Only thing he could lay hand was a blanket but it was too pockmark
By News Agency of Kashmir
Margi (Kishtwar) : In the pitch dark night when the entire village had become a pool of fire amidst shrills and screams of poverty-stricken villagers, his heart came into his mouth after he realized that his minor daughter was missing.
Amidst chaos Ghulam Ali hurriedly rushed back to the village in a hope trace his only daughter Haneefa.
Caring little about his life Ghulam rushed back jumping few fires to reach to his house and desperately searched Haneefa, his only daughter.
However, he could not trace Haneefa in his house and realizing that blaze has started assuming dangerous form, he unwillingly moved to a safer place watching haplessly the nightmare.
Before rushing out Ghulam Ali thought that he would try and save some household items that may become handy to brave the harsh winter ahead.
All he could lay his hands on was a blanket and Ghulam thought it to be a prized catch to ward off the chill but when he looked at the blanket it was pockmarked.
Still concerned about his daughter the poor man along with few of his friends started searching Haneefa.
Having lost his world within no time Ghulam Ali was desperate to know the fate of his daughter.
Others, who were searching the girl, gave up thinking that she might have died in the fire. They also tried to pacify Ghulam advising him to search his daughter in the morning.
However, being a caring father, an unrelenting Ghulam kept on searching the girl all through the night and next morning when some other villagers joined him in his quest, Haneefa was sighted in a neighbouring village.
The little girl had run out of panic to save her life and in a state of shock kept on running till she reached other village.
Though he had celebrated this year’s Eid with his petty savings along with his wife and daughter but the morning of October 23 when he spotted Haneefa in other village, he felt over the moon and thanked God for saving his daughter.
Both Ghulam and his wife wept bitterly hugging their daughter time and again.
Like Ghulam there were several other villagers who villagers rushed out of their houses to save their lives and they tried to pick up anything they can lay their hands on during the incident.
Ghulam Ali told News Agency of Kashmir (NAK) that on October 22 night at around 10.30 PM the fire started all of a sudden from a house in the heart of the village and within not time the blaze engulfed the entire village.
It may be mentioned here that Margi village in remote area of Wadwan in Kishtwar usually remains cut off from the rest of world for nine months during winter.
Though village usually witness snowfall from the month of September but this year it has not started as yet but that doesn’t mean the chill of winter is missing.
The village remains snow-bound for nine months in a year, for which people stock food and fodder before the onset of winter.
He said, “Helped by strong winds the fire soon engulfed the entire village and amidst chaos my only daughter went missing.”
“It was a hellish experience for me. I kept searching her for the entire night with apprehensions that she might have perished in the fire. But thank God we traced her from an adjoining village this morning. I have lost everything but I thank God for saving my daughter,” he said.
“We had stocked eatables and fodder for our cattle but everything was destroyed in the fire,” he added.
The village largely consisted of wooden structures and the winds helped the inferno turning it (village) into a pile of ashes in no time.
Another villager Ghulam Nabi said that he was the first to witness the fire starting from a big house of one Mohammed Ramzan, who had been living in other house in the same village.
“Though I raised an alarm and the villagers rushed out of their houses to save their lives but they could not save their belongings as fire helped by strong winds quickly spread to the entire village,” he said.