Rediff On The NeT: The land of the waking dead

The land of the waking dead

The natives are returning to Kargil. Three days after death and destruction rained on them from across the border, the residents are coming back to salvage whatever they can of their old lives.

And as the exodus ebbs in, the sight that meets the eye is a horrifying one. For, Kargil isn't the Himalayan beauty it once was -- no, not even a ghost of its previous self.

It is the land of the waking dead now, a shambles. Where shell-shocked people are slowly waking to painful realities and, with fear writ large on their faces, struggle to start all over again...

Rediff On The NeT brings an eyewitness account of the sights.

Footwear, scores of abandoned footwear, heaped all over. On the sidewalks, in front of crumbled buildings, on roads, everywhere...

This is Kargil's main street, the heart of the town. The Chachik Masjid, the district hospital and the Tibetan refugee -- sites which took most of the pounding -- are all close by.

On both sides, we see crumbled buildings. And, also, skeletons of buildings, with walls and roofs partially blown off. Look more closely and you can see blood. Coagulated to a dirty brownish-red, it makes a curious patch on that still-standing wall -- as if someone had been physically picked up and pounded into the wall till red flowed. Down on the floor, there is more of it, forming dried puddles. We move on.

"What is that?"

The voice has brimming horror in it, and our attention is drawn to another wall, this one of the damaged mosque. We move closer and are served with a stark reminder of the death which came just after the zohar namaz -- pieces of human flesh sticking to the wall. Two namazis, we are informed, had been seriously hurt when shells hit the adjacent building.

We move on towards the markets. Contrary to official claims, most of the shops are closed. Both the Tibetan and the Rowati markets are littered with debris and shop articles. We get to talk to three of the local population here.

"Kargil was targeted because we are against militancy," they claim. "We are Shia Muslims and do not allow terrorism to gain a foothold here."

Major General P K Ranjan, the commander of the infantry division, confirms this view, and puts forward another two reasons for the incident. According to him, this was one way the Pakistan military, whenever it felt power slipping out of its hands, restored its hold over national politics.

"The last unprovoked shelling was on April 9, when Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamsad Ahmed was in New Delhi for the first round of secretary-level talks. Similarly, the September 30 firing came just after the prime ministers expressed their desire to ease tensions," he points out.

Another reason was that the Paks wanted to push nearly 200 trained terrorists into India. The shelling could have been a diversionary tactic.

''We shall not initiate firing," the general says, " But if fired upon we will, retaliate in appropriate measure. And in no case shall we pound civilian targets...''

We return to the streets and walk on, chronicling more of death and destruction. The natives were still returning.

UNI

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