Shopian District (South Kashmir) , JAMMU & KASHMIR :

When the author asked Ummer’s schoolmates whether they would want to be like Lt. Ummer Fayaz, they said no. ‘’Ma’am he joined the army, the society here does not accept him and some who don’t even consider him a Kashmiri.’’

Bhawan Arora with her book at Chandigarh Press club

“Musrat is my sister, mama. If I don’t come for her wedding, what sort of brother am I? And for how long will I run, Mama? Kashmir is my home. With all of you there, can I stay away forever?” These were the words of Lt. Ummer Fayaz, when his family, fearful for his life, was urging him not to come home, weeks before he was killed by militants on 9 May 2017.

‘Undaunted: Lt. Ummer Fayaz of Kashmir’ by Bhaavna Arora, chronicles his life. The 232-page book took the author two years during which she visited Ummer’s family and met a large number of people who knew him.

Lt. Ummer was born on 8 June 1994, to an apple  orchardist of South Kashmir’s Shopian district. He was abducted by veiled gunmen at 8.00 pm from his maternal uncle’s house on 8 May 2017 where he was attending the wedding of his cousin sister Musrat. His body drenched in blood was found at Herman Chowk of Shopian the next morning.

“Three men with scarves covering their face and shawls around their bodies swiftly entered through the front door of the house. They climbed the stairs and threw open the door of the room that Ummer was sitting in and asked, Are you Ummer Fayaz? Yes, I am, Ummer replied. Come with us, one of the veiled man commanded,” writes the book.
The book brings to life the high-spirited youngster, right from his childhood days. ‘’One day, a child from the Ummer’s class lost his geometry box. The teacher called all the students and asked them to swear by the holy Quran that they had not stolen it. One by one the students did and when it was Ummer’s turn, he took one look at the book and said, ‘Sir, this this is a dictionary, not the Quran.’ After that the teacher informed his father of his son’s cheekiness. His father gave him a dressing down, but was secretly pleased that his son had spotted what the entire class had missed.’’

Bhaavna Arora said he was also a very wam-hearted and friendly young man .

Bhawan Arora with Ummer’s famil

“At the National Defence Academy (NDA), he was the first to seek permission from instructors for offering Friday prayers; from then on every Friday Muslim soldiers are allowed to pray even during trainings,” she said.

Piecing together the life of the young officer turned out to be an emotionally charged journey. Bhaavna said, ‘’It is not easy to meet a family that has lost a son. When I first met his sister Asmat, we cried for half an hour. She asked me what does your brother do, and I had no answer.’’

Ummer was 11 when he joined Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in Anantnag district. The author recounts in the book how she was bombarded by questions from his schoolmates at JNV Anantnag. ‘’Students were eager to know if I was on their side. They asked me why I was there. When I told them whether they knew Lt. Ummer Fayaz, they said, ‘Yes, ma’am, he was our senior’.’’

When she asked them whether they would want to be like Lt. Ummer Fayaz, they said no. ‘’Ma’am he joined the army, the society here does not accept him and some who don’t even consider him a Kashmiri.’’

Once on his way home from Khodwani to Kulgam he was stopped by Army soldiers near Kulgam. They wanted to inspect his bag but he refused to let them do so. Ummer was trying to free himself from the grip of the soldier but failed. When the soldier could not control him anymore, he slapped Ummer, and he cried. Later, Ummer asked him whether he would let him go if he did not find anything in the bag. The soldier said, of course, and asked him what he wanted to become when he grew up. ‘’Someone like you. How can I become like you?’’, Ummer asked the soldier. When the soldier asked him what was so special about him, Ummer said, ‘’You are not like other soldiers who beat and torture my friends.’’

Before Ummer left the camp, the officer said to him, if you want to be an officer like me, join the National Defence Academy when you complete your Class XII.

Ummer reported at National Defence Academy, Pune, on December 30. Bhaavna Arora, who comes from an Army family, says it was Lt Fayaz’s coursemate who asked her to wrote the book. ‘’They wanted him to be immortalised in words.’’

Arora has in the past written three works of fiction. Her first book ‘The Deliberate Sinner’ revolves around infidelity.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> India / by Dar Ovais / Chandigarh – March 29th, 2019