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| On day of devastating flood in Tawi, death threat revisited Hajra 20 yrs after ultras cut her breasts | | |  Bharat Bhushan
JAMMU, Sept 9: All are aware of the nightmarish situation that developed in the region over the past week due to the record rains that heavily flooded rivers and other water bodies in the state. The mighty swollen waters of Tawi Saturday morning caused extensive damage to the 4th bridge on it and nearly washed away half the bridge that connects Satwari with 45 Phalan Mandal villages across the river.
The crumbling of a part of the 4th bridge and its approach road from the Ware House side led to the fear of washing away of the nearby Doda migrants' basti. The gushing flood waters were now hitting the giant bund between the river and the basti. As water started spilling over to this side of the bund, though in very small quantities, everyone in the basti was running for safety. But for the old and freak Hajra Begum (70), it was the revisit of the frightening experience she had 20 years back when she lived in the far-flung Tenka Trigam village of Banihal along with her husband Khuda Baksh and two siblings.
She left her Tenka Trigam home in September 1994 due to the fear of militants. While fleeing her second home at migrants' basti Saturday last, the nightmarish 1994 experience revisited her, she said while talking to this scribe.
"While running along with my family members towards a government school building at Satwari to save ourselves from the flood waters, I was reminded how we had fled Tenka Tregam 20 years back to save ourselves from militants. Tears rolled down my eyes while thinking of the 1994 gory scene. Militants had killed my husband and chopped off both my breasts because they suspected us to be police informers. I somehow survived by jumping into a pond. I was rescued by army after three days and admitted to Banihal hospital. After that, I migrated to Jammu and since then I have never been to my real home," she said.
"Running away from home to save life has been a very painful experience for me. I don't want floods to snatch away from me my second home. Let the government make a strong and high bund here to stop the river water from entering the basti whenever there were floods of the same magnitude in future," Hajra said.
Though the flood water did not enter the basti, the unprecedented rains do caused damage to many kacha and pakka houses there. The one-room kacha house of Shadi Lal, who had migrated from Thandapani Chadota, Doda, after the killing of his brother's son by militants 15 years back, has developed cracks all over.
He appealed to the authorities concerned to provide him some sort of help as he did not have any money to spend on the repair of his one-room house. He is a labourer by profession.
Hajra's son Ghulam Nabi, who was given a job by the government in 2004 in PHE department under SRO 43, is a supervisor now. He thanked then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for giving him a government job on compassionate ground.
"Before the Mufti, Farooq Abdullah was J&K Chief Minister. I had approached him too for the job but he had returned me with the suggestion to do the job of a labour. We migrants have no hope of any kind from NC-led government," he said.
Meanwhile, due to the washing away of the Phalan Mandal bridge, at least 45 villages on its other side have been totally cut off from the rest of the state. Many houses in these villages were said to have suffered extensive damages in rains and floods. |
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