No amenities, not even a PCO

And the rare distinction of having two members in the state Assembly has not benefited the village at all as it seems frozen in time. A bumpy ride on a narrow strip of rough road that winds through the endless apple orchards and paddy fields takes one to Nadimarg. A stroll through the open fields dotted with typical Kashmiri houses is enough for one to realise that the village hasn’t even basic amenities.

The nearest healthcare centre lies four km away at Yaripora that’s linked by a narrow dirt road. The sub-district hospital there boasts of six doctors but not one of them is trained to handle an emergency. On the day of the carnage, medical authorities rushed an ambulance to the spot with first aid, hoping they would have no major emergency to contend with.

Their prayers were answered and how! Not a single person out of the group that was dragged outside survived the carnage. ‘‘We can’t undertake a surgery here. We can only give first aid. A patient has to be rushed to Srinagar if he needs specialised care. We have neither surgeons nor an X-ray equipment which is necessary in emergencies.’’ said a hospital official.

Then, for over 100 villages in the area, there is one fire tender. If fire does break out, the fire tender won’t be able to reach the spot as the dirt roads are too small for it to pass through. There’s one power grid to provide electricity to 100 villages.

The massacre has done Nadimarg some good. The village has been enjoying an uninterrupted supply of electricity and drinking water after the tragedy. ‘‘We never saw these people — who are coming here to offer sympathy — before. They never did anything for our village. We are getting both electricity and water just because of the media. You can see the condition of the road that was built decades ago,’’ said Chand Kumar, a survivor who hid himself in the chimney of his house to escape bullets.