Abdul Salaam Dar has been fishing for many of his life. From Lelhar Kakapora, a hamlet alongside the Jhelum River in Kashmir, 69-year-old Dar sells his catch at native markets.
He’s additionally a fisher of individuals. For the previous 30 years, he has rescued lots of of individuals and pulled out 47 corpses from rivers within the valley.
“I keep in mind each rescued and each fished-out lifeless physique. I keep in mind the quantity and even their faces. Lots of them had slipped into the river however most had tried suicide,” Dar says.
Earlier than getting drawn into the job of rescuing folks and fishing out our bodies, Dar says he used to get referred to as on to get better utensils, motors, boats and different misplaced gadgets within the river. Then, at some point, he noticed a person drowning.
“It had an important influence on my life. Everybody tried to avoid wasting him however no person may. He was in search of assist however finally drowned in entrance of my eyes,” he recollects.
Popularly referred to as Dungal (“Diver”), Dar is revered within the area. At any time when official rescue groups discover it troublesome to find a corpse, they name on Dar.
Dar has retrieved our bodies at Sangam, Anantnag, Bijbehara, Pampore, Srinagar and different components of Kashmir. He recollects one incident in Aharbal when the police wouldn’t let him retrieve the physique of a lady who had drowned.
“A cop referred to as me a ‘weak outdated man’ and stated I couldn’t do something. Ultimately, I satisfied them they usually let me do it,” he says. He shortly succeeded in fishing out the physique.
Dar is insistent about the necessity to rescue women and men in a different way. Whereas rescuing or retrieving the physique of a person, he usually holds him firmly towards his chest, however when it’s a lady, he gently holds the strands of her hair, holding a respectful house between himself and the lady’s physique.
Not like most rescuers, who take preventive measures earlier than plunging into the water, Dar is understood for finishing up his work with none security tools. He has his personal distinctive manner of working within the water.
“As soon as I’m in deep water, it’s with the need of Allah my manner of labor pans out effectively. I simply use a rope and lengthy wood log. It feels good after I save a life or assist a household to fish out the lifeless physique of their cherished one,” he says.
On quite a few events, Dar has been referred to as to Jammu and different distant components of the area to assist. As soon as, Dar recollects, the physique of a lady who had drowned in Sopore couldn’t be situated for eight days. It was Dar who discovered her 40 miles away in Uri, near the Pakistani border.
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Dar additionally remembers an incident when three boys drowned. Native police and rescuers struggled to find the our bodies, so the navy was referred to as in. Ultimately, Dar was summoned.
“I obtained two of the our bodies in simply 10 minutes,” he says, including that the officers requested him to direct them so they might fish out the remaining physique themselves as they feared folks would possibly suppose they had been incompetent. “I directed them and one other physique was fished out,” he recollects.
Throughout Kashmir’s excessive floods in 2014, Dar was the person on the forefront of rescuing folks throughout Kashmir and says he rescued greater than 100.
Many individuals, in addition to the federal government, have tried to reward him for his work, however he isn’t impressed. As soon as, after he rescued somebody, their household introduced him with 6,000 rupees (about £60), which he returned.
“At any time when I rescue or fish out a physique, folks supply me cash or officers give me rewards, saying ‘you earned it’. However for me, accepting these items is like promoting the souls of lifeless our bodies and I can’t do this,” Dar says.
Worldwide helplines could be discovered at befrienders.org. Within the UK and Eire, Samaritans could be contacted on freephone 116 123, or electronic mail jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. Within the US, you may name or textual content the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or textual content HOME to 741741 to attach with a disaster counsellor. In Australia, the disaster assist service Lifeline is 13 11 14.
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