Six months before he was born, Muhammad Hanief’s maternal grandparents and two maternal uncles were murdered by a group comprising of two Ikhwanis (counter-insurgent renegades) and two BSF (Border Security Force) troopers. The case was finally resolved in the courts in 2009, with the perpetrators sentenced to life in prison. Given the sensitivity and horrific details of the case, written permission was sought for the publication of this account from the family of the writer. All of the particulars provided in this account, including details pertinent to the case, are available in the public domain via a series of news reports of the event and further specified in the FIR filed by the family members of the victims. The author has compiled this account based on several years of conversation with his mother who has narrated it to him so that he may write it down for posterity.

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