[IbnAbdullah]

‘How much weapons did you people have?’
‘Alas, that’s what is sad that we didn’t have arms, or we wouldn’t only curse helplessly, we even asked Ghazi sahib, ‘You talked about suicide bombing, now give us something so we can carry them out’, then he said, ‘My daughter, that I said just as the part of strategy, you should never think about that, we won’t even think of killing our own people. We only had sticks in the madrasah as well as in the house, so if anyone could try to get us inside, we would defend ourselves.’

‘How much is the truth in the congregational graves or that’s also the part of strategy?’
‘I bear witness that I will tell about only what I saw from my eyes. Leave what I heard. Probably it was the 5th or 6th day of the operation. I was along with Umm Hassaan then we heard noises, I looked from the room window, it was the building in front named ‘Umm Kulthum’, it had two verandas and both I could see, both had hard floors but when I saw both floors had been dug out and brothers were placing bodies into them, in one grave were girls’ bodies side by side, and in the other were of brothers. This I saw from my own eyes, there were bodies in a very big number in both graves, I didn’t have a courage to count those bodies, I just sat down over there, in the same way, in the uncemented courtyard, graves were dug out to bury girls’ bodies. There were some bodies whose head was ruptured and the brain had been pushed out, some had their intestines come out.’

‘Is all that you saw yourself or you are talking about what you heard?’
‘I saw that from my own eyes, and since then I can’t forget that, so many people were killed in such cold blood, even the bodies are not there, no one cares, no one’s to ask them..’(God knows what she starts saying in her emotions and I silently switch off the tape recorder).

‘How did you come out and what happened then?, I asked after a while.
‘When Ghazi sahib had been wounded, he said to Umm Hassaan, ‘If you stay inside, these girls will also not go out and will be martyred. People as well are saying we have made them hostage, for the sake of Allah, take them out and tell the people about our calamity’, on that we all agreed to go out, though we all the time wore burqa, we didn’t take them off the whole week, who knew they would intrude anytime and we wouldn’t be in hijab. At the time we were coming out, we had two young boys, one was 13 and the other was 10. The one who was 10 years old didn’t go out, her mother brought her there saying his father was very cruel and beat him, please keep him with you and educate him. Now when we were about to go out, the boy started crying saying he wouldn’t go home, better to get martyred there in but wouldn’t go home. I appeased him that he wouldn’t go home but I would take him with me. So he agreed to go after my efforts. As we came out of the house, there were armed security men on top of the library and on the ground, some of them were hardly a few steps away from us, we came out raising our hands and it was when it was announced that whoever came out would come raising hands and those wouldn’t be shot. The moment we came out, all of them pointed their guns at us and those who were near started yelling that they would do suicide attacks, get away from them. All soldiers drew back pushing each other and told us to take off the burqas. We said you can kill us but we wouldn’t take our burqas off. We don’t have anything, don’t fear us. I can’t tell about the fear which was on their faces. Afterward they removed the shirt of the 13 year old boy and tied his hands at the back and tied a cloth around his mouth and then started beating him. And the boy who was 10 years old was beaten by them so much that I can’t tell. The poor boy was so small than when the soldiers slapped him he would fall down, they slapped him so much that I started weeping and said to them, he’s my brother, let him go, the other soldiers told them to stop and not to beat him anymore. So with lots of difficulty he came to the surrender point with us, they had beaten the small boy so much that I saw at the surrender point his face was going red.’

‘How many dead bodies did you see at the time you came out?’
‘We all came out of the house of Ghazi sahib and there were a few steps between us and the security forces, that is when we came out, they were a few steps away from Ghazi sahab’s house and in this distance I saw three bodies, all were of brothers (boys students). Two of the bodies were at the door step and they were bleeding, one of them was later called a foreigner, and when I saw his picture in the newspaper I recognized him that he was lying martyred at the door step of Ghazi sahib. Another body outside the house was lying between the security forces.’

‘When you came out, was Ghazi sahib in the house?’
‘Yes, he was in the house, and he departed us, his leg was bleeding, he was standing near the door against the books cupboard, by him was standing Hassaan and in the next room Ammi Jaan (Ghazi’s mother) was wounded reciting kalimah. Umm Hassan gave her love to her son before leaving the house and asked him to get martyred. Afterward when we came out, soldiers were just in front.’

‘Right, what was the arrangement for food and drinks inside?’
‘Bhai jaan, we ate the same which brothers like you sent us from outside. What did you people send to us? We ate trees’ leaves; we plucked leaves off grape wine and drank dirty water, later that also finished. We soaked cloths in that water and put them on our eyes to protect from the tear gassing, and then the same water we drank. Once brothers sent us some boxes of juice and biscuits from masjid, we asked the young boy who brought them, ‘What have brothers eaten?’, and he said, ‘Nothing, that’s all they had which they sent you’, on that we asked the boy, ‘Go and take this back and tell them, the sisters are saying, they have eaten their meals, so you eat them’, as soon as the boy left the house a burst of bullets came and he got martyred. I saw through the window, he was lying on the ground by the face and was moving his foot, the blood was spreading out from his body. A little while later, the boy was fired at again and the biscuits and juice packets were destroyed. The juice ran out and biscuits were of no use. For many days the body of that child was laid there.

The interview was going on and there were so many questions in my mind then Asma’s phone rang, she talked a bit on phone and stood up, ‘Ok, the time is over.’

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