Handwara (Kupwara), May 31
When the water seeped through the base of their boat crumbling it till it sank in the middle of the lake with all those on board, it seemed to be the end of everything for Rafida Majid, a Class IX student from this township of Handwara in north Kashmir. All that she could do spontaneously was to close her eyes and mouth in the gushing water and wave her hands for help. The little sober girl could not believe when she opened her eyes at the Sub-District Hospital, Sopore, to find doctors and others around her late last evening.
The Class IX student of Burning Candle High School, a private institution in this town, was among over 75 students with a few teachers who started for a picnic to the Wular Lake on Tuesday morning. But fate had something else in store for them. Tragedy struck a group of over 30 of them around 5 p.m., minutes before they were to start their return journey.
But the tiny township awaited the receipt of 17 corpses in the night, while search for others was still on.
The school premises on the Handwara-Baramula road was kept under police protection to avoid any possible resentment by the angry residents.
Awaiting the bodies of five more to be carried to this place this afternoon, this tiny township observed a spontaneous complete shutdown today mourning the death of the young ones. Those killed included 19 children, two teachers and a peon of the school. After the burial of seven young children at one place and four others at two different places, there were a series of protest demonstrations blaming the security forces for their “carelessness” leading to the tragedy.
The protesters raised anti-India and anti-security forces slogans demanding action against those whose laxity led to the tragedy.
“After all, why were civilian children allowed to board the Naval boat?” asked the residents here. According to officials, the children were allowed a joyride when they insisted after seeing such boats in the Wular Lake. However, many children like Rafida Majid and Fozia, who survived the tragedy, believe that students probably did not insist on the boat trip. “We were asked to board the boats and we did it gladly”, said Rafida, who is yet to come out of the shock.
“There could be a possibility of the insistence from the children, which many of them do not know”, said a parent.
Another Class X girl, Fozia Bashir is in a deep trauma, wailing and wishing the return of those children who accompanied her on the picnic. “It was free and children were happy”, Fozia comments. She was not among those who boarded the two rowing boats for the joyride, but watched these from the shore.
While it was smooth sailing for one, the other far away from the shore sank leading to the death of her schoolmates, both boys and girls. She is looking for the “return” of her two young cousins, Samreena Farooq (Class IX) and Sumaiya Farooq (Class VI), with whom she had been playing at home and going to the school, about a kilometre away from their home.
There is a little respite for Samreena and Sumaya’s father, Farooq Ahmad, whose another daughter, Sufaiya of Class V, survived.
