Author: Ishfaq Naseem
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 29, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/354610.html
Introduction: The gun battle is over, but
Chinore will remain scarred forever
Twenty-three-year-old Sanjogita and her mother
Asha Devi were inconsolable. A day after the terror attack at Chinore, women
had gathered at their house to mourn the death of Sanjogita's father, Naseeb
Singh. A retired Subedar Major, Naseeb had just returned home after buying
milk when he heard gunshots. He ran out and only a few blocks away from the
house, he was shot at. He died grappling with one of the militants.
Singh's cousin, Dhanatar Singh, said, "As
he ran out, he saw militants wearing police uniforms. He asked one of them
to show his identity card. He was fired at twice and died on the spot."
The scene was no different at the house of
22-year old Sandeep Singh. Relatives had assembled in the courtyard to console
his mother, Kanti Devi. On Wednesday, militants were hiding in the locality
and as Armymen took their position for a gun battle with the terrorists near
Sandeep's house, his mother tried her best to deter him from visiting a local
ashram. She even tried locking Sandeep inside the storeroom. His sister, Seema
Chib, said, "He told mother that he will go to the ashram where the swamiji
will protect him. Though we tried to stop him, he ran out on the road and
was killed by the militants."
Sandeep's father, Sub-Inspector Jang Bahadur
Chib, had rushed home from Kathua after he heard that militants had taken
hostage some people in his locality, only to find his son killed.
Thirty-seven-year-old Vijay Kumar, head constable
with Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry was supposed to join his new posting
at Jaipur this week. On that fateful day, he had taken his father's auto to
reach the family's welding shop at Bantalab. On the way, militants caught
him and killed him barely a kilometre away from his house. He is survived
by his wife and three children.
"When I heard that militants were hiding
in the area I tried calling up my son, but he wasn't picking up his mobile
phone. When I went to the shop, he wasn't there either. Later, I found his
dead body near a pond. Armymen had surrounded the auto that he was driving
and only after I insisted that I was his father did they allow me to take
the body home," said Vijay's father, Sita Ram.
A morning ride of two brothers to fetch milk
ended in the death of one. Shabeel Hussain of Raipur, Jammu, was riding a
motorcycle along with his brother when militants sprayed bullets at them.
His brother ducked and survived, while Shabeel died on the spot.
