In Pulwama suicide bomber’s village, people ‘don’t vote, they never have’

Pulwama suicide bomber Adil Dar's father says they still haven't received even a single body part of their son, so they buried a shirt.

File photo of security personnel at the site of suicide attack in Pulwama | PTI

Srinagar: As masked youths disrupted polling in Pulwama district in the volatile region of south Kashmir Monday, not a single vote was cast till 1 pm in the eerily silent village of the suicide bomber who had killed 40 CRPF personnel in February.

Gandibagh village is the home of Adil Dar, who came to be known as the ‘Pulwama suicide bomber’ after he rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a bus carrying the soldiers in Pulwama district on 14 February.

Violent clashes between civilians and security forces went on throughout the day, outside Gandibagh village.

Dar’s father Ghulam Hassan says, “We don’t vote, we never have, no one votes here, but we don’t stop others from voting. If anyone wants to (vote), they can, but will there be a solution to the madness we see in Kashmir anytime soon? I don’t know”.

Adil Dar’s grave in Pulwama | Azaan Javaid / ThePrint

‘There was no body’

Three months have passed since the attack, but Dar’s family is yet to receive a single body part of their 19-year-old son from the security forces. The family, eventually, buried a shirt that Dar used to wear at a graveyard in the village.

“There was no body. Nothing was left of him, we were told. But a grave for him was necessary,” said Ghulam Hassan. “So I took out his shirt from his almirah and buried the same. We followed all the Islamic traditions.”

Ghulam Hassan and his wife Fahmeeda say they are unable to come to terms with their son’s death because they never got to see “the last of Adil”.

According to the standard operating procedures followed by security forces after every counter-insurgency operation, bodies of local militants killed in gun battles are always returned to the families. The returning of the bodies has even become a ceremony in itself, which is marked by massive funeral, gun salutes by other militants and sloganeering.

‘Only a memory’

Adil’s tombstone in the village graveyard reads: “Adil Ahmed Dar urf Waqas Commando. DOM (Date of martyrdom) 14 February 2019, POM (Place of martyrdom) Lethpora”.

“It is not easy to visit an empty grave. Ask a father,” said Ghulam Hassan.

His wife said: “There is no one there, in that grave. Only a memory”.