by Anam Zakaria
A small graveyard, located on the way in the nearby Dabsi village, serves as a reminder of the tragedy. I am told that the dushman (enemy) had crossed over at night and killed members of the same family (locals say fourteen people were killed). We park our car by the graveyard and step out. I can see a row of graves. There is a plaque outside, which gives details of what transpired. In the middle of the plaque is an image of a sword beheading a young man. On either side is a list of those who died, accompanied by their ages, which range from two years to ninety. Underneath, it reads:
24 aur 25 February 2000 ki darmiyaani shabb Bhartiya fauj ki darindagi aur barbariyat ka shikar hone wale masoom aur begunah Musalmaan jin mei 2 saal ke masoom bachche bhi shaamil the aur 90 saal ke buzurg bhi… (On the night of 24 and 25 February 2000, innocent Muslims fell to the barbarity of Indian forces. The Muslims included children as young as two years old and elderly as old as ninety years old…)
It is difficult to imagine the killing of small children. I feel nauseous and don’t want to stand looking at the tiny graves any longer. We leave the graveyard and drive closer to the LoC, in search of the house where the incident took place. Sharjeel tells me that Lanjot is at the footsteps of the LoC and every year villagers either flee or build small bunkers to hide from the heavy firing. We are hoping to locate some survivors from the family that was massacred in the village.
We stop the car after about twenty minutes to ask for directions from a small fruit shop. Sharjeel steps out to speak to the fruit-seller and after a few minutes asks me to join him. He tells me that it might be useful for me to speak to the man, for he had witnessed the firing in the area last year. I step out of the car with my recorder and ask the middle-aged man if I can record his interview. Clad in a light brown shalwar kameez, he nods and pulls out a stool for me.
His name is Ishaq (the name has been changed to protect his identity), and he looks like he is in his late thirties or early forties. He tells me the firing always starts all of a sudden, usually a few days before or after Eid-ul-Azha, which in recent years has tended to fall in September. ‘Last year, several people were injured due to the firing. Master Ramzan’s daughter was injured; Haji Munshi sahib was martyred… After the 2003 ceasefire, there was peace for a handful of years but soon the firing returned. Even these days, they are firing but in their own area. We can hear it at night. They want to scare people away, to stop people from crossing over… ten-fifteen days ago they burnt the entire area near the LoC so that no one could hide under the grass and infiltrate to the other side. They want to make the area visible so that they can catch people easily.’
When I ask him if he has ever seen mujahideen cross over, he tells me that he has been living in the village for four to five years now and has never seen such activity. ‘Infiltration has reduced by 90 per cent from the 1990s,’ Sharjeel says, ‘but the Indians keep firing.’ Ishaq then adds, ‘Our roads are destroyed in this firing, the routes get blocked. Those who can afford it leave the area when the firing begins. They rent a room in Kotli city or go to Rawalpindi. They take their children, their animals, along with them. When they come back, they find their homes have been damaged and they have to rebuild everything from scratch. Others like us don’t have a choice but to stay here. We are very close to the LoC so most of us have built small bunkers in our homes. I have one underneath this shop. I hide with my children over there when the firing begins… it is only thanks to the army officers in the area that we can get some respite. We all have Colonel sahib’s number… when people were injured last year we called him directly and he carried the bodies on a charpoy himself and then arranged for an ambulance. Our private hospitals are useless. They shut down at 2 pm… it’s only because of the Colonel sahib that the doctors were forced to come to the clinics and treat the injured. We are so grateful to him.’
Ishaq has served as a hawaldar in the Pakistan Army. He has been posted in Gujranwala, Karachi, General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur. As a Kashmiri, he is a staunch patriot, a firm believer in the power of the Pakistan Army, loyal to the Pakistani state, and a strong advocate for Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. He tells me, ‘We are not prepared to bargain over Kashmir. We want India to give back our land so we can join Pakistan.’ ‘But India is not prepared to leave Kashmir,’ I say. ‘Oh they will,’ he retorts, ‘Inshaallah they will. The Pakistan Army will help us. Brave generals like General Raheel Shareef (chief of army staff between 2013 and 2016) will help us.’
