Working against all odds

ARNAS PIR PANCHAL, OCT 25: The rattling 32-kilometre stretch from Arnas to Mahore may have been converted into a motorable road, but the...

ARNAS PIR PANCHAL, OCT 25: The rattling 32-kilometre stretch from Arnas to Mahore may have been converted into a motorable road, but the labourers, who worked day and night to achieve this feat, still continue to have a rough deal. The hurdles are not the boulders or the land slides that often wash away the track, but the non-payment of their wages for the past two years.

What has evidently kept these 1,000-odd labourers going is hope.8220;Every time we have met an Executive Engineer, Public Works Department PWD, he has given us an assurance that next month they will be getting enough funds to clear our wages,8221; said Abdul Gani Beigh, a labourer.

And now almost two years later none of the labourers working on this track, have got their wages. Many of them were killed by the land slides and some fell victim to militants8217; bullets. It was their working with the Army that led militants to suspect the labourers of acting as informers for the security forces.

One of the labourers, while ramming a cudgel to level the road, informed that earlier this year, militants barged into the house of one Abdul Gani and shot him. Before fleeing, they pinned a paper on which was written Mukhbir informer.

8220;His only fault was that he worked with the Army to keep the home fire stoked. And they militants took him as an informer and killed him. There was no ex gratia and even his family members were not paid the wages for the days he worked,8221; said an enraged labourer.

What hurts these labourers from the Mahore-Reasi belt is the fact that no one from the administration is bothered about their plight. 8220;When a Hindu is killed, there is furore all over the country. Why are similar sentiments not shown over the killing of Muslims? Go through the police records and you will find that except a few massacres like that of Prankot, where Hindus were targeted, most of the times Muslims have been at the receiving end of the bullets of militants,8221; said Abdul Jabbar, a resident of Mahore, a village on the foothills of Pir Panchal.

8220;There is a feeling that every Muslim is a militant. Under such conditions, alienation will increase and militants will try to exploit it,8221; Jabbar added.

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Major G M Khan, with the 494 Company of Field Company of Engineers, incharge of the maintenance and construction of the Arnas-Mahore said that many a times, he feels bad seeing the poverty-stricken labourers made to work without wages. 8220;Other than offer moral support, we cannot do anything. All of them are employed by the PWD. We are just assisting them to keep the road open throughout the year,8221; maintained Major Khan.

Interestingly, Jhumman Khan, another labourer from Aqsal village, who has also not received his wages, which amounts to Rs 35 per day, for the past 16 months, has now started bringing his 15-year-old son Khurshid to work with him on the track.

When asked, what led Jhumman to make his son also work with him when he was aware that he would not be paid, he replied, 8220;At least, he will remain in front of my eyes.8221; The village Jhumman belongs to has only one middle school that stays closed because of non-availability of staff. Many like Jhumman, in order to prevent their children from getting lured by the militants, prefer to make them work along with them.

With no money and the constant fear of landslides, for these labourers, it8217;s a brush with death every day. The only consolation for father and son working together seems to be that they are trudging the same road.