In the 10 days since the army began "Operation Megh Rahat' -- as the effort for rescue and relief in the Valley has been named -- the government is just about getting a measure of how different a natural disaster in a conflict zone can be from, say, the one in Uttarakhand last year.

Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in a conflict zone that is due for Assembly elections is posing complex questions to the armed forces and the central and state administrations.

Television images showing helicopters swooping down and winching up people do not tell the full story. Read