Drowned in grief, Pushpa Devi struggles to hold back her tears.
At around 6:30 am on Friday, 21 September, when the family was preparing to have breakfast, suspected militants barged into their home in Kashmir’s Kapran village.
Catching hold of her son, Kulwant Singh, a ‘special police officer’ in Jammu and Kashmir Police, they asked him to produce his identity card.
A heavily-armed group of nearly two dozen militants had swooped down on Kapran in the wee hours of Friday, soon after the morning prayers had concluded. Their plan was cut out.
According to villagers, the militants split into two groups and abducted a police constable and two ‘special police officers’ (SPO) from their homes, despite the resistance of their families.
When the minority Hindu community was driven out of the Valley amid fears of religious persecution, the family of Kulwant had consciously decided not to move out.
An armed insurgency had broken out in Kashmir in early 90s, but the Rajput family had made their choice. Little they would have thought that Kulwant would meet such a tragic end.
Militants’ Plan Nearly Thwarted
Abdul Gani, an apple farmer, was returning home with morning bread when he saw Kulwant, head of the lone Hindu family in Kapran, being taken away forcefully.
The militants’ plan was nearly thwarted when a group of villagers got to know about the abductions and put their foot down, demanding that the abducted cops be released.
“The Hindu family was protected by their Muslim neighbours. They were never harmed in all these years. The villagers feared a communal backlash in case Kulwant was harmed and decided to confront the militants,” Gani said in Kapran, a small lower middle-class village surrounded by apple orchards in the volatile south Kashmir.
Undeterred, the militants apparently assured the villagers that they will make the abducted cops apologise on camera and release them safely very soon.
Such videos have been made in past also. We had no inkling of the tragedy that was about to fall on the village.Abdul Gani
Kulwant had joined the police force as SPO some seven to eight years ago.
Eerie Calm Shattered
Barely 30 to 40 minutes had passed when the villagers heard a burst of gunshots. “We thought the militants were trapped in an encounter, but the firing stopped soon. An hour or so passed, and then we heard the tragic news,” Niyaz Hussain, chief editor of Kashmirnama, a small Urdu daily in Kapran, told The Quint.
Kulwant was among the three special police officers whose bullet-riddled bodies were discovered today morning, throwing Kapran village into a state of grief.
He is survived by his ageing parents, son Yudvir Singh, daughter, and his wife, who was away in Nagrota area of Jammu region when the tragedy struck.
Gani, the apple farmer, said she is on way home from Nagrota, some 250 kilometres away, which may delay the cremation ceremony, “The family has decided to cremate him tomorrow. In all these years, they were never touched by violence but it has ultimately destroyed them.”
United in Grief
Adjacent to Kulwant’s single-storied house, the family of Firdous Ahmad Kuchay is in deep shock. His five year old daughter is too small to gauge the magnitude of the tragedy that has struck the family. When the militants initially gained entry into the house on Friday morning, they caught hold of his brother and started beating him.
It was only when Firdous, who joined the police force some three years ago, heard the cries of his brother in the adjacent room that he confronted the militants and disclosed his identity.
“They promised to return him safely. He was working as a guard at the railway station. What was his crime? Why did they kill him? Why have they left me alive?” Saida Begum, mother of Firdous, cries out in fits of rage as mourners try to console her.
At the house of Nisar Ahmad Dobhi, the third police official killed by militants, a similar story unfolded.
“His family members tried to follow when militants took Nisar away, but they bolted the door from outside and were gone in no time,” a mourner said, as women tried to console his devastated mother.
Soon after the news of the killings spread, six special police officers reportedly announced their resignations on social media. The Union home ministry, however, denied the reports of resignations.
At least 35 policemen have been killed by militants in Kashmir this year. Many of them work as SPOs, a voluntary, highly-underpaid unit of Jammu and Kashmir Police.
Meanwhile, the tragedy has united the villagers of Kapran in grief. As hundreds gathered for the last rites of Firdous and Nisar, the house of Kulwant was swarmed by Muslim neighbours.
A small group of Kashmiri Pandits have arrived from adjoining villages to console the family, but it is their Muslim neighbours who are making all the arrangements for the visitors.
“He was going to announce his resignation from police today itself,” Kulwant’s mother said, “and he told them (militants) the same, but they insisted on him coming along. When I tried to stop them, they assured me that he will be back soon. Instead, I got his bullet-riddled body,” Pushpa said, as Muslim and Hindu mourners consoled her at their single-storied house.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)