Kashmir Gun Battle Leaves Hundreds Homeless During Eid and COVID-19 Pandemic

An overview of the damage to civilian homes in the Kani Mazar locality in Indian-administered Kashmir’s capital. . Photo by Masrat Zahra.

Their homes destroyed in a gun battle, dozens of families in Srinagar’s Nawa Kadal area do not know where to go in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a 12-hour gun fight that began on the morning of May 19, Indian forces killed a rebel commander and his associate, leaving the houses of these civilian families severely damaged at the Kani Mazar locality in Indian-administered Kashmir’s capital.

India and Pakistan each claim a part of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region nestled in the Himalayas with a distinct culture. Since the Indian government stripped Kashmir of its long-held autonomous status in August 2019, the region has lived under a forced lockdown under restricted Internet and phone service.

Since the 1990’s, nearly 50,000 people have died in fights between Indian security forces and Kashmiri militants, according to government estimates.

On May 20, Bashir Ahmad Darazi, his wife and two sons and a daughter – sat on the rubble of their house, inconsolable as they went through charred objects that once comprised what they called their home. Kitchen utensils had melted, rice hoarded in a drum had turned yellow. There was no sign of their clothes or the daughter’s books.

A damaged kitchen in one of the civilian houses burned. Photo by Masrat Zahra.

“I am left with nothing,” said Darazi’s wife. “I have three children. My husband suffers from multiple ailments and was out of job for the last six months. What was our fault? We are very poor people and the forces took away the roof over our heads,” she added, her neighbors consoling her. “To support my family I worked as a help in a private school. We were struggling, but now, we don’t know where to go.”

The family said they had saved money for the daughter’s wedding. None of it is left.

“Everything is finished,” said Sadia, Darazi’s daughter, a Class XI student.

“We told them there is no militant here. We told them to come and check everything but they did not listen. At dawn, we were taken away from our homes. They broke our door and told us to raise hands and come out one by one. It was a war.”

One of the civilian concrete structures razed during a battle between Indian security forces and rebel militants. Some families who have lost their houses claim that the Indian soldiers looted and burned their homes. Photo by Masrat Zahra.

Darazi’s son said, “They beat me and my brother. One cop said if there are no militants, fire at them.”

Hundreds of paramilitary troopers and personnel from Jammu and Kashmir police launched a cordon-and-search operation around midnight in the densely populated Nawa Kadal area. In the fight that followed, which carried on until dawn, two suspected militants of the Pakistani-based Hizbul Mujahideen were killed and the fire that ensued gutted 12 homes. The residents alleged that the security forces used “heavy ammunition during the fight.”

“To kill two militants, they ravaged a war here,” a resident said.

Fayaz Ahmad, a tailor, was sleeping in his room while his family was offering late night prayers, as it’s done during Ramadan.

“I was sleeping when I heard a knock,” Ahmad said.

“I heard my wife talking to some people. I rushed down and the forces took me away with them. I was not even allowed to wear clothes. I was made to knock on the doors in the neighborhood. I was used as a shield. I cannot even explain how fearful I was,” Ahmad said, as he showed the destruction of his three-story home where he stayed with his wife and two children until the evening of May 18.

Women sat on the lawn of their house in Nawa Kadal, Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Photo by Masrat Zahra.

“I knocked on neighbors’ doors one by one, telling them my name. And they opened their doors. It was scary. I cannot explain that moment,” he repeated.

Ahmad, a tailor, stitches jackets. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, he said, he had been out of work.

“There were countless number of security personnel. We are helpless, as we cannot confront and question them. I had my sewing machine here as I stitch jackets but everything is finished. Rice and other eatables that we had stored, nothing has been spared; it’s all ashes now.”

The residents said that more than 200 people lived in the houses that have now been reduced to rubble and bare cemented walls. During the ongoing pandemic, when the government is enforcing social-distancing rules, the residents are staring at multiple crises.

“We cannot even go anywhere. Who will give us shelter during the pandemic?” Ahmad’s wife asked, standing on the rubble of her house, surrounded by her neighbors and relatives.

Arson and Looting

Unable to come to terms with the loss of their homes, the families said they faced an uncertain future. They also alleged that their homes had been looted during the counter-insurgency operation by the government forces.

Officials have denied the allegation.

“They looted our money and valuables from our homes. They are not humans. We had homes, and, today, we have nothing. All’s gone,” said a 50-year-old woman as she sat with her family on the cemented floor of their damaged house. All the windows and doors had turned into charcoal.

“Your homes is a place for you to protect yourself. It is your dignity. One cannot explain the pain of seeing your home destroyed, turning into ashes,” she added.

A resident, who identified herself as Begum, whose house had also been damaged, said that the forces looted her family’s cash and jewelry.

“When the forces entered our home, they told us to leave immediately. We did not know what to do. I told them, ‘I have to pick up a few things from home.’ But they did not give us any chance. They took away cash and all the jewelry,” she said. “When we returned, everything had gone.”

She continued, “They torched our homes; we didn’t want to leave. My son was not even wearing proper clothes. My husband and son were provided clothes by neighbors. My parents had helped me build this house, but now there is nothing. My husband is a daily-wage worker, and without any work [due to the lockdown].”

Residents were seen wearing masks near the gunfight site in Nawa Kadal. Wearing masks is mandatory in Srinagar due to the spread of coronavirus.

A man surveys the damage his and his neighbors’ homes two days after the battle. Photo by Masrat Zahra.

Men walk through the ruins of a house in Srinagar, which the gunfight razed to the ground. Police officials claim that there are nearly 249 active militants in Kashmir currently.

“We don’t understand what they heard. There was no one in our houses, but they still torched them. We are under ‘Zulum’ (atrocities). It didn’t matter to them that we would have nowhere to go during an ongoing pandemic.”

The Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, Dilbagh Singh, who had earlier admitted that there were nearly 240 militants active in Kashmir, at a press conference claimed that it was a “clean operation,” blaming the fire on grenades thrown by militants.

Singh claimed that all safety measures available had been taken, residents had been properly evacuated and that in the process, two personnel suffered injuries. “There has not been much damage to the houses. Militants were throwing grenades which triggered the fire, but we were able to control it.”

This article was originally published at Stories Asia.