ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Memories of a bloody April night...

Twelve-year-old Sudesh isn't sure whether she is lucky or not. She is yet to decide which is worse: Escaping death at the hands of militants, or being forced to live with memories of her entire family being massacred right in front of her eyes.

For this little girl from Prankot village in Udhampur district, currently under treatment at the Jammu medical college, the night of April 17 cannot be forgotten -- that's when militants gunned down 18 members of her family.

Sudesh was brutally attacked with a sharp-edged weapon. The militants left after she fell unconscious, thinking her dead.

When she regained consciousness after midnight she found herself drenched with blood, flowing from a deep head wound. The first thing she saw as she staggered out was her father Maniram's body. Her other relatives, except for mother Vidya Devi, were all lying around the house -- drenched in blood, dead.

The terrified girl ran out of the house, and bumped into someone. Here fate was kind to her -- it was her mother, who had cheated death by hiding on the roof with two other children, aged five and three. Vidya Devi said she was knocked out when she fell off from there.

"When I fainted the militants thought I had died. They left after setting the house on fire. When I regained consciousness I began searching for my children. All three were alive. I tied a dupatta around Sudesh's head to stem the flow of blood and started running with them towards Pauni,'' she said.

Soba Ram is another survivor of that bloody night. The militants killed eight members of his family. Only his second wife Rajkumari, their newborn child and two daughters, aged eight and five, who were in another village, escaped them.

Meanwhile, Prankot and neighbouring villages continue in the grip of fear. About 1,000 people from these villages are in Pauni and Riyasi, staying in temporary camps. They are too terrified to return as they fear militants would attack again, and it takes a long time for the police to reach Prankot.

Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, for his part, has announced the villagers would be provided weapons and arms training before they return. The government also announced free rations for a month to them.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report