Only one and a half years old… the tongue has not even opened properly yet. What is the world, what is war, what is martyrdom… he does not know anything. All she knows is that the face visible in that wooden box in front, amidst the white shroud and the tricolor, is her father. When the innocent daughter of martyr Amjad, wrapped in a red sweater, was brought close to her father for the last glimpse, she felt that the father was in deep sleep. Tries to wake up. Papa… Papa… but these two words coming out of a broken tongue tear the heart.
Maybe he thought that father was sleeping. Like every day he would come tired and fall asleep. She must have felt that at one call he would open her eyes, take her in his strong arms and throw her in the air. Perhaps there is complaint in his voice. There is an insistence. Papa, why aren’t you talking? Papa, why aren’t you looking at me?
The tough army commandos present there, who have seen death from close quarters many times, also turn their gaze away. Tears do not stop from his eyes. The women of the village are crying loudly, but this girl is silent. She is just looking at her father. Every now and then he wonders… why is everyone crying? Why isn’t Papa getting up?
Martyr Amjad Khan… who had become the death knell for the terrorists in Udhampur, who stood with his chest raised amid the hail of bullets… is today lying silent in front of this innocent cry of his beloved. What must be going through the soul of that father, who is unable to respond to his doll?
This picture asks us questions. We who sit in the safety of our homes and debate the news while sipping tea, can we ever feel the pain of this one and a half year old girl? His whole world has been confined to that coffin. When she grows up, she will be told that your father was a ‘hero’. But today… today he doesn’t want a hero, he wants his ‘papa’.
The time has come to lift the coffin. The girl is pushed back. His eyes are still fixed on the same face. She is probably thinking, where is Papa leaving me?
This is not a farewell. This is a debt which today this one and a half year old girl has imposed on the entire country. That voice of his, ‘Papa…Papa…’, should always echo in the winds of this country, so that we remember that our freedom has not been given for free. It has been watered by the blood of brave men like Amjad Khan and the tears of their daughters.
Papa didn’t wake up, Gudiya… he will look at you from the sky now. You don’t cry. You are the daughter of a lion.
And yes, a question to those people who are seen beating their chests in support of terrorists. Get the courts opened at night. They create nuisance on the streets… I have to ask them, didn’t you shed tears? If not, then you are an animal… If not, then you have neither humanity nor humanity… You cannot belong to anyone… We cannot show this video, otherwise we would have asked you… Even if this happens to you, would you still remain such an animal…
