Mubashir Naik
February 14, 2019- 40 Indian soldiers were killed in one of the deadliest insurgency strikes in Jammu and Kashmir. A suicide bomber rammed an IED-laden vehicle into the security convoy near Awantipora, Pulwama.
The attack shocked the whole of India and as a result, newspapers, TV screens & social media were loaded with the visuals of the wrecked CRPF bus and the dead bodies that were killed in the attack.
Soon after the attack, protests erupted in different parts of India, condemning the attack and Kashmiri students became the prey for the protesters. Many students were forced to lock themselves in their campus rooms for days, others were beaten up by the goons, while a few attempted to flee home to escape the anger.
In Jammu, the winter capital, the atmosphere became hostile. It was evident from the eyes of the youth associated with RSS, Bajrang Dal and other right-wing organizations.
Soon after the attack, provocative speeches started airing on the Indian television channels & almost every anchor tried taking lead in spewing venom against Muslims and Kashmiris in particular.
I didn’t leave Jammu, against the wishes of my family. I was preparing for the upcoming university exams and I asked my father, who was in Jammu for a medical check up, to stay in, until the situation gets better.
The very next day, a shutdown call was given by the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Jammu Bar Association.
I was inside my rented accommodation in Gujjar Nagar, a Muslim majority area in the old city of Jammu. This area is considered a safe zone for Muslims, especially Kashmiris. On 15th February, like any other day, I woke up & went outside to buy fresh Lawasa (bread) from the nearby bakery. I saw a pack of friends arguing with another group in the main chowk of Gujjar Nagar.
Without paying much heed, I returned home for breakfast. My father and I were in the middle of breakfast when my phone rang and my friend, a journalist, enquired about the situation in Gujjar Nagar. And I told my friend jokingly, “We are not in a war zone like Syria and Afghanistan. What is wrong with you?”
He bashed me and asked me to check outside and report the situation. As I stepped outside, I saw fire, flames, smoke and ashes all around. A mob of at least 200 men was approaching our residence, they carried swords and Lathis in their hands and were chanting “Jai shri Ram”.
On seeing this, the Muslim youth of Gujjar Nagar gathered and started repelling the mob for fear of clashes. But the armed mob were overturning the cars, taking out petrol from their fuel tanks and burning them with zero investment and marching towards Gujjar Nagar chowk. Clashes erupted and I became an eyewitness to the saying, “Minorities are always suppressed in times of war and clashes”.
The mob was burning cars bearing vehicle numbers of Muslim majority districts like Doda, Kishtwar and the districts of Kashmir. Police, instead of controlling the mob, were requesting the natives of Gujjar Nagar to stay inside. People of Gujjar Nagar were hoping that the police will push back the mob and that normalcy shall be restored. But instead, tear gas was fired at them, leading to injuries. Tear gas was hurled inside the houses of Gujjar Nagar.
While I was having lunch in my room, a batchmate of mine came rushing towards me asking for help, he was injured with the tear gas shell, and before I could help him, another shell was fired and the smoke entered our building leading to breathlessness and suffocation.
The clashes and the teargas shelling continued for a day, and when the police failed to remove the protesters, at around 4:00 PM, they allowed the residents of Gujjar Nagar to chase them successfully. After which the mob started burning vehicles of the Muslims at the opposite side of Gujjar Nagar, i.e., near the university.
Amidst all this, I saw a young man from my district, who also happened to be influential. I asked him about the condition of the rest of the city, without saying much, he took me to the other side and told me,”Look at that, this vehicle was burnt by the mob along with many more.”
As vehicles were being burnt near the Distance Education gate of the University of Jammu, I received a call from a friend, begging for police help. He seemed helpless as he went on saying, “They are pelting stones at us, please inform the police or they will come inside and attack us”. I ran towards a police officer to narrate the incident, while my friend kept calling me continuously, asking for help.
At this point, I thought to myself that the massacre of 1947 would be renewed.
In November 1947, thousands of Muslims were massacred in the Jammu region by mobs and paramilitaries led by the army of Dogra ruler Hari Singh.
The exact number of casualties in the killings that continued for two months is not known but estimates range from 20,000 to 237,000 and nearly half a million were forced to displace across the border into the newly created nation of Pakistan and its administered part of Kashmir.
The immediate impact (of the partition) was witnessed in Jammu. The Muslim subjects from different parts of Jammu province were forcibly displaced by the Dogra Army in a pogrom of expulsion and murder carried out over three weeks between October-November 1947.
As the clashes came to rest and both the communities went to their respective homes, I was surveying the damages caused by the angry mob.
At around sunset, the internet was taken down & curfew was imposed in many parts of Jammu.
My family kept on calling me asking me to leave the city, but it was not possible to leave. Rumors regarding a Muslim driver being burnt alive in Udhampur were spreading and thus we decided to stay in.
The locals of Gujjar Nagar opened their doors to those coming from the epicenter of clashes. Soon, Kashmiri Muslims, fleeing other parts of India began to arrive in Jammu. They were given accommodation at different places in Jammu, especially in the Makkah Masjid Bathandi, Jammu.
After spending a few days under restrictions and curfew in Jammu, I along with my father decided to leave for our hometown in the middle of the night, for the fear of being attacked by communal mobs in Udhampur which has a history of carrying out attacks against Kashmiri Muslims.
Though the repetition of Jammu massacre was avoided, the way provocative speeches and the anti-Muslim sentiments have been escalating, it would not be a surprise if it happens in the near future.