“We wrapped her in thick blankets when winds blew in the Valley. But what she would now do in grave if she would feel cold there? Who will protect her from cold there?” he wondered.
[Umer Maqbool]
Samba, (Jammu): She had brought abundant joy to him in old age and for every moment he spent with her he was grateful for it. He could hardly bear being away from her and now it has been three months since his eight-year-old granddaughter has been gone and all that the 70-year-old grandfather Muhammad Qasim Pujwala cares to know is how the young girl must be protecting herself from the cold of the grave.
Eight years back when the girl, who was raped and murdered in Rassana in January this year, was born, the grandfather and the rest of the family covered the young child in a warm blanket to shield her against the bitter wind of the Warwan valley. “It was a cold day in the Valley where we were grazing our livestock. My daughter-in-law developed pain and gave birth to a baby,” said the grandfather with a haggard expression and moist eyes.
“We wrapped her in thick blankets when winds blew in the Valley. But what she would now do in grave if she would feel cold there? Who will protect her from cold there?” he wondered.
Sitting inside a three-room little house, in Nanak Chak, the grandfather and his wife, Biwi Jan, are still sore how could anyone bring themselves to rape and then murder an eight-year-old girl. “How the cruel men killed a tender soul like her? Didn’t they have any mercy on her innocence and cries?” ask the grandparents.
His love for the granddaughter was abundantly manifested one afternoon when Muhammad discovered that his daughter-in-law had given over the young girl to Yosouf Pujwala, her brother. Yosouf, in a tragic accident, had lost his three children in 2002 and touched by his situation the sister decided to give her one and a half year old daughter to him. But the grandfather would not listen to anyone and all he wanted was his granddaughter back.
Next morning, the daughter-in-law left for Rassana and brought the girl back from the foster parents. “In the next few days, few elders of our community came and pleaded with me to give baby to Yosouf so that he can bear the loss of three children. My neighbour Sainuddin also came to me and told me ‘you are Zalim (cruel) and if Yosouf can bear the loss of his three children, why cannot you bear the separation of your granddaughter for a few years. Now she has separated from us for ever,” said Muhammad.
It was six months ago that the couple, the grandfather and the grandmother, saw their granddaughter for what turned out to be the last time. “When they were returning from Kargil , she (the granddaughter) alongwith other womenfolk stopped at the house of the father of Yosouf’s wife, I also went there alongwith my wife and talked with her for 15- 20 minutes,” he said.
Old, weak and now weighed down by the grief of losing his young granddaughter, Muhammad says he doesn’t feel he can fight those men who raped and murdered his granddaughter. “I have come to know the accused are very powerful people and are backed by politicians and ministers. How can I fight with them? I am helpless and poor. But If I am asked what should be done to them, I will say they should be hanged publicly.”
Courtesy: GK
