THE FLASHBACK

‘Aisha Malik, what do you remember from last night?’ asked the news reporter. I was taken aback in memory, a type of flashback but little did I know, what was waiting for me next. ‘I… I was walking back home from my madrassa, on a road damaged from previous incident in my village Pattan, in Baramula Kashmir…’ My face had an expression of emotions as my breath hindered in my throat, envisioning the memories of my childhood shattering in front of me. ‘All I could project out of me was that my childhood had disappeared within a few se…seconds.’ I bursted into tears and it felt like everything had blanked out on me. I had no one left. ‘Bomb blasts are out of our control and we are working together to put on an end to the Indian atrocities. I am sorry for your loss,’ said the news reporter with sympathy in her eyes. ‘Thousands of people have been tortured and detained since India took control of Kashmir. It has caused many people to live in fear and they still hope that Allah will help them. We keep our prayers with Kashmir and hope they live as freely as we do. In Sha Allah.’

Hayfa Ahmad and Zara Ijaz IX O