With no mechanism to send the bodies home, the people of Kargil are demanding the opening of an exchange point at Hundurman. (File Photo, enhanced using AI)
On March 20, a day after he celebrated his sixth birthday, Zulqarnain Ali and his cousin Ali Akbar (6) stepped out to play at Hundurman, the last village before the Line of Control (LoC) in Kargil. While playing, the boys slipped into the fast-flowing waters of the Shingo River.
Akbar’s body was retrieved from the river in Hundurman a day later, but Zulqarnain couldn’t be traced. On Friday evening, a WhatsApp call from across the border informed the family that the body had been retrieved and buried in Gangani village of Baltistan, across the LoC.
“He (Zulqarnain) would never go towards the river,” says his father Mohammad Hussain (38), a government school teacher. “They were three children, Zulqarnain, my sister’s son and another boy, relatively older. The older boy survived but these two drowned.”
This is not the first such tragedy in Kargil. Javid Ali, who runs the Al Mehdi Scouts and helps search for bodies in the Shingo and Suru rivers, says, “There are at least 10 to 12 cases where we couldn’t find the bodies, which are carried to Pakistan by strong currents. These are fast-flowing rivers, especially so in the summers.”
“I personally remember many incidents over the last year; there was a car accident and five people drowned. We could retrieve only two while three bodies were swept across the border. It is often through social media that we come to know bodies have been found there,” he says.
The Shingo River flows from Drass towards Kargil, and the Suru River descends from Zanskar to Kargil. The twin rivers meet near Hundurman, increasing the flow and speed.
With a population of little over 200 as per the 2011 census, Hundurman is the last village on this side of the LoC. Across the border is Gangani, another small hamlet. Before 1971, Hundurman and Gangani were part of one village under Pakistan’s control. In the 1971 war, India captured Hundurman. The two villages have people who are related.
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With no mechanism to send the bodies home, the people of Kargil are demanding the opening of an exchange point at Hundurman.
Sajjad Hussain, a political leader and activist who is part of the Kargil Democratic Alliance, says, “For more than 70 years, families divided between Ladakh and Baltistan have been unable to reunite. This separation extends beyond life itself. Bodies of those who, due to accidents, are swept across the river to the other side are often never returned to their native land.”
Requesting the External Affairs Minister and his Pakistani counterpart to intervene, he says, “A designated exchange point should be established to facilitate the dignified return of these bodies to their families.”
Zulqarnain’s body was recovered after 40 days, and his father says the family consented to their child being buried in Baltistan. “Forty days had already passed, and they informed us it would be better to bury him there only,” he says. “We agreed.”
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For Zulqarnain’s father, the WhatsApp call on a neighbour’s phone is only a partial closure. “We had sent the photos across and informed them about the clothes he was wearing that day. They have said they retrieved the body and buried it,” he says. “But I have not seen any photos of the funeral yet. I am waiting for the pictures.”
Many families are still waiting for even this much of a closure.
