Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): It was 1 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and eight-year-old Ziyan was playing with his three cousin brothers in the lawns of their house at Timuna-Vilgam villages of Chowkibal area in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Suddenly, the deafening sounds of exploding shells led to a commotion as the children and adults at the house ran for safety. Pakistani troops had started heavy shelling and Ziyan, along with his cousin brothers also tried to run towards a safe place. But he was hit by a splinter and within no time, blood started oozing out from the back of his head as he fell on the ground.
“Maa mujhay lagi (mother I am hit),” were the last words of Ziyan—the youngest victim of Pak shelling along the LoC—before landing in the lap of his mother. His mother tried to clean the blood from the head of her son but the wound was very deep. She kept cleaning the blood amid cries and shrieks, but little Ziyan had breathed his last.
“It was a deep wound on Ziyan’s head. I tried to clean the blood on his head with my head scarf,” said Naziya, 30, Ziyan’s mother, in a shocked voice. “I thought he is alive. I cleaned his face too. I shouted repeated Ziyan, Ziyan, open your eyes, but he was no more.”
She said Ziyan was her only son and only hope. “When shelling intensified on Sunday afternoon, I called him to come inside the house. When he was hit, he was pushed back by his father towards the main door of our house. In between, my husband also was hit in his hand with a splinter.”
Naziya said that she didn’t care for her husband who was bleeding from his hand profusely but tried her best to get hold of her son and check the nature of the injury. “A big splinter had got stuck in my son’s head. He died in my lap. I can never forget that horror, never in my life,” said Naziya as tears filled her eyes.
While Naziya was being consoled by her relatives for the death of her son, shocking news was waiting for her. Naziya’s husband and Ziyan’s father Bashir Ahmed Kataria, who was admitted in a Srinagar hospital for grave injuries to his hand was told by the doctors that one of his fingers was completed damaged and needs to be amputated.
“On Wednesday, doctors at the Bone and Joints Hospital Srinagar amputated Bashir’s finger,” said Majeed Ahmed Kataria, Bashir’s brother.
Majeed was also present in the lawns of his house, which is next to his brother Bashir’s hosue, when shelling intensified and a splinter hit Ziyan in his head.
“I fell flat on ground and saw my brother Bashir asking Ziyan to enter home. When Ziyah rushed to his house, he was hit badly. In between, my brother Bashir was also hit,” said Majeed amid sobs.
Majeed said heavy shelling by Pakistan didn’t allow them to take Ziyan to a medial facility. “We didn’t get the time at all as shelling was so intense. Ziyan was in his mother’s lap for 15 minutes. Even after he succumbed, his mother wasn’t leaving him and she kept on saying her son is alive…,” said Majid.
On Sunday (April 12), Chowkibal area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district witnessed intense shelling by Pakistan army that left three civilians dead including a woman, an 18-year-old youth and 8-year old Ziyan.
