Park Police Station, says

Takata had taken out a scissor from his rucksack and stabbed himself

several times in the belly before falling to the ground near the

police station on the banks of Dal Lake. Two women cops standing

nearby had rushed him to SMHS Hospital.

 

Police have not registered any FIR. "This is just to ensure that

Takata does not face any hassles of going to court," a police officer

said.