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The overwhelming sympathies of Muslim neighbours and the attention
showered by the authorities and separatist leaders is no
consolation for a distraught Dulari Bhat.
A mother who heard her only son's desperate cries for help and a
wife who heard the gunshots being pumped into her husband's body -
Dulari is beside herself with grief. Tragedy struck the small,
picturesque, ten-family village on Saturday night. As Bansi Lal -
a survivor of the Kashmiri Hindus' midnight massacre by militants
says, it started with an ominous barking of dogs in the ravine
below their remote village perched on a hilltop.
Armed men summoned the male members of all the eight Hindu families
outdoors. Sanjay Pandita, a college student and his brother were
stopped by their mother from joining the group as their father
left.
Half an hour after the villagers had been led away, Dulari,
overcome by anxiety, called for her son, Dileep from the hilltop.
Sanjay, too joined in. The militants' victims, prepared for death
below, cried loudly.
"Save us they are going to kill us", screamed Avtar Krishan
Pandita, a teacher. It was followed by the sound of gunfire and
cries of the eight dying men.
Sanjay rushed to the ravine to find six men already dead. "My
father was still alive and was gasping for breath" he said.
Dileep, a BSc final year student was also dying.
Ashok Kumar Pandita, an adhoc employee in the sericulture
department escaped with a bullet wound in his leg. He bled all
night as helpless villagers failed to reach the police station or
medical help at the Beerwah township nearby before sunrise.
The wails of the grieving families echoed in the hills and all the
Muslims from surrounding villages located on hill tops converged
there.
The Muslim menfolk kept guard at the spot where the bodies lay,
while the women stayed with the grief-stricken families. Never
before in Kashmir's seven years of insurgency has one seen Muslims
openly grieving over the death of victims of militancy, belonging
to other communities.
The long queues of villagers men, women and even children -
trekking down to Sangrampora from all sides was a reminder that
human feelings still prevail in the Valley.
However, the spine-chilling incident has sent shock waves among all
villagers. Security bunkers are being installed around this small
hamlet but that is unlikely to influence the affected families to
stay back.
Hindus from some neighbouring villagers told The Indian Express
that they were fear-stricken and wanted to leave the Valley.
"We can be soft targets any time", said a government employee of
Loligam village.
"We want the government to give us an assurance that we will be
granted the status of migrants, which has been given to people who
migrated in 1990", he says.
Shabir Shah and Yasin Malik visited the families to express their
sympathy on behalf of the separatists.
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