Whispers of war

THIS HAS BEEN a hard piece to write. Every time I sat down to write the first sentence, images of horror from that sunny, mountainous meadow distracted me.

- TAVLEEN SINGH

Images of the bodies of young men, images of women weeping for dead male relatives, images of terrified children. Of all these images, the one that has become deeply etched in my head is that of the desolate young bride sitting beside the body of the Naval officer she married just days before coming to Pahalgam.

What kind of men can deprive a newly married couple of happiness? What kind of men can kill husbands in front of their wives, fathers before children simply because they do not like their religion? Only one kind. Those so filled with hatred that their victims stop being human in their eyes.