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[THREAD]
"Buried my heart in a pit " A broken father & a desolate graveyard.
Ather's(17) father talked to The Kashmir Walla.This is his story in his own words.
Full statement on what happened from beginning to till today . 👇
The oppression dies —at last. The oppression has to end.When I’m alone in my room, I can see Ather. He walks in from the doors or comes from the window. I can see him playing on the lawn. I was trembling and couldn’t control myself, and on the fourth day since his killing, ++
I paced towards our ancestral graveyard — to dig a grave for my only son. That empty grave is to remember Ather. And I’ll wait till my last breath for his body.
On 30 December 2020, just past 12 pm, I reached home to a group of people waiting outside my home.++
I rushed inside, anxious. “Your son has been martyred in Srinagar,” my elder brother told me. But how did it happen so quickly? Munna, as we called Ather belovedly, was at home when I left for work the day before, on 29 December. When he spoke to his sister that he would be ++
going to Srinagar with a friend, he told us, “I’ll return soon. Even if we stay for the night, don’t worry.” I trembled because he wouldn’t go to Srinagar, just like this. He would not even go to Pulwama, the nearest town. ++