Chattisinghpora (Anantnag), January 16 Five-year-old Arandeep Singh is hardly aware of the circumstances leading to the deployment of the security forces in this remote Chattisinghpora village, in Anantnag district of south Kashmir, about 70 km from Srinagar. His father, Sartaj Singh, was among the 36 Sikhs killed by unidentified gunmen here on the night of March 20, 2000, when he was hardly six months old. This village hit the national and international headlines due to the killings while the then US President, Mr Bill Clinton, was on a visit to India. Arandeep’s childhood has been divided into the company of his 72-year-old grandfather, Niranjan Singh, and his widowed mother, who has shifted to her parents’ house. She has been awarded cash compensation and a compassionate job in Jammu and Kashmir Bank in place of her husband. Arandeep’s grandmother, Reshma, who has suffered a paralytic stroke deeply feels the absence of Sartaj Singh, the youngest of her four sons. It is no different for the little son and daughter of Gurdeep Singh in Shouqeen Pora at the other end of this village, who was killed along with his younger brother, Ajitpal Singh, and old father, Jagir Singh. After the tragedy struck this village five years ago, Gurdeep’s sister, Amrit Kaur, had to shift with her husband from their home away in the Achchabal area to be with her widowed mother. The widowed daughter-in-law, Neelam Kaur, got a government job on compassionate grounds like several other kith and kin of those killed. There is another isolated house without any life, with its inmates, all women, having temporarily shifted to Jammu as do many of the affluent people during the winter That is the house of Gurbaksh Singh and his brother, Uttam Singh, who were among the victims. Gurbaksh left behind his widow, Narinder Kaur, and two daughters, now studying in Classes VIII and VI, while Uttam Singh is survived by his widow and two daughters in Class X and Class VIII. Similar are the tales of woe of the other families who lost their loved ones in the massacre. This remote village with a population of about 2,500, both Sikhs and Muslims, spread over a few mohallas has a police post at its entry point. There are three other security posts manned by the CRPF at the main gurdwara and at the other far end of the village, surrounded by paddy fields and orchards. These security posts were set up after the massacre. A memorial each has been set up at the two village gurdwaras in memory of those killed in the massacre. “Some more work like the inscription of the names of those killed needs to be done at these memorials,” said Jagir Singh, the village head, adding that it awaited some finances. Jagir Singh is sore about the lack of proper basic facilities of drinking water, power supply, telephone and “pucca roads”. “Next of kin of the victims have received jobs and compensation,” Jagir Singh concedes but laments that the assurances given by the then government at the Centre and in the state have not been fulfilled even after five years. “We were assured that this would be a model village. But it is the same as it was in 1947,” he claimed. “Only the poor ones like us are left here,” said another village elder, adding that those with cash compensation and government jobs had “since left for better prospects”. “Woh aish kar rahen hein…. Hum gharib log yahan maray gayay,” he laments. The three-room Government Primary School which was burnt down at the time of the massacre, continues to remain unattended. Of the three rooms, one has been covered temporarily by tin sheets to accommodate the school records and furniture. Another room is half-covered by canvas by the CRPF personnel deployed in the main gurdwara. And the third one is uncovered and hence open to rains and snow. “It is very difficult for schoolchildren,” said Jagir Singh. The school, he said, remained open only in fair weather. The school, which is closed for the winter now has 60 students, including only four Sikh students, with two teachers and three teaching assistants. Several other Sikh children are enrolled at the nearby Khalsa School