Muslim Gujjars bear the brunt
Shah Wali, 42, faces a unique problem. His nine children refuse to go to bed for fear of nightmares after a pro-Amarnath land mob set ablaze their khullar (hut).
SAMBA: Shah Wali, 42, faces a unique problem. His nine children refuse to go to bed for fear of nightmares after a pro-Amarnath land mob set ablaze their khullar (hut). Theirs is among the many Muslim Gujjar families in Samba who have borne the burnt of the agitation in Jammu.
Shepherd Wali, who ekes out a living by supplying milk to city-dwellers, lost all his belongings in the blaze. Now, the family lives in a tent provided by the district administration.
“They (mobsters) locked our khullar from outside and set it ablaze. But for a few good cops who broke the wall to rescue us, we could have been burnt alive,” Wali’s wife Gulzar Bibi says.
“Some of our neighbors fled, but I could not because my kids were unable to run,” she adds.
“We can’t sleep during nights, we don’t as a precaution. If there is a loud noise, my kids start screaming ‘mobsters’,” Wali says.
A few hundred feet away, Shareefa stares at her burnt khullar. She is left with only a tarpaulin which she uses to cover her four children. “Nearly 500 people came to our colony and starting shouting slogans. We left everything behind and fled. When we returned, they had burnt a portion of my house,” she says.
The Gujjars claim six khullars were burnt down in this settlement. District development commissioner Saurabh Bhagat confirms nine khullars, including two at Sunjwa, have been reduced to ashes. “The 63 settlements of Gujjars in the district have been given good-quality tents and are also being provided free monthly ration,” he says.
This is the second time in nine years that tragedy has struck the poor Gujjars of this settlement, who were shifted here from Ramgarh sector during the Kargil war of 1999. “We can’t go back to our homes because our land has been converted into a minefield,” Wali says.
The Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, however, denies any communal tension.
h_ishfaq@dnaindia.net
Shepherd Wali, who ekes out a living by supplying milk to city-dwellers, lost all his belongings in the blaze. Now, the family lives in a tent provided by the district administration.
“They (mobsters) locked our khullar from outside and set it ablaze. But for a few good cops who broke the wall to rescue us, we could have been burnt alive,” Wali’s wife Gulzar Bibi says.
“Some of our neighbors fled, but I could not because my kids were unable to run,” she adds.
“We can’t sleep during nights, we don’t as a precaution. If there is a loud noise, my kids start screaming ‘mobsters’,” Wali says.
A few hundred feet away, Shareefa stares at her burnt khullar. She is left with only a tarpaulin which she uses to cover her four children. “Nearly 500 people came to our colony and starting shouting slogans. We left everything behind and fled. When we returned, they had burnt a portion of my house,” she says.
The Gujjars claim six khullars were burnt down in this settlement. District development commissioner Saurabh Bhagat confirms nine khullars, including two at Sunjwa, have been reduced to ashes. “The 63 settlements of Gujjars in the district have been given good-quality tents and are also being provided free monthly ration,” he says.
This is the second time in nine years that tragedy has struck the poor Gujjars of this settlement, who were shifted here from Ramgarh sector during the Kargil war of 1999. “We can’t go back to our homes because our land has been converted into a minefield,” Wali says.
The Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, however, denies any communal tension.
h_ishfaq@dnaindia.net