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Basharat Peer in Sogam, Kupwara
It was literally a funeral held under the shadow of terror.
As the slain Jammu and Kashmir Law Minister, Mushtaq Ahmed Lone lay in state for the last rites to be performed in his native village of Sogam in Kupwara, militants known to be active in the nearby Lolab valley struck.
The rattle of Light Machine Guns and the explosions of rocket-propelled grenades sent close to 3000 mourners, among them J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, scurrying for cover.
While the chief minister and his son, who is the National Conference president, were immediately surrounded by security guards, the other mourners were not so lucky. There was a stampede as everyone tried to find the 'safest' spot.
Even as Major General Dalveer Singh, who heads the Rashtriya Rifles' Kilo Force, responsible for security in Kupwara and Baramulla, was hooked on to his wireless set giving orders to his men, 15 corps chief Lieutenant General Patankar arrived at the scene.
The army started retaliating and for around ten minutes the sound of grenade explosions and whizzing bullets drowned everything else.
When the gunfire died down, five soldiers were injured and the militants had done the vanishing act into the thick jungles.
Slowly the mourners trickled back for the funeral rites, which were completed without many adieus.
A visibly shaken Farooq Abdullah said, "We are not going to bend. You will not find any difference in our resolve and we will fight till the end."
Soon as Union Defence Minister George Fernandes arrived a few minutes after the gunfire had subsided, Farooq greeted him saying, "They fired a lot but we hit back like hell."
A sombre Fernandes, after paying regards to the slain minister's family, told rediff.com: "No matter what Pakistan or the terrorists it sponsors do to derail the electoral process, they would not succeed."
But Lone's killing and the daredevil attack today have sent a chill down the spines of the contestants and the political workers. The entire Kupwara looked like a ghost town.
"Not a single political meeting was held here. The minister's killing has scared them all," said Nisar Ahmad, a shopkeeper.
Even Omar Abdullah admitted that the voters were running scared. "It [Lone's killing and the attack] is certainly going to have an impact. How much that would be known on the polling day. It is for the voters to decide."
Jammu and Kashmir Elections 2002: The complete coverage
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