Later, Sharjeel explains that people who live close to the LoC are often very fond of the Pakistan Army because the civilian government is largely absent from the area, given the close proximity to Indian forces. It is the army that comes to their rescue during times of hardship. It has usurped the vacuum left by politicians. The colonel that Ishaq keeps referring to had maintained individual contact with every family from the village during the firing season last year. It makes people feel that only the army has their back. The patriotism and faith in the Pakistan Army is a direct product of such a close and personal relationship with the military.
We make our way to the house where the killings had taken place. We have to park our car and climb a hill to get to the house where Muhammad Niaz, who lost his wife in the incident, currently lives. By the time we reach, Sharjeel is standing with a young man, Nasir (the name has been changed to protect his identity), who is Niaz’s relative. Niaz is not home but Nasir invites us inside. A couple of little children collect around us. The eldest is probably no more than eight.
After learning that we are here to talk about the 2000 incident, Nasir, who picked up the bodies that night, tells us, ‘At 12 o’clock that night, the Indians bombarded us with mortar shells so that people would go inside their homes and not come out. Then they attacked the house, where the annual khatam (complete recitation of the Quran in one sitting) was taking place, and killed fourteen people (as stated earlier, the Indian Army denies this incident). Eight persons were part of the immediate family while the others were cousins, uncles and aunts. My cousin also died here. They cut three men’s heads off and one’s arm and took them back across the LoC as souvenirs. There were two girls who were hiding underneath the blanket. By the grace of God, they did not see them. They have grown up now and live in this neighbourhood. One other cousin and uncle of ours also got injured but managed to survive. Even the Pakistan Army did not realize what was happening because the shelling was so intense that it looked like we were at war. My cousin, who survived, ran to tell people what had happened. Then they came to the house to pick up the injured. Two children died on the way to the hospital in Kotli city while twelve others died on the spot in the house.’
We ask why that house was targeted in particular and he shares that a few days before the incident, some mujahideen from this side had crossed over and attacked an Indian army officer patrolling the area. ‘They killed the Indian official and brought his body to Kotli. We were informed by the Pakistan Army that the Indians might retaliate but you know us ordinary people don’t have any resources. We are right on the LoC and Pakistani soldiers would often come here to drink water, eat food. The Indians must have known that… they must have also known that our cousins and our uncles served in the army and were visiting home for the khatam. Murtaza, who they beheaded, was part of the army, so was another cousin, Ishtiaq, and an uncle. That’s possibly why they attacked here, to seek revenge.’
As Nasir talks, I notice that the children are listening with full attention. Some of them are as young as four and five years old, their minds forever imprinted by these harrowing details. Nasir himself must have been a young boy in 2000. He tells me he had helped pick up the mutilated bodies that night. For many years afterwards, he was petrified, as were the other villagers. They couldn’t sleep out of fear of waking up to swords and blades sawing through them. Those who could afford it left the area for two to three years; others would be startled at the smallest sound. They would yell, ‘India waley aa gaye hain, bhago, bhag
o (the Indians have come, run, run).’
I wonder how the public memory of such incidents has shaped the locals’ identity, their animosity towards Indians—whom they hold responsible for the attack—and their desire for revenge. I am told that after the beheading, hundreds of villagers came out into the streets to protest against India. Nasir tells me that fifteen to twenty days after this incident, he heard that a few men crossed over from Kotli and killed Indian soldiers. The tit for tat, the back and forth of such actions comes at a huge cost for people like Nasir. He says, ‘We are always vulnerable because of how close we are to the LoC. We never know when such an attack can take place again. When the two armies fight, it is we who get most affected. Ditto when the mujahideen cross over. During Pervez Musharraf’s rule, there was a crackdown on the mujahideen and they aren’t in our area anymore. The locals also don’t support them any longer. Even if we see a suspicious person we report them to the army immediately and they take care of it. We live right on the LoC and have to think of our jobs, our livelihood, we have lost too much… too much… we just want it all to stop.’
I leave Kotli that day uncertain of what the future holds for the people I had met. Would Shaukat and his daughters, Ishaq, the fruit-seller and his children, and Nasir and his family survive the summer? Or would they become small headlines in the corner of some big Pakistani paper, a nameless count of people only recalled when the state needed to beef up anti-India rhetoric? As we drive away, Nasir’s figure recedes into a shapeless silhouette and I can only hope that his doesn’t become another mutilated body cast away in the name of ‘azadi’ in the very land of the ‘azad’.
