Express spends the day with soldiers near Kaman post

Havaldar Yoginder Malik is injured everywhere. One foot is fractured, another has a deep wound and a large bloodstain is visible through several layers of bandage. A platoon commander of Border Security Force’s Dullanja post right at the Line of Control, it took Malik two days to claw through the earth and the stones to emerge alive.

He says the quake turned the bunker into a death trap. Then he starts crying. ‘‘I saw two of my colleagues die. I thought this is the end. The faces of my two children were in front of my eyes.’’

Those eyes are now counting themselves lucky. For, perched on a hilltop not far from the devastated Dullanja post across the Jhelum is a Gurkha Rifles post. Along with its 20 soldiers, it fell 2000 feet down, straight into the river. Until this afternoon, not one of the dead have been recovered. No one’s looking—there is simply no time.

Preoccupied by a massive rescue and relief effort, the Army here has just one priority: saving lives. And survivors in at least a dozen villages, stranded and devastated, have countless anecdotes to tell.

Of how choppers are making dozens of sorties to the helipad at Udoosa—the last village on the Line of Control—to transport the seriously injured to Uri and Srinagar.

Of how an Army doctor, Lt Bidhan Chandar, treks for an hour every morning up in the hills to Guvalta, a severely hit village. How he has set up a medical camp and has treated more than 500 villagers in the last two days. ‘‘There is such a rush that it seems no villager has escaped unhurt,’’ Chander says. He has to walk down to stay in a small hut at Udoosa because ‘‘there is nowhere to spend nights in Guvalta.’’

The 7 Dogra, a regiment deployed along the LoC, has suffered huge losses. Their bunkers lie in ruins. But the soldiers say they have no time to mourn. ‘‘There is so much sadness here. And helping the villagers has kept us so busy that we can’t even think of who we have lost,’’ says a jawan, who introduced himself as Yogesh. ‘‘Our company lost four. There were 15 injured.’’

He recalls how an injured woman was crying in pain. ‘‘She asked for water. There was none. So I took her to the stream and put a few drops into her mouth but she died,’’ says Yogesh. ‘‘When I returned to the bunker, my colleagues were writhing in pain.’’

Capt. Alok’s expression has a deceptive calm given that he had two near-miracle escapes. ‘‘I can’t even express what happened. I was on my way to Chakus village up in the hills. Suddenly, the mountains trembled. It was as if our vehicle was being tossed on a springboard…I saw Guvalta village crumble in front of my eyes. I saw our own bunkers getting crushed under mounds of earth. It was hell.’’

Standing next to him is another officer, Major Rajesh R of 56 Rashtriya Rifles. ‘‘The mountains began to move and there was a storm of dust. For half hour, I could see nothing, not even the man next to me,’’ he recalls. ‘‘We don’t think of anything now. We are just thankful that the earth beneath our feet is not moving.’’

Captain Alok had another close shave when he went on an impossible trek to reach his colleagues trapped beneath the rubble in Kaman Post that stands right next to the Aman Setu. ‘‘There were landslides everywhere as I walked. But I had to go and see my boys,’’ he says. ‘‘Kaman Post is in shambles. Everything is shambles.’’

He doesn’t talk of how many of his men have perished there but he constantly mentions Shabir, a local porter, who was buried alive near the post. ‘‘I have no words to console his Shabir’s mother. She came twice looking for her son,’’ he says. ‘‘She can’t believe her son is dead and I don’t know how to tell her.’’ The troops call Capt. Alok as the ‘‘Tiger of Kaman’’—he was the one who walked to the post as the rocks rained around him.

‘‘The post of 1/9 GR Garhwal Rifles came down in front of my eyes,’’ he recalls, looking ahead where the bodies of Border Road labourers are still being dug out.

Visiting quake-hit J038;K, PM Manmohan Singh says it ‘‘will be treated as a national calamity’’; announces additional relief grant of Rs 500 crore
Says destruction across LoC far more severe, offers help of Army for rescue ops in remote PoK areas
Puts J038;K at 1300 dead, 4,500 injured, one lakh homeless; meets some injured at Srinagar hospital
On demand for restoration of communication links with PoK, says ‘‘I see merit in this. I will talk to Telecom’’

—Muzaffar Raina in Srinagar, Majid Jahangir in Uri

Mail the author at muzamiljaleelyahoo.com

Love in olive green makes some see red

Why gunfire can’t drown this voice

‘I can never walk but helping others is an amazing freedom’

In Valley of mistrust, Omar 038; Yasin share a stage, some views

Two securitymen die, 8 journalists caught in line of militant fire in Srinagar

‘Is this the peace process? Is this the democracy?’

‘I feel I came out of the mouth of death’

Land of No Return?

‘A car bomb in my backyard’

Politics per square foot

‘I could smell the pain’

Mohsin’s last day at my school

Their final battle for survival