Umar Farooq/ Meer Irfan
Gulzar Ahmed Teeli was evacuated from of his house by Government Forces as bullets began raining from all around in the Tulran area of Shopian. When the firing was over, there was no house to go back to.
On Monday, at around 7:30 p.m. in the evening, an encounter broke out between the Government forces and the militants at Tulran, Shopian. The encounter was the fourth encounter of the day in the Jammu Kashmir region.
In four different military operations that were conducted on Monday, 5 militants one each in Anantnag and Bandipora and 3 militants were killed in Shopian. Meanwhile, in the forests of Poonch, five armed forces personnel including an army official were killed, as per the police.
Mohammed Yousuf Teeli said that he was talking about the ongoing bloodshed in the valley and how it must have been devastating for the families of those killed. “We were discussing the ongoing killings and the aftermath of the killings in Kashmir. My kids were sad for the families,” Yousuf told, adding that he had little clue that on Monday evening, he was going to be the next victim of the conflict.
The encounter went on all night, and early in the morning on Tuesday, it was announced that 3 militants of LeT (TRF) have been killed. The forces claimed to have recovered “Incriminating materials including arms & ammunition,” and said one of three deceased militants, Mukhtar Shah of Ganderbal, had shifted to Shopian after killing a street hawker Virendra Paswan of Bihar at Lal Bazaar, Srinagar, last week.
Around 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the gunfire finally stopped. All Yousuf could see, he says, was ash and smoke.
According to the official data, at least 5,368 shops, houses and other privately-owned structures in Kashmir suffered damage from the years 1989 to 2001. But for the last 17 years, no such data is available. Although, it can be easily estimated that the number of structures damaged during the encounters has increased multifold.
Dozens of houses have been damaged during various encounters in Kashmir this year.
Left with no roof
As the Tulran encounter ended, The Kashmiriyat reached the spot to monitor the aftermath of the deadly encounter that continued all night. Two houses and three cowsheds were reduced to rubble within a span of few hours. The two houses belonged to Gulzar Ahmad Teeli and Mohammed Yousuf Teeli.
While Yousuf’s family was discussing the ongoing bloodshed, Gulzar Ahmed Teli’s family was busy planning for the first winter in the newly constructed house with the arrival of Harud (Autumn) in the valley. “My kids demanded various things including curtains, thermocol and matting of different sorts for the house as winters are approaching. They told me they wanted warm pillow covers,” Gulzar said. All of a sudden, there was a loud bang, Gulzar’s family watched his house along with Yousuf’s house burning to ashes. “It was a catastrophic sight to watch. Our dream was in flames.” All the plans for winter, the curtains and the matting turned into ashes “in a moment, just a moment,” Gulzar said.
As per laid down SOP, all the civilians in the area of the operation site were evacuated to a safe place well in advance to avoid any loss of civil life, however collateral damage has become the most noticeable change of the recent encounters between Government Forces and Militants.
“We are farmers. We earn all our lives and build the build houses. No, we are not in a position to rebuild our house. I have lost everything,” Gulzar said.
Meanwhile, the local residents were anguished at the wanton destruction. They consoled the two families who lost everything. “Everything was burnt down. We are left with nothing but only the clothes that we were wearing that fateful day,” Yousuf lamented.
“We are without a roof on our head now and have nowhere to go,” Yousuf said.
The villagers said on Tuesday evening when police, Army and CRPF rung the cluster of the houses, and indiscriminate firing broke out in the area, they were dumbfounded.
“We had barely settled down from the sound of the bullets, when we saw massive smoke emerging from one of the houses in the locality. Soon five structures were up in flames,” a villager, Abdul Rashid said.
“All our household items are charred. Our cow and sheep were also burnt in the blaze,” distraught Gulzar Ahmed said, adding that it will take a lot of time to reconcile with the loss.