RICOCHETS FROM THE PAST

IN MOURNING Funeral of Satish Singh, a Kashmiri Rajput killed by a militant in Kulgam, Apr. 13

-  Moazum Mohammad

When gunshots rang out inside a Hindu home in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district in the evening of April 13 just as the call for prayers was announced from the nearby mosque, the victim was not just Satish Singh, a Rajput truck driver, but also the inter-religious concord in Kakran. For decades, Muslims and Hindus have been coming to this village to visit the shrine of Kashmir’s revered Sufi saint Hazrat Sheikh Nuruddin, popularly called Nund Rishi and Alamdar-e-Kashmir, and the refurbished ancient temple of Mata Katyayani a few steps away.

The bullets of the unidentified militant that riddled Satish’s body have also blown holes in the social fabric of the district that is home to 40-odd Rajput families who did not leave the Valley during the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1989-90. Satish’s old mud house and seven other houses of Rajput families are inside a large compound with a traditional wooden entrance.

“We lived together with our Muslims neighbours and had no dispute with anyone over land or property,” says Satish’s brother Anil Kumar, an orchard farmer. “We don’t know why my brother was killed. I am afraid of stepping out of the house now.” The last time the 42-yearold visited the local market was just moments before tragedy befell the family. Four days later, when it was time for spraying insecticides in his orchard, Anil had to request his neighbours to do it. Another brother, who works with the Central Industrial Security Force and is posted outside Jammu and Kashmir, quickly left the village after a last glimpse of Satish’s face.