[world-vedic] Muslims grieve for massacred Sikhs

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Muslims grieve for massacred Sikhs

By Rajat Pandit

 

ANANTNAG: If the killers wanted to create a rift between the two

communities, they appear to have failed miserably. Though tension gripped

the area after Monday night's massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chithi Singhpora

village, Kashmiriyat has prevailed over the religious divide.

 

``We have lived with Sikhs like brothers for decades...the `bhaichara' will

continue,'' says Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, a 55-year-old shopkeeper of

Ranbirpora village. Two kilometres away from Chithi Singhpora, Ranbirpora is

a village where about 95 per cent of the families are Muslim and the rest

Sikh.

 

Questions make the villagers immediately defensive. ``There is no militant

here,'' they promptly say. ``We don't know who was responsible for the

massacre, but we have already announced in our masjids that the incident was

wrong and unfortunate. Only the innocent common people suffer in the war

between militants and the `fauj','' says Rasool, a villager.

 

Adds Afeez, another resident, ``It was a shock for us. We never imagined

such a thing could happen.''

 

Though some young Sikhs are going around in the area shouting ``Joh Bole So

Nihaal'' and asking shopkeepers to down shutters, local Muslims are not

apprehensive of retaliation by the Sikhs. ``There is no problem here...we

have not been threatened by anyone,'' says Sajjad Ahmed, a student living in

Ranipora, which is about 4 km from Chithi Singhpora. ``We are like brothers

and go to each other's houses. Sometimes, we even eat together,'' he adds.

 

``We have nothing to fear from them. We live peacefully. Whoever fires the

bullets, it is we who die,'' says another student.

 

The police and security agencies, which were also taken by surprise by the

carnage, too do not fear retaliation as such. ``In the first few days, the

talk of retaliation was an emotional outburst. The Muslims in the area have

also expressed their sadness at the incident,'' says a senior police officer

of Anantnag district.

 

Most Sikhs are not talking revenge. ``We are sad, not angry. If there is

talk of migration, it is due to a sense of insecurity, not because of

trouble by local Muslims," says Devender Singh of Ranbirpora. ``We also want

to know who is responsible for the killing,'' adds Rasool.

 

Incidentally, five ``foreign'' militants were reportedly killed in an

encounter with security agencies barely 20 km from Chithi Singhpora on

Saturday. The police suspect they were among the group that was responsible

for the massacre.

 

The police are also trying to strengthen the security in the 150 or so

places in Kashmir where some 80,000 Sikhs live. ``Pickets have come up in 65

places. In some, Sikhs and Muslims have come forward to say they do not want

the pickets,'' says a senior police officer.

 

Several Sikh leaders said vested interests were trying to create problems

between the two communities. They have also decried moves by the government

to ask Sikhs to join village defence committees.

 

Be that as it may, the authorities have decided to form a model defence

committee in Chithi Singhpora. The residents of this ill-fated village have,

however, left any move to the collective decision the community will take on

March 31.

 

 

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