Violence Lands on the Doorsteps of Kashmiris

Sixty-seven-year-old Taja Begum saw the trouble brewing. For days, she noticed strangers wandering around outside her home.

Still, she didn’t expect her newly built house to become a battleground between government soldiers and Muslim guerrillas.

Begum and her family survived, but their home in the village of Khwajabagh was destroyed by mortar fire from the government forces. All that’s left is twisted steel and concrete rubble.

“We are destitute. We can’t salvage anything from that heap,” said Begum’s husband, Haji Habibullah Banday. “At my age, one savors the fruits of labor of youth. I am too old to build a house again.”

The family now lives with kin.

What happened in the family’s village 37 miles northwest of Srinagar, summer capital of the Indian-held portion of Kashmir, is routine in the disputed Himalayan territory.

Islamic separatists move into an area -- sometimes hiding in or taking over homes for protection -- and Indian police or soldiers try to drive the militants out.

Gun battles between the two sides have destroyed more than 3,800 homes since the insurgency began in 1989, says the All Party Hurriyat Conference, an association of Kashmiri political and religious groups.

On March 4, Begum’s husband, a 71-year-old retired school headmaster, had just stepped out of the house to buy bread at a bakery. Their two sons, both government workers, had left for their offices.

A militant barged into their home.

“There was one man with whom I pleaded to leave our house, but he wouldn’t listen,” Begum recalled, with tears in her eyes.

“The gun battle started and I, with two daughters-in-law and one granddaughter, crouched in the corridor to save ourselves.”

Security forces say they attack homes only in extreme situations.

“We coax and cajole the militants to surrender so that the civilian life and property is not put in danger,” said Mohammed Amin Shah, a deputy inspector general of police. “When that fails, we take effective action.”

Some civilians disagree that police avoid destruction, and some say police even use innocent people as human shields.

Baha-ud-din Hakeem, a neighbor who watched Begum’s house destroyed, says his son was forced by police to enter the ruin to look for land mines and dead militants after the operation.

“How can one justify destruction of property and jeopardize innocent lives just to catch one militant?” he asked. “My son, Fayyaz Ahmad, was used by security forces. It is the wrath of man against man.”

Homeowners often are denied any redress for property lost in battles. A new anti-terrorism law bars compensation or insurance claims if an owner helps militants, and victims say it’s difficult to convince security forces that they didn’t provide shelter to suspected rebels.

Qaisar Ahmad tells the story of his grandfather, Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Parray, 75, who lives on the outskirts of Srinagar and in January saw his house destroyed in a battle between militants and government forces.

Ahmad says that after some guerrillas forcibly entered the home, Parray pleaded with them to leave. When that failed, he walked out, handed the house keys to a police search party and told officers about the armed men inside, Ahmad says.

But after watching his house come under fire, Parray was arrested on charges of harboring militants, the grandson says.

“Rebuilding our home is hardly a priority right now,” Ahmad said. “I am running from pillar to post to get my grandfather released.”