With
strict curfew outside, the setting within the two-storey muddy house of
Abdul JabbarPandit here in LangateChowk on Baramulla–Kupwara highway
manifests the mourning the area is witnessing for last two days. Inside
the rooms of the house, dozens of people, including many women, have
assembled to express their solidarity with the bereaved family of slain
Raja Begum (53) wife of Abdul Jabbar, who was hit by a bullet in her
head on Tuesday evening.
Raja - mother of two and wife of a farmer- was hit by the bullet
allegedly fired by the army when she was working in her vegetable garden
at Dandkadal, about a kilometer away from Handwara town. Raja was
shifted to District Hospital Handwara but was instantly referred to
SKIMS Srinagar where she succumbed to her injuries late Tuesday night.
“Administration tried to create confusion by stating that she died
mysteriously,” said Fayaz Ahmad, Raja Begum’s cousin who accompanied her
to hospital. “She was killed by 21 Rashtriya Rifles soldiers stationed
at Marhatgam,” Fayaz added.
He said that soldiers fired from their post they have erected at an
elevated place in Marhatgam village. “We heard gun shots but took it is
easy,” said Muhammad Subhan, another cousin of Raja. “After 10 minutes
we were informed that Raja is injured.”
“She was in a pool of blood and we removed her to Handwara Hospital,”
Fayaz said, adding that doctors referred her to SKIMS Soura. “Her brain
was damaged due to bullet injury and ultimately caused her death,”
reads the death certificate issued by the doctors at SKIMS.
The group of assembled people said that there was no effect of
Handwara incident in the area, where army had killed two youths. “Here
everything was normal. We were only inquiring about Handwara when the
tragedy fell upon us,” they said.
Raja, according to Fayaz, was tilling in the patch of land on which
the family grows vegetables for their consumption. “Only one bullet had
pierced through her head.”
Her husband breaks his silence. “What was her sin? Why did they kill her,” he asked.
In another room, dozens of women were trying to console the
inconsolable family members. “She was not wielding a gun. They did not
even spare her,” says Shabnum Begum, one of the mourners.
The mourners have to face lot of problems while reaching the bereaved
family as whole area was under strict curfew. Army, police and CRPF
personnel were deployed outside in large numbers. The road was closed
with barbed wire.
“After the killing they (forces) do not allow us to visit the bereaved,” said a group of mourners. “We reached here one by one.”