Pak ultras wanted food, smart phone
JHAJJARKOTLI/DHIRTHI (REASI): A chill runs down the spine of 90-yearold Ishwar Dass Khajuria, his 55-year-old son Sudershan Khajuria and other family members, comprising women and children, as they recalled how three AK-47 wielding militants in their early 20s with backpacks, appeared at their house at 8pm on Wednesday and remained there till 9.30pm.
“They spoke Hindi and Punjabi like us. They wanted something to eat. When we told them that dinner was yet to be cooked and offered to do so, they refused. We gave them four packets of biscuits and apples,” Ishwar Dass said.
“They asked my eldest son to arrange a vehicle because they wanted to go to Srinagar but we expressed our inability at that hour. Then they wanted to know if there was any mosque in the village or if any Muslim family resided in the vicinity. We told them there was neither any mosque nor Muslim family in this village,” Dass said.
“They showed us their torn and wet clothes and asked us to give them some clothes. We gave them pyjamas,” he said.
One of Dass’ daughters-in-law, Geeta Devi, fainted on seeing the gun-wielding militants in the house. One of them checked her pulse and asked other family members to give her water, he said.
“They were courteous initially. They said they had come from Pakistan and had been travelling for three days. While leaving, they told us not to disclose anything else we would be killed,” said the elderly man, who retired from the defence services decades ago.
The militants wanted a smart phone and said the outdated phones of the family were of no use to them. They asked the family to switch off the lights but neighbours had come to know about their presence by then, Dass said.
Sudershan said while leaving, the militants wanted to take his brother, Abhishek, hostage but the family refused and surprisingly they didn’t object before disappearing into the jungle.
Raj Kumar of Dhirthi also had a nightmarish experience on Thursday morning when the militants barged into his house at 10am and asked his wife to give them food to eat.
Kumar was working in his fields in front of the house when he saw the militants talking to his wife. Showing presence of mind, he gestured his wife to leave the house along with their three children. Thereafter, he went out on the pretext of bringing the food. He called up the village numberdar, Balwant Singh.
“By then security forces had reached the house and a gunfight ensued in which one of the three militants was killed,” Singh said.