The word Dard in Urdu means pain and pora means area. Indeed true to its meaning Dardpora is a village where misery and pain is a part of the life of the inhabitants. Remotely located it is about 120 kms from Srinagar. The village Dardpora, Patimaidan, Sathboen, falls in north of Kashmir, and is devoid of water and electricity. In this era when the world has been revolutionized by technology, this village defies the theory of respite brought about by technology. Dardpora is divided into two belts, upper Dardpora and lower Dardpora. The lower one known as Kashmiri Dardpora, and upper one as Pahari or Gujjar Dardpora, whose inhabitants claim to be of Pakistani origin. The geographical position of this village makes it live in dark ages. Difficult terrain makes this village highly inaccessible. Being extremely close to the borders it is heavily infested with army and militants and has seen a considerable loss of human life in the past fourteen years. Agriculture is a source of livelihood but crops like wheat and maize, which require fewer water supplies, are sown, as there is always acute scarcity of water in this area. People are dependent on rainwater as the only source of irrigation. Dardpora has hogged many headlines in newspapers. The village has witnessed innumerable death of the youth and the village has about 122 widows and almost 300 orphans. Most of the killed were militants shot dead in encounters and some died due to internal rivalry within militant groups Al- Barq & Hizbul Mujahideen. Most of the widows choose not to re- marry but are living in utter misery due to financial constraints with no help coming from government or any NGO. This village has almost become a guinea pig where people within & outside the state keep pouring in for various research and survey work. They make tall promises but to this day the villagers say they never came back after their research was over. The story of Dardpora’s widows found stories in many newspapers but that was it. A team of KWIPD visited the village with the aim of assessing the situation in the village and to look for a means of setting up some self help group. But the villagers are so wary of outsiders that they do not trust them and do not want to talk about themselves. They can hardly be blamed as many a times they have spoken their heart out with the hope that something would be done to improve their lot but each time they were let down. It took a lot of time to convince them about our intentions. We then met a lot of widows almost every household has one or two widows and orphans with no source of financial help. One such widow is Rafiqa Bano whose husband died in the year 1990. He was severely injured in military firing. Army took him to a hospital but after one month brought him back in a morbid state and after 20 days he breathed his last. Rafiqa was left with two daughters Nusrat and Shafiqa. She did not receive any relief from the government, she manages herself and her two daughters as she is a teacher getting a meagerly sum of Rs 1500. She has no family support from her in laws and lives separately. Tahir is blind in one eye and vision of another eye is very bleak. In 1997, his father Abdul Rehman Shiekh was killed by army in a cross firing. His mother remarried soon after and Tahir now lives with his grandfather. Shiekh was a militant with Al-barq. Few years back, Tahir was once operated in his eye but the surgery was not successful. Tahir’s grandfather says, “Doctors say he should be taken to Chandigarh for the operation, but I am poor and cannot afford the expenses, and Tahir will have to resign to his fate of darkness.” Almost all the household in this village has loss one family member or more. There is Dilavar Khan’s family; his two sons Mohd Ashraf Khan & Mohd Rashid Khan embraced militancy in the early 90’s, and went to Pakistan administered Kashmir (POK) for arms training. Both were associated with Al Barq. In 1998 on 15 July, army in an encounter killed Ashraf Khan. Dilavar did not see his elder son alive after he came back from POK; he just saw his dead body later in a forest. Rashid his second son came back form POK in 2001 and one month later he surrendered before the army. For the next nine months he worked with the army and later quit it. Rashid says he joined army for momentary gains for more than anything else, “I thought I will get good money and other facilities but later I was fed up and felt there was nothing in it. There are no militants here, we want peace, people want peace, there has been enough loss to life here.” Naseema Bano is another widow. Her husband died a year after his marriage. In 99, a year after marriage her husband crossed over to POK, he came back and was killed in encounter. Naseema has no children and stays with her parents. “I don’t want to marry again, once was enough, she says”, or there is Sarwar Jan w/o Safudin Khoja. Saif was killed seven years back by unidentified gunmen. She has six daughters and one son. Her three children are studying; she has been paid the ex-gratia relief of Rs one lac and is therefore able to continue her children’s education. Deaf and dumb, Zaytoon’s story is a story of pain and anguish. Her husband Samad Khan died in Aug 2003 and has left behind three children, two daughters, Shakeela 11 years old, Parveena 3 and Farooq 5 years old. Shakeela, the eldest holding her siblings in her lap says, “my father died due to the incessant torture by army, every time he was arrested, he was tortured brutally and one day he turned insane and finally he died. Death may have relieved Samad from pain but his family of wife and three children continue to live and suffer, Zaytoon begs for a living. Fatima yet another widow, her husband Ghulam Mohidin was killed in November 1992, she has three daughters and one son. The army killed her father in-law Mangta Ram and her brother-in-law also. First Mangta Ram and her Brother in law were killed, they were beaten to death by the army and two years later her husband was killed in the clash between Al-barq and HM. The tragedy is that they have no male members in the family and again the same story of helplessness and poverty. Dilavar Khan says although no case of Rape or molestation has been reported but torture of village men is a common routine. Today Dardpora is immune to pain as Dilavar Khan says those who die in encounter (militants) with the army, their bodies remain there, and they are not buried. The scavengers feed on them. Some of the militants of the area are buried within the periphery of the village and others from Pakistan like Rashid Khan s/o Gul khan r/o Faisalabad killed on 19 July also rest in peace there. The upper Dardpora inhabitants claim their ancestors of Pakistani origin had migrated here for greener pastures for their cattle. But the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence and the progeny of Pahari Dardpora seem to have learnt it the hard way. Dardpora brought only dard or miseries in their lives. (Voices unheard Issue: October – December 2003) AASIYA JEELANI WITH DARDPORA WIDOWS AND CHILDREN th th
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 00:00:15 +0000