Patnitop in the Himalayan range-India.
Brief/Abstract: –
This is true 42 years back happening with me when I was doing my graduation and there were no mobiles and such gadgets around. It is about the “Botanical-tour” in the top mountain ranges of the Himalayas. As luck would have it-I was confronted with my college colleague on that dreadful night who had a naked knife in his right hand with the blood dripping from it. He was under the influence of liquor, trying to figure out the way to our guest house. He was terrorizing me with bad consequences if I did not tell him the way to our guesthouse. This story is about the same man “Samba” and what exactly was the reason for the blood dripping down. Also, the revolt expressed by that ‘small place population’ afterward during the same midnight- is expressed in this article. The story gives a real chill down the spine. We all the college boys had a really narrow escape.
Script: -updated on 27.06.2024.
Our Botanical Tour To “Patnitop” in the Himalayan Range
I would never forget that night when I had a very narrow escape. It was the summer of 1980 and we were from G G M Science College-Jammu-the students of B.Sc. Final (Bio). -had gone for the two nights Botanical Tour to the mountain areas of “Patnitop” in the “Peer-Panchal range” of the Himalayan mountains in north India.
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| G G M SCIENCE COLLEGE. |
We were around 25 students, along with one professor of botany. On our way towards Patnitop-we stayed for the night Kud-especially in the Tourist’s Bungalow, mainly constructed by the government for the tourists coming to that side.
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| Main Kud-Market-J&K. |
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| TOURIST BUNGALOW-KUD-J&K |
Once we reached Kud- we saw that there was already the Girls’ team from Govt. Women College-Parade Ground-Jammu. These girls too had come for the Botanical Tour and they were all kept in a huge Govt Guest House of Kud itself.
In Patnitop, there was no accommodation as they had the plan to remain for the night there in Patnitop and these were the last-minute changes done for their stay in Kud. The boys naturally, after seeing the whole girl squad from Jammu, became very excited and wanted to meet these girls. But the whole Women-college squad was strictly being taken care of by their professor in charge who was with them from the college side. They could not go out of the premises without permission.
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| RESTAURANT AT KUD-J&K. |
During the evening hours, all the boys went down the mountain range on foot and enjoyed it a lot since the climate too was freezing as compared to Jammu’s summer heat, which was around 42 degrees approx. Some boys even went to collect the various herbs and different plants of different families and species, as was the main work for which each one of us had come all the way.
That Dreadful Night
I still remember that cold night at around 9.30 PM when I along-with my friend Anil were coming back from the restaurant after taking our food -one of our colleagues namely “Samba” caught my right arm from behind in the thickest of the night and showed me the big knife filled with fresh blood and I could see the drops of the blood dripping down the small-sword type of knife. This all happened while we were walking on the roadside. He was asking me as if he was threatening me and my friend by saying where our bungalow was. I could feel strongly that he was fully drunk, and he had a harrowing voice because of the big fear on his face. I simply told him he should go straight on the path and within five minutes he would reach the Tourist Bungalow. He said nothing about why he was running and why his knife was in his hands. He left us immediately and started running towards the bungalow.
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| The Manager of the Restaurant was attacked in the stomach. |
Merciless Attack
We came to know about this from the market once we reached the same. All the boys were standing in a group and whispering in their ears about the incident, which occurred a few minutes back. We could connect the things quickly and came to know that the manager of the restaurant where Samba and his friends, who were also drunk -were taking their food, and during that time there was a big fight between the manager and Samba about the money charged.
During the midst of this fight itself, Samba took out the big knife from his pocket side of the pant and pierced it deep into the lower abdomen of the manager. The manager was profusely bleeding and there was no big hospital there in Kud where he could get immediate attention. The local people of Kud took him to the nearby District Hospital of Batote. His condition was very grave, and some people even said that he might even collapse by the time he reached Batote District Hospital.
Those Horrifying Moments would never be forgotten
All of us gathered in the Tourist Bungalow-where our bookings were already done. It was around a couple of kilometers away from Kud Main Bazar and there was a total silence during that time after the unfortunate event. Samba was wearing a red high-neck sweater at the time of attacking the manager. All the students immediately changed his dress and gave him another colored sweater so that he could not be recognized immediately.
