Twenty years on, a Hindu family and a Sikh-Muslim couple remain the only thread in the bond that has unified faiths in Kargil for years, despite unease between Hindus and Muslims since the 1999 India-Pakistan war that ruptured the town¡¯s peace.
Ravinder Nath and his wife Madhu are at ease as they swap seats at their wholesale shop, attending to Muslim buyers in this border town, just 200 metres from the Line of Control.
For the past two decades, this couple is the only Hindu family among the 1.65-lakh people in Kargil.
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Not far from them are three Sikh families, who have built a gurdwara that shares its wall with the Hanfia Ahl-e-Sunnat mosque, run by Sunnis.
The bond between the two shrines gave birth to the romance between Jaswinder Singh (now Junaid) and Khatija Bano in 1996, the only inter-faith couple who broke the social stigma despite stiff resistance from families.
¡°Khatija used to visit the gurdwara to fill up water bucket. I was mesmerised by her. I began writing letters to her and we fell in love. I had two options to make our marriage possible: either I embrace Islam or she takes up Sikhism. I decided to become Junaid Akhtar.
Today, I celebrate Baisakhi with my mother and brothers and Eid with my kids ¡ª Mansoor, Shoaib and Tanaz Fatima. I am Jaswinder for one family and Junaid for the other,¡± says Jaswinder. ¡°I visit the gurdwara more frequently than Junaid does and have even learnt gurbani,¡± smiles Khatija.
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¡°We are liberal parents and have told both sons and daughter to choose their life partners from any religion. But the attacks on young boys and girls who break barriers in Hindu and Muslim societies do frighten us, ¡± she adds.
The couple, employed with Jammu and Kashmir¡¯s education department, happily share their ¡°love chemistry¡± while taking maths lessons in high schools. As Kargil approaches two decades since the war, the harmony among people of different faiths ¡ª Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Islam ¡ª remains unique. Ravinder and Madhu are unforgiving about Pakistan forces killing Indian soldiers, but insist that when Diwali is celebrated, it¡¯s the Muslim families and kids who spend the morning decorating their home with lights.
Even their own children ¡ª daughter an ENT specialist daughter in Delhi and son studying in Chandigarh ¡ª have rarely had time to return home on Diwali.