Living on the edge

The voices of peace have become a chorus but the fear of repeated border tension between India and Pakistan hovers in Kargil even seven years after the war 

Syed Nazakat / Kargil 

People in Kargil are poised between hope and fear. Even seven years after the war, the survivors are still apprehensive of another conflict. Though time is slowly healing the wounds in the minds of the people, the very thought of tension between India and Pakistan keeps residents of war-ravaged Kargil fidgeting.

"We know what a war means," says Mohamad Yousuf, a resident of Kargil. During the Kargil war, Yousuf along with his ailing wife and three children fled his house in the night for a safer place. "I still remember the fateful night. We were trapped inside our house and Pakistan artillery shelling was just destroying everything in the village," he said.

"When I look behind and think of the war and the devastation it left behind, I think I am reborn," says Mohamad Yousuf.

The story of the Kargil war did not end with the capture of Tiger Hill. The war still lingers in the memory of the people who actually bore the brunt of it. Not far away from Mohamed Yousuf's house three small kids are playing "hide and seek". Mahapara, 7, is hiding herself behind the door and her brother Mohamad Tariq, 16, is searching for her. Their little sister Atiqa, just 4, is sitting at one corner of the underground bunker which during the Kargil war was their home and only protector.

"Whenever we heard gunfire we were rushing towards our underground bunker. We used to remain there for days without food and water," says Mohamed Tariq. He was just eight-years-old at the time, today he says I still get nightmares about the war. "It is so difficult to forget what we saw".

The government had promised to rehabilitate the people, but even after seven years the people still await the promised help. "The government is not doing anything for Kargil. The area is the most poor and backward region of the state," says Gulam Nabi, an activist from Kargil.

The neglect by the government was visible more on the roads. As we drove from Kargil to Dras, the road was still in a poor condition. The road is so narrow that only one vehicle can pass at a time. This road, which was one of the main targets of the Pakistani intruders during the 1999 war, is one of the only two highways connecting Ladakh with the rest of India. But despite its strategic importance the condition of the road is simply pathetic.

The border town of Kargil was totally destroyed during the war and residents were shifted to safer places. Though the houses have been rebuilt now, people say there was little or no assistance from the government. "The government had promised us complete assistance in rebuilding the infrastructure of the area but we had to build it on our own without any help from the government," says Mohamad Akbar, an elderly farmer.
Standing in a cramped restaurant in Kargil, one can have a look at the whole Kargil town which is abuzz with life. Down the road the children are playing cricket in the nearby street, breaking the calm of the mountains. The shopkeepers are calling the potential customers. At the nearby shop, a Qur'anic tape was playing, low and rhythmic.

We sat on a white wooden bench at a teashop. There were half a dozen men sipping tea from glasses and flicking their prayer beads as an army vehicle drove quickly past the shop. A few yards away from the teashop, Hyder Ali, a greengrocer is busy in his work. He says that after the Kargil war his business has grown manifold. "Alhamdulialah (thank God), I am doing very well," he says. "I just pray to God that we never see war again".

Moreover, one can see unexploded bombs and shells scattered in and around the mountains and ravines, posing a danger to human and animal lives. Last week, five people including three children got seriously injured when an unexploded motor shell blew up in Dras though the army has warned people from picking up explosives from the area.

The mountain range, overlooking Hyder Ali's shop, was the first battlefield of Indian and Pakistani soldiers during the war. The Indian army was engaged in bloody fighting in the rocky and glacial terrain stretching from Zoji-La Pass to the Siachen Glacier to evict the Pakistani aggressors'. Today all along the highway and the high Himalayas troops are deployed, as there is no other option.
"You have to be on guard, always vigilant and ready to foil the designs of the enemy," Lt-Gen J K Mohanty, general officer commanding of the Ladakh-based 14 Corps told soldiers in Kargil on Vijay Diwas. "The
Pakistani plan in 1999, he said, was to intrude and cut off the link between Kashmir and Ladakh. But you (soldiers) foiled their (Pakistan's) evil designs. You have to be always alert, ready and in high spirits to save the country from any aggression," he added. 

The soldiers believe that the shrine of a Pir  (Sufi mystic) on top of a hill close to Tiger Hill blesses and protects them. Though no one knows who the Pir was, or who built the shrine one serving soldier told Sahara Time that they have immense faith in the shrine. The Muslim soldiers of the Grenadiers Regiment built the grave of the Pir, a tin hut painted in military green, after the Kargil war.

For the people living there, the end of war does not mean the beginning of peace. There is constant uncertainty about India-Pakistan relations which will remain until India and Pakistan learn to live in peace.  

(Sahara Time, 2006)