"The faces of the father and the son haunt me”

‘Sight of father protecting son numbed me, I didn’t feel the bullet wound’

Greater Kashmir Sept 12

TAHIR SAYEED


Srinagar, Sept 11: Fifty-year old Rafiq Ahmad felt nothing when a bullet fired by the CRPF troopers him in the shoulder, because, he says, he was numbed by the sight of the CRPF troopers savagely beating a man protecting his child from blows of the troopers.
Rafiq Ahmed was playing chess on August 25 in front of his home in Malbagh, Fateh Kadal when CRPF personnel trooped into the area and started beating up everyone who came in their way. Rafiq is diabetic and suffers from chronic back pain. Thus he was slow to respond to the onslaught of the troops.
“But when I tried to run I couldn’t move because I was moved when I saw that a man was protecting his child from their blows. Then CRPF men saw me and made a sign to his colleague who shot at me,” Rafiq said.
“Whenever I recall that moment, when that father was saving his child, I forget my pain. The faces of the father and the son haunt me,” Rafiq said.