Last summer Kashmir came to a standstill over the killing of a young terrorist called Burhan Wani, this May terrorists killed a young soldier but no one dared to protest. Both of them were Kashmiris born in the beautiful villages of Kashmir, one from Tral and the other belonging to Kulgam. Good-looking young men in their early twenties whose stylish photographs showed their zest for life but that’s where the comparison stops because while one chose to pose with guns and militants, the other sported an army uniform!
Life in Kashmiri villages used to be slow and simple with youngsters practicing their cricketing skills in the ample open spaces. Gradually, in the ’90s these batting strokes and bowling styles got replaced by pelting skills which were mastered by regular ‘practice’. It was in this kind of atmosphere that cricket heroes got replaced by Kalashnikov-wielding bearded militants in Pathan suits and many boys drifted into the flamboyance offered by defying the law while a handful quietly opted to follow the path less trodden in those parts. Our 23 year old Lt Umar Fayaz was one such Kashmiri.
While opting to join the army, perhaps he forgot that the Kashmir of today does not allow one the freedom of choice, there are people who decide what the youth must do and they brook no defiance. In a place where hartals cut short school and college calendars, where village schools are burnt down so that the youth are left with no choice but to submit to the ‘teachings’ of self-appointed ‘saviours’ of Kashmir, where stone-pelting and burning school-books and bags is the one thing, how could a sensible youth, who wanted to go forward in life, be spared?
There are people who say that he was serving as a doctor in the army while others claim that his parents deliberately spread rumors of his pursuing an MBBS course just to hide the fact that he was training in the NDA. Either way, nothing excuses the fact that he was denied the ‘azadi’ to live life on his own terms. What we do know is that he joined the army in December 2016 and was posted in Akhnoor near Jammu. He thus had the satisfaction of serving in his own State even while being secure, or that’s what the Army thought! This month, he decided to take a break and go back home to attend the wedding of a cousin. While he was at the wedding, some men came and called him outside, that was the last time Lt Umar Fayaz was seen alive.
Next morning, his bullet-ridden body was found lying by the wayside in Shopian. Nobody reported his disappearance, perhaps because the parents did not want to endanger his life by involving the police. In these villages, the unspoken fear of the renegades overpowers every other instinct. Not only did they kill the promising young man who defied their diktats, they tortured him to death! The dead body is said to have been badly mutilated, with several injuries.
And if this was not enough, while the last rites of the lad were being conducted there was stone-pelting! So while the funeral of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Burhan Wani was said to have been attended by thousands, the last journey of Umar Fayaz was marred by the deliberate disrespect of the deluded. This deplorable incident was reported by several local journalists and TV Channels but by evening, as the condemnation grew, some local ‘netas’ apparently realised the negative repercussions of this event. No human being, however misled, would condone pelting of stones at a funeral. And so, the damage control began.
Politicians denied the incident, reporters retracted their ‘Breaking News’, and News Channels conducted monosyllabic ‘interviews’ wherein the original report was denied. It was too late; there were too many people who had written about the deplorable incident!
There are two takeaways here, firstly this business of creating ‘role models’ and ‘poster boys’ by the media is too hackneyed and serves no purpose. Had our ‘Celeb-journalists’ been interested, the son of a farmer could easily have overtaken the headmaster’s son in terms of visual and mass appeal, but will that be enough to ensure that the Kashmiri youth swerve towards the right path? Secondly, the arrogance and cocksure assumptions of the ‘educated’ Kashmiris in the Valley notwithstanding, the heinous killing of one of their own and the subsequent misbehavior at the funeral, has shamed them. Had that not been so, why would they ‘deny’ the original reports which emanated from the Valley and twist the narrative, if not to cover up the uncivilized behavior of the pelters who have lost the sanity to distinguish between ‘Protest’ and grief. Unless they were blindly following orders issued over WhatsApp again!
The cruel way in which Lt Umar Fayaz ‘s life was cut short is a tragedy for all Indians, especially Kashmiris.
What an unforgivable act of bestiality — a soldier was killed not while fighting the enemy but at a time when he was off duty, unarmed and unaware. If his killing was meant to be a warning, let the army deal with those who dared to issue that threat. According to the media, the killers have been identified; the government and the army should not hesitate in apprehending them and showing no mercy.
That is the only answer that we can give to those who did not even have the decency to spare a martyr’s funeral!