Years later, in 1990, I compiled a report on girls, including a bride, gang-raped by soldiers in remote villages of Kupwara district. I spent days cross-checking their testimony. A beautiful 16-year-old in the idyllic village of Ballipora had sobbed, “Whenever someone mentions the army, I have palpitations.” This was a face of the forces I had never seen and was glad Dad wasn’t alive to see it either.

After the story was published, I received an anguished letter from the senior officer under whose command that area fell. It turned out he belonged to Dad’s regiment. He protested that my story would tarnish his career, adding that he was shocked that an army daughter could have written it. I replied that I had only done my duty as a journalist.

Postscript: The officer retired as a general.