Ashfaq Wani
A single-story modest house is located on the banks of a small stream in Dachan village of Budgam district. A muddy narrow track from the main road leads you to this house where 70-year-old Ghulam Hassan Wani and his eight other family members are sobbing, shrieking, and suddenly crying loud as they spot the visitors to their home.
For over a week, the family is receiving a number of neighbors, relatives and well-wishers amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to share their grief and anguish.
On May 26, the younger son of family Mohammad Asif Wani along with his friends had gone to the TosaMaidan meadow-25 kilometers from his village on an excursion. Little they knew the fate has had something different in the store. In the deep woods, Asif accidentally landed over an unexploded shell injuring him critically while his four other friends received minor injuries.
“We learned about this tragedy at around 3 pm. He was rushed to the local SDH and later referred to SKIMS, Soura for specialized treatment, says Haja, his mother.” Rest we know nothing about the incident.”
Riyaz Ahmad, a local social activist says that Asif is grievously injured and they have received no positive news from the doctors treating upon him. “His brain is damaged. He is in the Intensive Care Unit. We are praying for his recovery. But we are not as optimistic as of now,” he told The Legitimate since he was one among the many local volunteers helping out the family to evacuate Asif for the treatment.
“Asif has fragments of exploded shell wedged inside his brain, said Sheikh Maqbool, his brother-in-law. “Asif underwent surgery and doctors tried to eliminate the metal object out of his brain due to which some part of his brain came out during the surgery,” he said.
Asif, what his mother, Haja calls him an obedient and loving son had set a small electronic workshop at home.
“He was like an engineer. He made an aircraft that was flying, batteries, and many other devices out of scrap left at home. We were sure his brilliance someday will elevate us from the poverty, but…..,” she sighs.
The treatment of Asif is proving unaffordable for his family and so far some donations have made it possible. Ghulam Hassan has seven children and the eldest one is manual labour. Two of his daughters are married; the other two along the youngest son are admitted to a nearby government school.
Alongside the donations, the remaining cost of the treatment is provided by one of the son in law, Mohammad Maqbool, a teacher by profession. Initially, after the incident, the local administration had sent a Rs 10000 cheque through the local Sarpanch. However, the family refused the inadequate aid and demanded that the cost of the treatment is much higher.
“Each day we need to shell of around Rs 15000 for his treatment. A cheque of Rs 10000 was a joke and an adding salt to the injury. I wonder what is being taught to our officers in the books they read to crack civil service exams. Is there any subject of humanity in their syllabus so that they could understand the pain of common people,” Mohammad Maqbool rues?
Later, the administration increased the relief cheque to Rs 50000 which the family accepted as an immediate relief. But Dr. Raja Muzaffer Bhat, RTI Convener, and social activist demands a job and adequate compensation to the family. Dr. Muzaffer is pursuing his case at the administrative level and is at the forefront in demanding compensation for all the victims of unexploded shells at Tosa Maidan.
“The government offered Rs 50000 cheque only after we highlighted the family’s plight through newspapers and social media. Initially, they were unmoved,” he says.
“But we are not ready to settle down here. We will fight for Asif and his family along with all the Tosa Maidan victims who were injured or have died due to unexploded shells. They suffered because of the government’s negligence.”
Tosa Maidan – The Beauty & The Beast
Pic: TimeTravel
Kashmir’s picturesque TosaMaidan has served as an artillery training field for the army for many decades. Given to ecological concerns and its unending pastures, the locals demanded the shifting of the base to some other location in 2008. Scores of people have been injured or lost their lives while grazing their cattle in summers in the vicinity. While the army was unwilling to shift the range form TosaMaidan initially, it eventually agreed in 2014.
Operation Fallah
As part of understanding with the civil administration, the army began Operation Fallah (welfare) to clean the meadow from unexploded shells before declaring it as a safe zone for the civilian movement. The civil administration began to develop the area as a tourist spot and locally hundreds of people in summers visit the splendid meadow. Following this latest incident of Asif, the safety of civilians in the deep woods of Tosa Maidan has yet again been under questioning. Since 2014, when the army vacated the area, there have been many such incidents.
“The place has been vacated by the army that doesn’t mean it is secure for now. We have to ensure that every shell lying in the area is removed properly and people shall have no fear in venturing out,” says Dr. Muzaffar.
“The then firing range in PirPanjal had become a death trap. Around 70 people have died in the meadows of TosaMaidan, and more than 150 people have lost their limbs due to the explosions, the reason being the presence of unexploded shells in the area”.
Ironically, in 2016 the state government organized a 3 days Tosa Maidan festival inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Following the festival, the place was officially thrown open for the tourists.
Meanwhile, as this incident happened, some people began to criticize Asif on social media for violating lockdown norms and travelling all the way 25 kilometers to this meadow.
Source: Family
But the locals say that Asif didn’t violate the social distancing norms as they were in open space. However, they reminded their relation with the woods in Tosa Maidan for decades.
Dachan is a poor village administratively controlled by the Beerwah Constituency represented by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. The village, however, is politically represented by Hakim Mohammad Yasin of Khan Sahib Constituency. Given to this dual control of the village, it lacks the socio-economic development. The Kacha roads, modest houses, and muddy lanes amply display its poverty.
Hundreds of families in the summers are moving their cattle and livestock to the meadows for grazing purposes. Livestock is the basic staple of their economy while 60 per cent of people are Kashmiri chefs preparing wazwan at marriages and other functions in Srinagar and other districts of central Kashmir. Even very few people in the village have government jobs.
“Tosa Maidan and its adjoining forest range is our lifeline. We are grazing cattle and livestock here and sell them in the market for our survival. We have to go there for our survival, even if it costs our lives,” the locals say in unison.
