Arif Ahmad for BeyondHeadlines
Yesterday luckily I got to know some more of Kashmir. While I was visiting some countrified areas of Kashmir, I saw huge devastation of humanity under the trademark of terrorism. I met some populace who lost their families as a result of conflict between militancy and army. I met a woman who lost her husband two years ago. Her husband committed suicide because he could not handle the stiff torture of army. And with that the family got abandoned and his wife is now begging for survival of her family. This is the only source of livelihood for her as she belongs to a rural area and there is no other work than this for her. She cannot even move to a city as who will take care of her children in her absence. I was reminded of one thing which my every well wisher use to say when I was young that overlook the pain of your present and think about the future. I was wondering how she could think about the future when she is imprecise about her present.
Then I met one youth who lost his parents and ended up leaving his studies and working as a daily wage laborer. He is too young to shoulder his family responsibility but is forced to do so because he has younger brothers and sisters. He is someway earning meal for his family but is sure of one thing that neither he nor his siblings have a bright future because he does not afford their education. Although I tried conveying him the idea of education for his younger siblings under Right to Education but that could only had been possible if a school existed in the locality.
This is not a story of these two families but there are as many more families who suffered such irreparable loss which nobody can compensate. I still do not know that till when this beautiful valley will be facing such tragic situation and when will peace be here. All I can do is hope and pray for a better future.
At the end let me add one more thing that this is the native village where Liyaqat Shah belonged to. It was a co incidence because I didn’t know that Liyaqat Shah belonged to this village but during my visit I got to know this.
(Author is a social activist, working in Kashmir)
