Why Border Villagers Join The Forces

Among the three personnel killed in the biggest operation this year, two were from border villages in Kashmir—one an army soldier, the other an SPO.

- Naseer Ganai

TO Iqbal Bajad, who has comple­ ted his MBA, his father Yousuf, 40, was an educated man. The first matriculate from the family residing in Kachama village of Kupwara district in of north Kashmir, Yousuf was a daily­ wage lab ourer before he was recrui­ ted as a Special Police Officer (SPO) in 1999. He was working for the Spe­ cial Oper ations Group (SOG) of the J&K Pol ice. On Wednesday, March 28, You suf was killed along with a sold ier, Ashraf Rather, 35, and anot­ her SOG personnel in a gunfight with militants in Halmatpora forest, aro­ und 15 km from the village.

The villagers in these parts of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district often work as porters for the army, when not employed as agricultural labourers further down in the Valley. There is a government-run middle school, but the dropout rate is high. The primary health centre, villagers say, is usually shut. A kuccha road, full of potholes, leads to this village.

On Wednesday, Yousuf was at home on leave when he got a call from an officer to join the gunfight. It was one of biggest cordon-and-search operations this year, with over 1,000 army and police personnel deployed against five militants of the Lashkar -e-Toiba, who had recently infiltrated from across the border and had the advantage of the dense pine forest in this mountainous region. Expecting a much higher number of militants, the army and the SOG had laid several cordons. The army had also rushed in a team of paratroopers. All five militants were killed in the operation, which lasted 33 hours.

Scores of people participated in the funeral of Yousuf, who left behind a family of eight, including aged parents and two minor daughters. Ashraf, who had joined the army in 2004, is survived by his wife Fehmeeda and two-year-old daughter Nafia, who live in nearby Reshigund village. A large number of people participated in his funeral too.