Suhail Dar
Displaying the photos of his 7-year-old son, Niyan, who would waver around with paper-made airplanes, and repeat, “Papa i want to be a pilot and see the world from up there,” Yaseen, a resident of Machoo area in Kulgam’s Yaripora was on Thursday was added to an uncounted list of thousands of fathers who have lost their sons in the decades long conflict in Kashmir.
On Friday morning, Mohammed Yasin Bhat along with his son, left for the Public health Engineering Department (PHE) in Bijbehara knowing a little, that it was the last time, he was seeing his son. “He said i was hungry, so i went inside the office, knowing less that i was sending him away forever,” Yaseen told The Kashmiriyat.
The Killing of Niyan has sent shock-waves across Kashmir and once again the death of human life is being mourned by all spheres of life. Hundreds of people gathered here amid pro Freedom slogans and shouldered the young coffin of Niyan to the graveyard.
Wiping his tears, Yaseen took us around the house, much in anguish of loosing the youngest child. “he was the dearest to me, i will always keep his things, his clothes and treasure them as memories as long as live.” He, at this point, is unable to come in terms with the loss, “It is more imperative, that my message reaches the world, Kashmiris are dying, this bloodshed must stop.”
Unhealed Scars
A media report put the number of additional troops rushed to the region in days ahead of August 5 last year to around 80,000 while more than 0.7 million troops are already stationed in region, described as the world’s largest militarized zone.
Militants on Thursday attacked a CRPF party in Bijbehara area, in Kashmir’s Anantnag District, in which one CRPF man was killed. Hospital officials upon being contacted by The Kashmiriyat said that Niyan Bhat, a minor from the Yaripora area of Kulgam District in South Kashmir had been hit with a bullet near his chest.
Kashmir valley has lost dozens of children in the decades long conflict, many mothers and fathers unable to come in terms with the killing of these young sons, often resulting in deteriorating mental health and attached psychological orders.
Among the hundreds of mourners gathered here, infuriated Mohammed Iqbal Dar who lost his 8-year-old brother, in 1991 sees another younger generation of Kashmiris loosing their aspirations to the unending violence. ”The world must heal our scars, there must be an end to all this,” Mr. Dar says while pointing to the grave of Niyan, asking further, ‘Is this an age to die?’
People here expressed dismay over the silence of world bodies including the UN towards Kashmir. “Violence begets violence. The ongoing killings has pushed us to the wall,” said a young boy, wanting to remain anonymous.
Iqbal says that it is the foremost duty of the world to ensure that Kashmiris are not treated as a fodder to the larger Indian vote bank. He accused the Central Government of deliberately using the deaths of Kashmiris as a cannon fodder to their politics. “we want dialogue between the key stakeholders of the Kashmir issue and it only can ensure that Kashmiri blood is not treated so cheap and there is no accountability whatsoever if a Kashmiri is shot at.”
A Blooming Childhood Lost
Hundreds of mourners have gathered inside the one storied house of yaseen where he along with his wife are being consoled by women and men, separately, these women and men expressing solidarity with the family have come from nearby.
Niyan cried, like any child, as he was hungry, “He told me he wants to eat something, so i let him go with his uncle, as soon as they reached near a garden (Padshahi Bagh) in the Bijbehara area, he was shot at, i was told that he had been hit, i rushed to the hospital, but he was declared brought dead.”
“I do not know who killed him or which bullet hit him, there was just one bullet that hit the car and it had hit my son, i do not know if that was a targeted fire or a co-incidence,” his father told The Kashmiriyat.
The Hospital officials say they tried their best to save 5-year old Niyan, but could not. “Every father wishes their sons to live long, it is tough to carry the coffin of young sons. i wish the world understands our pain.”
Niyan is now survived by his parents and two elder sisters.