At around 11.00 PM, it suddenly started snowing there in Kud and we all, because of fear, were sitting in two rooms on the beds together, sitting close to each other. Each room had at least 12-13 people. The professor with us was very tense and was calling bad names to Samba and accusing him of the whole episode-which could have been avoided by our people. He was also having this fear that he would be suspended since the whole episode took place under his guardianship, and he was repeatedly saying to all that they should not have taken alcohol at all. It was because of that only things went wrong.
It was around 12.00 in the night, and a truck with almost forty to fifty people with rods, steel rods, cycle chains, and even hockey sticks in their hands- came right into the center of our Tourist Bungalow. They started shouting- “Shahr Ke Kutto-Bahhar Nicklow” in their local Hindi language. [meaning: – “You the city dogs-come out of your dens”]
We all were so horrified that we thought -that night might be the last night for us. All of us were so much puzzled that some boys took out their knives and some even “Khukhrees type” from their clothes which they were wearing, and we told them to hide all these weapons under the mattress immediately otherwise if these people saw them, they would use the same against us only.
We were now waiting for the worst to happen. Suddenly one of their main persons came with a belt in his right hand along with the Restaurant’s helper. He started saying to us that each one of us had to come alone at the gate of the room and then the helper would see us and try to recognize the person who had stabbed the manager. This was the identification parade being done.
The Crowd lynched us during their interrogation
When the first person went to the gate, he was badly lynched by the head with the help of the leather belt and the helper then said that he was not the person whom they recognized and collect. Likewise, everyone reached the gate and got a good drubbing from that man, and finally, there was nobody from our room identified by the local people. I still remember when I reached the gate for my turn that person took again the belt this time in his left hand and started attacking me- but I was lucky that I was given only a few shots whereas others got a longer treatment.
Likewise, in the other room also each one was drubbed badly, and they could not collect Samba. After around 2.30 AM during the night when it was snowing slowly outside, these local people went into their trucks back down to their market area and threatened us they would not allow us to go to “Patnitop” the next day in the morning till the time we did not hand over the concerned person-Samba to them.
All of us after another one hour at around 3.30 AM took out ‘Samba’ from behind the Building-where he was kept with a big blanket around in the open compound filled with snow. He trembled that time and took him down on the National Highway. After some time, some of our colleagues stopped an empty truck going down to Jammu and requested that the truck driver take Samba to Jammu.
The Next Day after the happening
The next day in the morning, after we were all ready for the day, we had to go down the hill to that Kud-market for taking our breakfast. We went to the area with a lot of apprehensions and thought that we might be again attacked there, and the news of that manager might also aggravate the situation. To our surprise, we went to another restaurant and took our breakfast comfortably and those who were beating us the previous night were looking at us as if nothing had happened. We got the news about the manager’s safety as he was recovering in Batote after an emergency surgery done on him later last night. We realized those people were looking closely at each one of us- since they were on the mission of getting Samba and were not knowing about the development, Samba was already despatched safely to Jammu.
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| PATNITOP IN SUMMERS |
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| PATNITOP IN SUMMERS |
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| PATNITOP IN WINTERS |
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| PATNITOP IN WINTERS |
We went as per our plan to “Patnitop” and remained there till evening and did the collection work of plants and shrubs, etc. One thing important that I realized the next day was that we met all the girls of the Women-College “Patnitop”, but the boys were not at all excited. The reason was simple-the dangerous & unfortunate happening one night earlier. Our professor had curtailed this two-night trip to just one night trip, and we returned the same next day late in the night to Jammu.
Finally, after reaching back
After reaching Jammu in the middle of the night, we came to know about our parents being very tense and eager to know about our welfare. There was no source to contact except the landline of Kud. Mobiles had not taken birth. The reason for their becoming anxious was -because the same day at 6.15 PM local “Dogri-news”-it was announced that Jammu Students from Science College had attacked the manager at Kud, and his condition was serious. We had to tell the detailed story to our parents and convince them it was not because of our deeds, but because of someone else’s.
A real chill goes down my spine whenever I am reminded of this episode. I thank my stars for the safety of me and my friend on that spur when anything could have happened. Had we not shown the path of the Guest House to ‘Samba’?
Author-Ravi Tiku