Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Hours after guns fell silent on the Indo-Pak border, Colonel Nadeem of the Pakistan Rangers showed up at the octroi post in Suchetgarh. He had brought with him his son, Assad. On any other day, the Colonel would have not done that. But today was special, very special. It was Id. And the start of a new border truce.
As he watched his father exchange greetings, sweets and fruits with BSF commandant Rajesh Gupta, Assad broke into a smile: ‘‘When I get back to school after the vacations, I will tell my friends what I saw. This makes me so happy.’’ His father agreed: ‘‘This peace should last. It’s good for people of both Pakistan and India, especially the poor.’’
You could sense and see the truce: Indians continued to fence the border and, for once, the Pak Rangers didn’t fire. In fields near the Zero Line, children played while the parents worked, unmindful of the Rangers’ stares. For that matter, even the Rangers looked relaxed.
Many homes near the Zero Line, long deserted because of the intense shelling by Pakistani artillery, were unlocked as people, after learning of the ceasefire, began to return. At Palatan, a village in Chhamb sector, debris of walls, brought down by shells earlier, was being cleared. But you also got to hear murmurs. ‘‘They (the Pakistanis) have assured us of peace along the border. Let us see whether their words translate into reality,’’ said a BSF officer.
Palatan sarpanch Lal Singh also seemed a little unsure: ‘‘They have talked peace many times before. But after some time, they start shelling us again.’’ In Nai Basti, Jeet Raj had a poser: ‘‘How can we believe there will be peace between the two countries? Pakistan has to first stop sending militants.’’ But in Uri on the LoC, the ceasefire had rekindled hope. The town slept its first peaceful night in years — no whine of incoming shells. Id morning was a wonderful feeling. ‘‘I can’t explain what it means to leave home knowing everything is going to be fine when I return,’’ said Bashir Ahmad who had trekked all the way to Uri from Nambla village to offer the Id namaz. Uri’s central market, on either side of what used to be the old Srinagar-Rawalpindi road, was decorated like a bride. Peace on the LoC was the only talk. ‘‘We can’t believe our ears. But if it’s true, nothing like it,’’ said Shabir Ahmad, a student from Salamabad village.