Footnotes
PREFACE
1.Parts of the state of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) are also controlled by China but this book’s focus will remain on the territory controlled by Pakistan and India.
2.This region is referred to as the state of Jammu & Kashmir in India, and ‘makbooza (Indian-occupied)’ Kashmir in Pakistan. However, when Pakistanis use this term, they are often mainly referring to the Kashmir Valley, not Jammu and Ladakh.
3.Asad Hashim, ‘Timeline: India-Pakistan relations,’ Al Jazeera, 27 May 2014. Web: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/kashmirtheforgottenconflict/2011/06/2011615113058224115.html (Last accessed: 23 October 2017).
4.News18, ‘The 1993 Mumbai blasts: What exactly happened on March 12 that year,’ 16 June 2017. Web: http://www.news18.com/news/india/the-1993-mumbai-blasts-what-exactly-happened-on-march-12-that-year-598045.html (Last accessed: 23 October 2017).
5.Zaffar Abbas, ‘When Pakistan and India went to war over Kashmir in 1999,’ Herald, 17 February 2017. Web: https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153481 (Last accessed: 23 October 2017).
6.Ershad Mahmud, ‘Tension along the border,’ The News, 27 November 2016. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/tension-along-border/#.WDqJVGR941g (Last accessed: 15 January 2017).
7.Pakistan-administered Kashmir refers to the two regions of Jammu & Kashmir administered by Pakistan—‘Azad’ Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, formerly known as Northern Areas. In India, this region is called ‘Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’. However, Indians sometimes use this term only for ‘Azad’ Kashmir, treating Gilgit-Baltistan separately but still seeing it as part of India.
8.Roshan Mughal, ‘Tourist’s flock to Kashmir’s “ghost valley”,’ Al Jazeera, 9 July 2014. Web: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/07/touristskashmir-pakistan-loc-ghost-valley-201477103912160932.html (Last accessed: 24 October 2017).
9.Called the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India.
10.India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire in 2003. In principle, the agreement is still in place. However, since 2003, a number of ceasefire violations have been reported. The figures have escalated rapidly over the last few years, as discussed in the course of this book. Hakeem Irfan Rashid, ‘Pakistan refuses to cease fire, 2003 pact as good as over,’ The Economic Times, 29 November 2016. Web: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/pakistan-refuses-to-ceasefire-2003-pact-as-good-as-over/articleshow/55675205.cms (Last accessed: 23 May 2017).
11.Sudha Ramachandran, ‘Can the India-Pakistan ceasefire survive?’ The Diplomat, 11 November 2016. Web: http://thediplomat.com/2016/11/can-theindia-pakistan-ceasefire-survive/ (Last accessed: 23 May 2017).
12.BBC, ‘Kashmir earthquake: Broken city, broken promises,’ 8 October 2015. Web: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34464815 (Last accessed: 15 January 2017).
13.Ershad Mahmud, ‘The scenic AJK,’ The News, 21 May 2017. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/scenic-ajk/#.WSvadPqGM1h (Last accessed: 29 May 2017).
14.Ershad Mahmud, ‘No headway in sight,’ The News, 2 October 2016. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/headway-sight/#.V_CoxqJ941h (Last accessed: 15 January 2017).
15.Ibid.
16.Ershad Mahmud, ‘The scenic AJK,’ The News, 21 May 2017. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/scenic-ajk/#.WSvadPqGM1h (Last accessed: 29 May 2017).
17.Jalaluddin Mughal, ‘Resilience of people living near LoC,’ Rising Kashmir, 16 January 2018. Web: http://risingkashmir.com/news/resilience-of-people-livingnear-loc (Last accessed: 16 January 2018).
18.Roshan Mughal, ‘Tourist’s flock to Kashmir’s “ghost valley”,’ Al Jazeera, 9 July 2014. Web: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/07/touristskashmir-pakistan-loc-ghost-valley-201477103912160932.html (Last accessed: 24 October 2017).
19.Ershad Mahmud, ‘No headway in sight,’ The News, 2 October 2016. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/headway-sight/#.V_CoxqJ941h (Last accessed: 15 January 2017).
