A WEEL AFTER

The Sunday Express goes back to the house in Chinore, Jammu, where militants held eight members of a family hostage for over 17 hours. A week later, the scars of terror run deep

The Sunday Express goes back to the house in Chinore, Jammu, where militants held eight members of a family hostage for over 17 hours. A week later, the scars of terror run deep
BIRO Devi is obsessed with the main gate. The frail 70-year-old steps out every few hours to check if the thick iron lock is in place before hobbling back into the bullet-riddled house. That morning on August 27, when three armed militants barged in and held eight members of the family hostage for 17 hours, the gate was left open.

Last Wednesday had begun early for Biro Devi8217;s family. The children were with their tutor and the women were busy with their household chores. At the crack of dawn, the militants barged in, spraying bullets and taking the entire family hostage8212;except for Biro Devi8217;s older son Billu Ram Bhagat who was away in hospital after a snake bite. The militants also overpowered the tutor, Ashok Kumar, and Sandeep Singh Chib, a neighbour who reached there after hearing the commotion. What followed were a chilling 17 hours during which the terrorists screamed and abused the hostages. Outside, the security forces engaged the militants in a fierce encounter, at the end of which tutor Ashok Kumar and neighbour Chib were killed. A military intelligence personnel, Sham Murari, was also killed. The family was safe but scarred.

Today, a week after guns boomed in this neighbourhood in Chinore, Biro Devi is all alone, left to obsess over the gate and the family that8217;s not with her. Her daughter-in-law is in hospital with a bullet injury, son Billu Ram is in hospital attending to her, and her younger son is away at his wife8217;s house, too scared to return. But she worries most for her grandchildren8212;nine-year-old Sheetal, seven-year-old Arshan, Kajal who is four and the youngest, three-year-old Vipin. The children are away at a relative8217;s and scarred by the hostage drama and the killings.

Those 17 hours haunt Biro Devi all day8212;she says she is too traumatised to even eat. 8220;Neighbours bring me food. But how can I eat when I am so tense? Most of the times, the food stays untouched,8221; she says.
Back in the hospital, Biro Devi8217;s son Billu Ram, who is attending to his wife Sunita Devi in hospital, says he too is worried for the children. They watched in horror as the militants shot dead teacher Ashok Kumar and Sham Murari, a military intelligence personnel who confronted the militants inside their house. They were made to sit on the floor by the side of their injured mother for over 17 hours, hungry and thirsty, their clothes stained with blood. All through this, the terrorists kept slapping and threatening to kill them if they wept.

Away at their maternal grandparents8217; house in Smailpur, the children are withdrawn, says Billu Ram who visits them every day. Gone are the carefree cackles and the fierce squabbles that kept them busy. These days, they cling to a relative and turn away at the mention of home.
The nearby DD Public School in Chinore reopened three days ago after the Amarnath agreement. However, Billu Ram8217;s three older children don8217;t want to go to school now that their teacher Ashok Kumar is no more. 8220;The children were very close to their tutor Ashok. He had gone home to Bhaderwah for Raksha Bandan. I told him to come after Janamasthmi on August 24. But he came three days earlier on August 22, saying he was happiest teaching,8221; says Billu Ram.

To get the children to get over bloody Wednesday, Billu Ram has stopped bringing them to their mother in the hospital. 8220;The children are very upset. I once left Kajal asleep on the hospital bed. When a stool fell nearby, she panicked and fell off the bed. I won8217;t get them to hospital anymore. They haven8217;t been able to forget,8221; says Billu Ram.
For now, with just a week after the attack, the scars are too deep and memories too painful for any of them to forget.