Shopian: Smoke billowed from the remains of the house, as well as from the neighboring one, where 30 people lived. Most of the homes within the 150 metres were partly destroyed.

Eighteen hours earlier, the residents in Gadapora village of Shopian had not imagined being homeless. On March 22, however, a gun-fight opened up between militants and security forces, and the area was evacuated in the middle of the night.

By afternoon, two local militants belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) were dead. Six houses in the area were reduced to rubble.

Even the cowshed was reduced to ashes, and along with it, the Bhat family’s four cows and two calves. Unlike civilians, animals are not evacuated from the encounter sites.

“Only one cow managed to escape. The rope it was tied with had burnt. The door had already been smashed by the blast. Once the rope untied, the cow ran for safety,” said Abdul Rehman Bhat.

Locals saw the cow running through the locality, its back still on fire.

The Thokars’ house was also destroyed in that encounter. They tried to retrieve their belongings from the rubble, but couldn’t salvage anything.

During the encounter, the head of the family, Abdul Razaq Thoker, 60, tried to move their cows to safety. The security forces sent him back to safety. He found the cows’ charred skeletons three days later.

“After dawn, we approached the security forces several times to remove the cattle from the encounter site. We were not allowed to,” says Thoker. “Our cows were left to die.”

Official estimates do not count domestic animals killed in encounters between security personnel and militants in the Valley, or the loss that it signifies to the owners.

In a previous encounter, on January 25, 2018, Ghulam Hassan Bhat says that he lost 46 high-bred sheep. Four more were critically injured. Two militants holed up in his cowshed, in Adoo village in Shopian, were killed.

Bhat says he bought each sheep for over Rs 40,000. They were his family’s principal source of income. To make ends meet, his sons now work as manual labourers.

According to Bhat’s family, revenue officials initially estimated their loss at Rs 7 lakh, but eventually, the family was offered a compensation of just Rs 5,000. That amount, Bhat says, cannot buy even one sheep.

Some suggest that the high number of deaths could be due to the absence of a standard operating procedure to evacuate animals.

“Security forces should be approached and requested for evacuation of livestock to safe places,” said Dr Parvaiz Ahmad, president of Veterinary Doctors Association Kashmir. “There is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1990, by which animal rights can be asserted”.

A source of livelihood

In rural Kashmir, cows are a source of livelihood. Their dung is a fertilizer in farms and orchards. When spring arrives, women can be seen carrying cow dung to fields in wicker baskets.

Those who do not own land rear cows and sheep, making their livelihood from selling milk and cowdung.

Muhammad Youqub Lone, an orchadist from Kachdoora village in Shopian district, owned three cows. All were killed on April 1, during two encounters in the restive district, along with 12 militants and four civilians.

In Futlipora village of Budgam district, Muhammad Asadullah Bhat and Muhammad Ahsan Bhat lost their shared house on November 30, 2017 in an encounter. Two cows and a calf were also killed.

Muhammad Ahsan Bhat said that despite completing all formalities and documentation, he has not received any compensation.

“They were charred alive, not a hint of flesh left on their bones,” family members rued.

Nikunj Sharma, associate director of policy, PETA India, told The Wire that animals are often caught in the crossfire of conflict.

“Animals claim no allegiance or opposition to any political party or nation,” he said. “They pose no threat and own no weapons – yet they are beaten and paraded through the streets during protests, used in war and are victims of gunfire and bombs. For animals, there are no peace treaties, just our mercy.”

Mercy does not seem to be forthcoming. Residents have repeatedly been prevented from rescuing their animals. Like the Thokars, Abdul Ahad Bhat of Batmadan village wishes he had been allowed to move his cows to safety.

“We tried hard, but the security forces did not listen to us. They told us to care for our own safety instead of the cattle,” he said. All there was left to recover later, he said, were ashes and bones.

Raashid Hassan is a journalist based in South Kashmir.