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July 03 to July 09 2017 : Weekly News Magazine
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SOCIETY

married. “I and Hajira went shopping Khayal and Shafi Shaida. He had lost
for the bride. He was getting engaged his job in Radio Kashmir during
next week,” says Syeda, Aijaz’s aunt. Ghulam Muhammad Bakhshi’s regime
over a programme that irked the
In the morning of September 29
government. Mahajan joined Hamdard
1992, the family heard a crackdown
and later Daily Aftab. He also owned a
announcement from nearby Tarabal
bookshop – MB booksellers.
area. Mahajan decided to stay
indoors and asked Aijaz to stay in too. The tragedy left three women in their
house. Firdousa, and her husband
The crackdown was over by
Mohammad Ashraf Khan who was also
afternoon, paramilitary men boarded
brother of Sakeena shifted to
vehicle to leave, when militants
Mahajan’s house along with their three
opened fire. Agitated troopers started
daughters.
beating
“My mother went numb like a corpse.
We pretended to be happy for each
another but happiness was long
gone,” Firdousa says.
Exhausted, Hajira people and dragged them out of their
“They moves towards her house to share the homes. After three years in the house,
have killed Naen Soeb” Ghulam Nabi grief with her injured husband. Hajra Firdousa and her huband moved back
Mahajan was working in his room on
Mahajan yelled to his wife Hajra as he thought he would be fine – fine enough to their house. Hajira too moved with
the top floor when he saw troops
opened the door of his house. And to share her grief with. As she opens them and never visited her house
dragging out people. He took it as a
Hajira ran out, barefoot, gasping. the door of the house, she finds him during her eight year stay at her
crackdown and decided to come out
Fearful eyes peeping from dead, unattended. daughter’s place. She was only
with his son to avoid any beating and
windowpanes, guns from the nearby brought there in 2001 for her funeral.
In her rush to run for her son, Hajra had humiliation. Mahajan went downstairs
bunker following her steps – as she After Hajira’s death the house was sold
not noticed Mahajan falling soon after asked Aijaz to come out too. The two
ran through the deserted street, past
he yelled. He had been shot too. were heading out when Mahajan to a neighbour along with the
her 70 year old husband. belongings of the family.
A renowned calligrapher of valley, Ali returned to give keys to Hajira in case
The 66 year old Hajira reached her son she needed it during house search by
Mohammad Mahajan worked working “We didn’t take out a single thing from
Aijaz, 26, who has been fired at in the troops.
with Urdu newspaper Hamadard and that house except the photo albums.
eyes. Taking his bruised head in her Later we burnt them too as the
the Daily Aftab. A resident of Braripora, By then Aijaz was out in the street.
lap and listening to his groans pleaded
Nawakadal in Srinagar, he lived with “First he was beaten and then they memories were too painful. We never
him to hold his breath, till she found
his wife Hajira and two sons. fired him in his eye and he fell. When look at the house when we pass by that
help. “Oh my neighbours. Wouldn’t street,” says Sakeena.
The family met its first tragedy on May Mahajan Sahab opened the door he
you come out. They killed my one
21, 1990 when elder son Mohammad saw his son lying flat on ground. He Sakeena and Tanveer live in a house
more son today,” Hajra yells. None
Amin returning from a funeral of a turned back and screamed come ‘they constructed by Sakeena’s brothers at
dares to come out. With tears rolling
friend’s daughter received bullets killed our Nann Seab (Aijaz’s pet Sadrabal. Tanveer got a job under SRO
effortlessly, she takes off her head
name) too, but then he too was fired in
when security forces opened fire on 43 some years back and Foziya is
cloth, puts it on Aijaz’s face, crying,
Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq’s funeral his head and he fell down on the door. married and settled in Malaysia.
collapsing and caressing her son like
procession. His cap fell from his head,” recalls
never before. After her first son’s death Hajira would
Foziya was in 8th and Tanveer in 2nd Abdul Rehman.
often cry and say that there can be
An hour passes, Hajira’s attempts do standard. The same day, Amin’s uncle
For more than two hours the bodies lay nothing more tragic than his death.
not stop but Aijaz’s breath does. Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Mahajan died of
“She was like a meatch (insane), she unmoved. Sakeena and Foziya were She didn’t know there was something
shock.
ran around his body for several crying over Mahajans body and Hajira that will turn her into a living corpse.
After his shock Mahajan continued to was running between the two bodies.
minutes, barefooted, bareheaded, I
work at the age of 68 to feed his son’s At dusk the bodies were taken to police “My mother left silently. She was
thought she lost her senses,” says
control room, “It was around 9 pm and numb. I don’t know what was going on
widow and two orphans, “He never
their neighbour Abdul Rehman, who within her. She never complained after
cried in front of his children but he was some neighbour called me and I was
witnessed the ordeal from her house.
broken within,” recalls Mahajan’s taken there in a police vehicle. When I that – went where ever she was taken. I
Troopers fire towards her trying to reached there I saw people taking out don’t know if she needed anything.
daughter Firdousa.
silence Hajira’s wails which only grow their dead bodies,” recalls Firdousa. May be she wanted to cry but could not
Younger son Aijaz started a business Mahajan was a favourite calligrapher
louder. And louder. pour out her heart,” Firdousa says.
and the family was planning to get him of eminent writers like Ghulam Nabi