Riyaz Ul Khaliq
SRINAGAR
It was Sunday evening—July 17, 2016—that army personnel of 30 RR stationed their vehicles in Graveyard of Saderkoot Bala in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
The local youths were busy chit-chatting the current uprising in Kashmir region and the coming of army personnel created ripples among them. And no time soon, clashes erupted in the area.
Locals said that at least four youths were injured. One was hit by bullet and was discharged from SKIMS Soura on July 22, 2016. He was identified as Ishfaq Ahmad. Another youth was thrashed while two others were hit by pellets. All the four were then rushed to SKIMS.
The army action in the area had created intense tensions. PTI ran a story, saying that one of the injured was dead, however, it rectified the news later.
Seven days after, an elderly lady—mother of seven—died, silently, on Saturday at 5am. She was 80.
Saadudin Dar (37), son of the deceased Hajra Begum, is a carpet weaver. Sitting in his single-storey in hilly Saderkoot village, Dar is mourning death of his mother. Dar’s father, Assadullah died 8 years ago.
Given the cell phone network blackout, Dar spoke to Kashmir Life from a neighbour’s government backed BSNL cell.
“It was chaos here last Sunday,” Dar said, “all people left the village as army thrashed people after clashes erupted in the area.”
Dar has two more brothers and four sisters. His elder brother is self-styled god-man, aloof from worldly affairs. And younger one, Firdous Ahmad (28) works as a labourer in a stone quarry in the same area.
“My mother was very weak given her age,” Dar said, “we fled our Mohalla but my mother could not run and she stayed back at home.”
Dar said that he and other family members don’t know as what had happened exactly when army entered their home. “But, some media personnel visited our area next day (Monday) around 4 in the evening and my mother narrated the ordeal,” he said.
Quoting her deceased mother, Dar said, “army entered our home, broke the window panes and the glasses had fallen over my mother who was sitting.”
“My mother was even thrashed by army men,” he said as her mother had told the media men. (Dar could not identify the media persons).
Dar said his mother was in deep shock since the day she was thrashed. “She stopped talking and eating anything all these days,” he said, “she was terrified as she would repeat that army men will again come to our house.”
“Take me to other place, army is coming,” she would tell her family, Dar said.
