Suhail Rather
Ramban April 21 (KNS): Standing barefoot on the edge of what was once a bustling stretch of the Ramban highway, Firdous Ahmad, a driver from Kema village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, wept inconsolably. Stranded nearly 200 kilometres from home, with the national highway closed from both sides due to a natural calamity, no one came to his aid.
As hours passed, Firdous was forced to confront a painful truth: the vehicle he once drove along this highway his only source of livelihood was gone.
His passenger vehicle his only source of livelihood was reduced to a crumpled frame buried under the debris of a massive landslide triggered by heavy hailstorms that battered the region on Sunday morning.
"This was my everything," Firdous cried, clinging to a twisted piece of metal he said was once the side mirror of his van. "I raised my four children from the earnings I made driving this vehicle between Bandipora and Jammu. I built my life around it. And now… now there is nothing left."
Firdous, who had narrowly escaped the slide, said he had stepped out moments before the landslide hit to buy tea from a roadside vendor.
"One minute I was sipping tea, and the next I heard this deafening roar. I turned and saw the mountain collapsing onto the road I ran, screaming, but the earth swallowed my van before my eyes," he said, his voice shaking.
He wasn’t carrying any passengers at the time something he now calls a miracle. “If there had been people inside, I would’ve never forgiven myself. God saved lives, but everything else is gone,” he said.
The tragedy unfolded in the Ramban district, where residents are still assessing the scale of destruction caused by the landslides.
Triggered by sudden and intense hailstorms, the calamity has claimed at least three lives and displaced dozens.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp ChannelEntire homes and commercial structures were swept away, with residents describing the scene as "something out of a nightmare."
“I live on the other side, but even there, the flow of water was terrifying,” said Om Singh, a local. “When I reached here, my entire shop, my whole market gone. I have never seen such destruction in my life.”
Ravi Kumar, a shopkeeper who lost two shops in the same marketplace, said, “At 4 am we were told the market was gone. We rushed here, only to see there was nothing left. Our shops were our life. Now we have nothing not even land to rebuild on. We need the government’s help. We’re in debt. We want our loans waived. How do we start again?”
According to Ramban SSP Kulbir Singh, all police stations in the district have been put on alert, and over 100 people have been rescued from the worst-affected area, Dharam Kund.
But for Firdous Ahmad, rescue means little. He remains rooted to the spot where his vehicle once stood, refusing to leave. “I begged the authorities to at least pull out the wreckage, to give me something… anything. But they said the terrain is too risky now. I’ve been wailing here since morning. My children keep calling, asking if Baba is okay. How do I tell them their future just slid off a hill?”
As the evening sun dipped behind the mountains, Firdous sat quietly amid the rubble, staring at the mangled road. Around him, there was silence save for the occasional cracking of loose stones shifting on the hillside.
“No one will remember my name tomorrow,” he said finally, “but maybe someone will remember what happened here… and help us rebuild our lives.”(KNS)