Surrounded the village in three rings;
the atrocities against the brave souls.
Not a sip of water was made to offer.
Punished and tortured the whole day.
Ah! the pain they had to undergo.
Women and children wailing loudly,
while others stood speechless.
Their ribs and legs left broken,
while their blood stained the virgin soil.
“It’s a man’s pride, no surrender no compromise” they said.
They gladly accepted their fate and sacrificed for the future generation.
Not a trace to perform the last rites of their loved ones.
With grief in their hearts, the brave women and children
fled from the burning village.
Wandering into the woods and into the unknown lands,
with starvation and nightmares as their daily bread.
Once abandoned was renewed again,
yet took decades to restore normal lives.
Once a dark reality has become a legendary history.
Their names still echoes among the hills
and enchants from generation to generation.
Elizabeth Pojar
Based on the massacre of Matikhrü village by Indian Army on 6th September, 1960.
