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 LOC
: Line of Blood and Tears
Thirty-seven years is a long
and cruel wait for 50-year-old Parri Begum of Sillikoot Uri to see her
mother Saja Begum and brother Muhammad Iqbal.
Parri Begum lives half a kilometre away from the Line of Control (LoC) on
the Indian side, and her mother and brother live in Aagivass village in
the Hajipeer sector on the Pakistan side. Her happiness knows no bounds
when she hears her brother calling the 'Azaan' (prayer call) over the
loudspeaker near the LoC. It is a much-loved voice that she longs to hear.
With a population of about 150 in about 30 households, Sillikoot is the
last village in the Hajipeer sector on the LoC. Situated across is village
Aagivaas, separated from Sillikoot by a stream, Hajipeer Nallah, which
itself forms a part of the LoC here. Strategic Hajipeer was captured by
Indian troops during the 1965 war and handed back to Pakistan three months
later.
"Every time I hear my brother's 'Azaan', I wish I could see him and hug
him," yearns Parri Begum. The LoC divides not only territory, but human
hearts and families as well. Parri Begum longs for the day when there will
be no dividing line -- the day when fragmented families can reunite. "Two
years ago, when my nephew across the LoC got married, I was sitting on the
rooftop of my house watching the proceedings. They were singing and I was
humming the same 'Wan Wun' (folk songs sung on festive occasions,
particularly on marriages)," recalls Parri Begum, tears brimming in her
eyes.
Prior to 1989 when insurgency started in Kashmir, families on either side
of the LoC visited each other during weddings and festivals. Now, they
can't cross over because heavy deployment of troops on either side has
made this union of families impossible. Says Raja Begum, "Thrice a year,
we used to visit our relatives on the other side but now it is a distant
dream. Will those good old days ever return?"
Jabeena Akhtar too has relatives living across in Aagivass village. She
can see the house of her maternal uncle but cannot meet him. Similarly,
Shabir Ahmed Chalkoo has his uncle and cousins living across the LoC. They
shout out to each other, but if they wish to meet, they must travel
thousands of miles via Srinagar, New Delhi and Islamabad. For them,
visiting relatives and friends who live a stone's throw away is almost
impossible. And if they can afford the prohibitive cost of travel, the
bureaucratic bottlenecks in between discourage even the strong-willed.
For 90-year-old Abdul Aziz, who has been witness to many confrontations
across the LoC, staring at it from the window generates feelings of anger
and dejection. Through a flood of tears gushing from his age-worn eyes, he
says he wants to see peace. "I am witness to three generations being lost
to shells, fall prey to the mines, killed and maimed," he says. For Aziz
the daily exchange of fire indicates that India and Pakistan are
constantly in a state of war.
In the northern Kashmir district of Kupwara, Teetwal is a small town by
the river Kishanganga. The river divides the town from the adjacent
village of Chalyan on the other side of the LoC in Pakistan-Occupied
Kashmir (POK). The villagers shout across 100 feet on either side of the
river to discuss the weather and prospects of fishing. But they never
meet. There are schools on both sides of the river, and children of the
two schools recognize each other and often yell out, but they cannot play
together.
Sikandar Khan, a respected local leader in Teetwal, curses the politicians
of both the countries for making his village a virtual hell. Blaming the
British rulers who decided to divide the country in 1947, Khan, then a
primary school student, remembers the horrors of the Partition. Once a
bustling town on a trade route, beautiful Teetwal is now gloomy with
despair, says Khan. "We are living under the shadow of machine guns."
Adds village headman Peer Maqbool Shah, whose sister died on the other
side of the LoC, "I saw my relatives weeping and crying at her death but
could not attend her last rites or even see her body for the last time. We
are witness to this kind of trauma since 1947 and it is killing us."
There are many such villages where families are divided all along the LoC.
Renowned Urdu poet Sardar Jafri calls it the "line of blood and tears" in
his famous poem 'Subhe Farda' (Dawn). The LoC divides hearts,
emotions and relationships in hundreds of families in Jammu and Kashmir.
It is they who pay the heaviest price of Indo-Pak hostilities.
– Fayaz Bukhari
August 4, 2002
By arrangement with
Womens Feature Service
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