REASI, April 20: Militants came knocking on the doors at night. First, they went to Mani Ram's house on Thursday night. Then they knocked on other doors in Prankote village in Udhampur district. All they wanted, they said, was shelter for the night. Over the next 24 hours, the villagers realised they had played host to their own death.In panic and fear, many villagers left their homes and migrated to Reasi after the massacre. They are too shocked to understand what happened. Entire families have been killed. "They went to Mani Ram's house at 11 p m on Thursday, the next day they didn't allow him or his family to move out of the house and then they killed the entire family that night," says Lachhu, a resident of the same village.Sheru, a resident of Narkote, said he saw the militants going to the house of a Gujjar, Salam Din, on Friday. He didn't take it seriously: there aren't any security forces or police deployed and it is natural to see militants hanging around.However, early on Saturday morning,Sheru saw fire coming out of Shobha Ram's house on the nearby hill. "Along with some villagers, I rushed to the house," he recalls, "but we returned midway after we saw the militants." It was warning enough, Sheru and his family fled instantly.Without firing a single shot, the militants killed 26 people belonging to the minority community in the village on Friday night. Eyewitnesses said while some of the victims were killed with sharp-edged weapons, others were burnt alive.Senior district officials confirmed this saying that the affected area was seen as a safe haven for militants. Though the district administration set up two State Task Force pickets at Jij and Barneli Thelu villages only a fortnight ago, these were ineffective as the villages are spread over a vast, hilly terrain.Situated at a height of 6,600 feet, Prankote village forms part of Jij Patwar, which comprises 10 villages having a population of 5,170 people. Significantly, the entire Patwar which touches Mahore on one side and Kandi(Rajouri) on the other, is considered to be "no-man's land" by the security forces, official sources said.Villagers accuse the administration of not deploying security forces in the area despite repeated requests by them. "We had even gheraoed State Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah during his visit to Reasi on April 14 to press the demand, but nothing was done by the Government," said a migrant villager.Officials put the death toll at 26, saying these included nine men, eight women and nine children.Chanda Ram's son Krishan Lal recalls that his father and mother had come to Reasi to collect his monthly pension. However, on the way home, his mother fell ill and Chanda Ram asked Lal to stay with his mother while he headed for home, only to be killed by the militants, along with his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.Another family, which fell prey to the militants, was that of Lamberdar Mani Ram (60). Victims in his family included his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandsons, one fiveyears old, the other two.Mani Ram's foster sister, Bindro (40), who had come to his house from a nearby village Laddan, was also killed by the militants. Ram's 22-year-old daughter Nimbo Devi, who along with her six-month-old son had come to her parents for Baisakhi, was also killed.In the string of shocking stories that survivors mention is one about Shobha Ram and his daughter Bittu. Bittu escaped into the nearby forest with her two sisters Ballo (5) and Rano (3) and hid there through the night. The next morning, they returned home to check if any one was still alive.
