Oyoub, the mujahidin


  • Photographer
    Fausto Podavini
  • Prize
    2nd Place / Editorial/Other_ED
  • Company/Studios
    WSP

In 1985, when the mass rebellion of the Indian Kashmir was still not expected, Oyoub Waja was only 20 years old and he was crossing the boundary that still divides the Pakistan side from the Indian side of the former J&K’s princedom. The destination was a military training camp located in Waziristan: these were the years of the Soviet-Afghan war. From that time on, thousands of Kashmiri young people would have run the same way and reached other military camps beyond the boundary to take up weapons, this time against India. In the early 90s, when the war was at its peak, Oyoub was the commander of the downtown area in Srinagar, the summer capital of J&K. He, as other militants did, almost became a myth for young people of a city that was informally under his grip. Then, in September 1993, an accident occurred while he was setting a mine towards a senior officer of the Indian army. The accident was caused by a false contact, a small human distraction. The device exploded in the small room where he stood with another mujahideen and his sister who was serving tea in that moment. These two suddenly died. Oyoub miraculously survived at the blast, though he lost his sight and remained impaired. According to some neighbors it has been Allah’s will to cause all that in order to punish Oyoub for all the things he committed. Oyoub Waja, whose name has been chosen in honor to the Pakistan general Oyoub Khan, he is now alone in the perpetual night of his own world. He is hostile towards everything and everyone: India, the separatists organizations, the politicians in Pakistan, its military body and his neighborhood.

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