Srinagar blast reveals how attuned Kashmiris are to death

Srinagar blast reveals how attuned Kashmiris are to death
IMTIYAZ BAKHSHI

SRINAGAR, DEC 26: A measure of how Kashmiris have learnt to live with death over 10 years of turmoil, was clearly visible at yesterday's blast at the entrance of the Army's 15 Corps Headquarters here, which left 10 killed and 25 others injured.

As the area, which falls on the busy national highway, was cordoned off after the massive explosion and vehicles and people were being frisked,many people were stranded.

Realising the plight of the stranded, most of whom were observing a fast and could not reach home in time to break it, residents of surrounding areasstood at their doors to offer dates, water and other refreshments as the iftaar time approached.

``Two contrasts, life and death. Dead bodies, blood and pieces of human flesh littered all over the place only metres away, and, in the neighbouring lanes and by-lanes, life goes on as usual with residents offering dates and water for the fasting milieu,'' said Parveen who, with her sister Mumtaz, was on the way home to Indira Nagar after purchasing Id essentials from Residency Road. Their bus was stopped at TRC Crossing and they had to walk home even as men in uniform swooped down on the site of the blast from all directions.

``Though the residents' gesture was touching, who could enjoy refreshments after seeing ghastly death from such a close range,'' Mumtaz's voice waschoked with emotion. ``This shows how cheap life has become in Kashmir. One minute you are alive and the next minute you are gone.''

Mumtaz isn't wrong. The damaged Sumo, carrying out-station Kashmiri students with their families, had three inmates less after the deafening explosion. Splinters hit those seated in the front and they soon succumbed to their injuries.

There was another body at Amira Kadal pavement, two kilometres from Corps Headquarters. Id shoppers at this business hub were busy shopping even as the body of one Bilal Ahmad Akhoon lay on the road after he was shot at from a close range. A few yards away, in the adjacent Budshah Chowk area, civilian vehicles swerved left to let seven to eight siren-raising fire-tenders pass as the latter sped off in the direction of Corps Headquarters to douse the flames in Auqaf Market opposite the blast site.

The turbulent years have assigned firemen in Kashmir an additional duty. ``Besides dousing the leaping flames, we also have to wash off all traces of human blood and pieces of flesh from the blast site,'' said a fireman at the Sonwar junction, pointing to the gravity of the tragedy that is life in Kashmir. He said he had not slept the previous night as ``the whole night we were up fighting a grim battle at Khanyar, putting out blazes in eight houses,'' he said.