Five months have passed since paratrooper Shabir Ahmad Malik died fighting militants in the high mountains of Kupwara. Majid jahangir speaks of the family’s struggle to lead a normal life

In a nondescript village in Dab in Ganderbal district, a narrow path leads to a single-storey mud-and-brick house. Here lives the family of Shabir Ahmad Malik—a paratrooper commando who died in Kupwara fighting Pakistani infiltrators in March this year. 

It seems like nothing has changed for the family as it busies itself with daily chores. You still hear people calling out for Shabir. For, Malik’s elder brother Ghulam Mohammad has named his baby after him.

“When the baby was born, I instantly decided to call him by my brother’s name. When we call the baby Shabir, we feel a bit relaxed,” says Ghulam, a school teacher. “But how can the family forget the soldier who died? He is still in our heart and minds.”

The family says that in the last five months they have tried to act like a normal family. However, the soldier’s mother Raja Bano says, “The scar of my son’s death cannot be healed. I will always miss him and nothing can bring me solace.”

Even as a child, Shabir Malik harboured dreams of joining the army. “He was a brilliant boy. After completing Class XII, his ambition was to continue studying. But the family’s economic condition forced him to look for a job. He joined the forces at one of their recruitment rallies in 2007,” says Mohammad.

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