20.Scroll.in, ‘As guns boom on the LoC, Kashmir’s frontier villages are desperately digging bunkers,’ 28 March 2018, Web: https://scroll.in/article/822783/as-gunsboom-on-the-loc-villagers-on-the-frontier-are-desperately-digging-bunkers (Last accessed: 28 March 2018).
21.Dawn, ‘AJK govt bans 16 books,’ 8 March 2016. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/headway-sight/#.We3srGKCy36 (Last accessed: 23 October 2017).
22.Victoria Schofield, ‘Kashmir: The origins of the dispute,’ BBC, 16 January 2002, Web: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1762146.stm (Last accessed: 9 June 2018).
23.Syed Mehdi Bukhari, ‘Pakistan’s blue gem: Neelum Valley,’ Dawn, 20 October 2015. Web: https://www.dawn.com/news/1207140 (Last accessed: 24 October 2017).
24.Mukhtar Ahmad, Rich Phillips, and Joshua Berlinger, ‘Soldiers killed in army base attack in Indian-administered Kashmir,’ CNN, 19 September 2016. Web: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/18/asia/india-kashmir-attack/ (Last accessed: 28 May 2017).
25.Dawn, ‘Army rubbishes Indian “surgical strikes” claim as two Pakistani soldiers killed at LoC,’ 29 September 2016. Web: https://www.dawn.com/news/1286881 (Last accessed: 23 October 2017).
26.Ershad Mahmud, ‘Tension along the border,’ The News, 27 November 2016. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/tension-along-border/#.We3xG2KCy34 (Last accessed: 23 October 2017).
27.Ershad Mahmud, ‘Under the shadow of fear and death,’ The News, 11 February 2018. Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/shadow-fear-death/#.WofpGO5ua36 (Last accessed: 17 February 2018).
28.Pakistan Today, ‘Pakistan, India locked in worst ceasefire violations since 2003,’ 26 October 2017. Web: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/10/25/pakistan-india-locked-in-worst-ceasefire-violations-since-2003/ (Last accessed: 26 October 2017); also, Ershad Mahmud, ‘Under the shadow of fear and death,’ The News, 11 February 2018, Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/shadow-feardeath/#.%20WofpGO5ua36 (Last accessed: 9 June 2018).
29.The Express Tribune, ‘Four soldiers lay down lives in cross-LoC fire,’ 15 January 2018. Web: https://epaper.tribune.com.pk/DisplayDetails.aspx?ENI_ID=11201801160308&EN_ID=11201801160121&EMID=11201801160043 (Last accessed: 16 January 2018).
30.Pakistan refers to the line between Sialkot in Punjab, Pakistan and Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir as the working boundary while India refers to it as the international border. There have been frequent ceasefire violations in the area. The term working boundary is used by Pakistan to denote that wh
ile on one side there is the internationally recognized province of Punjab (in Pakistan), on the other side is a disputed territory (that both India and Pakistan claim).
31.The Economic Times, ‘Pakistan summons Indian envoy over “ceasefire violations”,’ 19 January 2018. Web: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/pakistan-summons-indian-envoy-over-ceasefire-violations/articleshow/62568783.cms (Last accessed: 20 January 2018).
32.Asian Review, ‘India, Pakistan summon each other’s envoys over ceasefire violations,’ 20 January 2018. Web: https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/India-Pakistan-summon-each-other-s-envoys-overceasefire-violations (Last accessed: 20 January 2018).
33.Ershad Mahmud, ‘Under the shadow of fear and death,’ The News, 11 February 2018, Web: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/shadow-fear-death/#.%20WofpGO5ua36 (Last accessed: 9 June 2018).
34.Christopher Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History, HarperCollins Publishers India, 2013, p. 3.
35.Human Rights Watch, ‘With friends like these,’ Volume 18. No.12, September 2006, p. 6. Web: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/pakistan0906webwcover_0.pdf (Last accessed: 15 January 2017).
36.AJ&K Portal, ‘AJ&K at a glance.’ Web: http://ajk.gov.pk/qStatus.php (Last accessed: 15 January 2017).
37.Pakistan Today, ‘Census shows over four million AJK population,’ 27 August 2017. Web: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/08/27/census-shows-overfour-million-ajk-population/ (Last accessed: 26 October 2017).
