Mine blast victim recounts dreadful day
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Abdul Salaam with his injured leg. Tribune photo: Anand Sharma

Guntriyaan-LoC (Poonch), January 19
A mine blast changed not only his life, but also of his family members. His two sons could not continue studies and though he had wished to get his four daughters education, poverty made him feel helpless. As adversity had it, his children had to work as labourer at an age when children of their age go to school.

Today, when Abdul Salaam recounts the day in 2000 when his right leg was blown up in the mine blast while he was on an assignment with the Army, tears well up in his eyes. After his leg was blown up in the blast while he was cutting a tree for constructing a bunker near the Line of Control (LOC), his dream for better life for his family members was also shattered.

“I still recollect the day when my right leg was blown up in the mine blast after I accidentally stepped on a mine. There was a blast and it changed my whole life. Like other parents, I also had a dream for my two sons and daughters. Though due to poverty my parents couldn’t send me even to primary school, I worked very hard to earn enough money to send at least three of my children to college. But the mine blast changed my life and my dream just remained a dream”, says 70-year-old Abdul Salaam with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Since I was the only bread winner in my family, after the blast my children had to work as labourers at a very tender age. I was hoping that the Army would come to my help since I was working as a porter for them, but it did nothing except giving me ration in these eight years. Even the state government did nothing for me”.

“Even as I suffered due to the mine blast, I hope our land near the LoC will be demined soon so that more people don’t suffer due to mine blasts”, Salaam hoped.

Residents of Kaiyaan and Shahpur villages said in each village along the LoC, of the 20 persons six or seven were mine blast victims. They added that a large number of people living in villages near the LoC had lost their limbs in mine blasts during the decades-old animosity between the two neighbouring countries.

In adjoining Shahpur village, consisting about 100 families, more than six villagers have lost their limbs due to mine explosions. These persons include brothers Muhammad Javed and Muhammad Aslam, farmer Fakir Muhammad, Qamar Din and many more.

In the neighbouring border village of Kaiyaan such victims include two sisters Noor Jehan and Sauleh Bi.

The Army authorities maintained that the mine blast victims had been compensated. However, they added that it was the Central government that had to take decision on demining.
A district administration officer said the Social Welfare Department paid monthly pension to the victims and in the majority of cases pension had been given to them.