Govt looks on as widow loses all sons to militancy

Syeda Begum, a widow, has lost all her four sons to violence in the Valley but is yet to get any relief from the PDP-led government. All tha...

Syeda Begum, a widow, has lost all her four sons to violence in the Valley but is yet to get any relief from the PDP-led government. All that she and her teenaged daughter — the only other survivor from her family of seven — have to call their own are a small 4×4 feet kitchen, a few rags, some old utensils and a small room.

Syeda’s family represents the families which have silently borne the brunt of militancy despite the government’s oft-repeated promise of providing succour to victims of militancy.

The middle-aged Syeda recalls how she lost her family members one after the other. ‘‘One body followed the other to the graveyard. It seems we have spent an eternity mourning,’’ she says in her ramshackle house at Darish Kadal.

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Syeda’s eldest son Nazir Ahmad Dar, a peanut-vendor, died in 1991 when he was allegedly caught in a crossfire after militants lobbed a grenade at a security forces vehicle. Security forces personnel gunned him down, mistaking him for a militant, says Syeda.

Two years later, her next son, Tariq Ahmad, was bathing in the river when a gunfight broke out between militants and security forces. Gripped by fear, Tariq slipped deeper into the river and drowned. His body was found two days later. ‘‘When people brought him home dead, I remember his body had swollen to thrice his size. I fell down and when I got up, he had already been buried,’’ she recalls.

Her third son, Mushtaq Ahmad, a militant affiliated to the Hizbul Mujahideen, fell victim to intra-group rivalry in 1995. ‘‘He was shot dead by JKLF militants in the morning but we were informed only in the night,’’ Syeda says. ‘‘The policemen from Safakadal arrived with the body at 12 midnight. The next morning, some people came and took it away and buried it,’’ she adds.

Syeda was still mourning Mushtaq’s death when her fourth son, Nissar, who had failed to come to terms with the tragedy, went missing.

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Unable to afford her private school fees, Syeda enrolled her daughter in a government school. Pinky says she is often scolded in school for not wearing the uniform.

Syeda works on the spinning wheel but is able to make only about Rs 120 in 15 days. Asked why the PDP’s promise of providing relief has not yet reached Syeda’s family, party vice-president Mehbooba Mufti said: ‘‘Give me the address and I will see what I can do’’. She added that she is preparing a list of widows ‘‘whom the government intends to help under its healing touch policy’’.