Wasim Khalid
Handwara: He claims to have buried over ‘1,000 martyrs’ during the past 15 years, served jail in 2008 for taking part in pro-freedom protests and was almost booked under the Public Safety Act. Yet, says Parvaiz Tantry , those are exactly the reasons why he voted for the first time in his life on Tuesday.
“I am a diehard azadi supporter,” 36-year old Tantry, head of the five-member committee volunteering for the burial of militants at Jannat-ul-Firdous martyrs’ graveyard, Handwara, said Tuesday. “I along with other committee members have been only burying dead rebels during the past 15 years. How can I forget them?”
“But we have been facing lot of oppression. I was jailed in 2008 by police for participating in pro-freedom demos. I was beaten and tortured. There was nobody to help me. The police was planning to book me under the Public Safety Act (PSA).”
Tantry said his father knocked the doors of a local politician seeking his release. The politician initially refused, he said, but finally agreed to help him. “I realized that I needed the blessing of a powerful politician to escape from the ‘zulm’ (oppression),” Tantry said.
“Today I voted for the same politician in this election,” Tantry said. “I know election is detrimental for the Kashmir cause. But I am helpless.”
Tantry, who teaches in a private school, said he and his four colleagues have buried 1,000 mutilated bodies in the martyrs’ graveyard. “I remember when we would receive burnt bodies of militants; sometimes we buried limbs only and sometimes broken skulls. It was terrible,” Tantry said. “We have taken the job of burying rebels voluntarily. We would collect animal hides on Eid-ul-Azha and zakat money to perform the last rites of the dead. Many a time army came and threatened us not to bury the dead militants in our graveyard. We resisted. The bodies, mostly unidentified, were probably of rebels who had come to fight to liberate us. How could we have abandoned them?”