By M S Nazki
Some wounds heal with time. Others stay etched in the soul forever. Rameez Khan, a father from Kalani village in Poonch, is learning to live with both.
After weeks of medical treatment following grievous injuries sustained in the May 7 Pakistani shelling on Poonch town, Rameez is being discharged from the Government Medical College & Hospital (GMCH), Jammu. But his heart remains anchored to a moment that changed his life irrevocably — the loss of his 12-year-old twins, Zain and Zoya.
The brutal shelling, which followed Operation Sindoor — India’s retaliatory action to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack — turned peaceful homes into battlegrounds. Among the innocent casualties were the Khan twins. Rameez, severely wounded, was rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state. While doctors battled to save his life, Zain and Zoya were being lowered into the earth — their father unaware, their mother, Arusa, barely holding on.
Days passed. Rameez, still fighting for survival, remained unaware of the unspeakable loss. His wife, though physically stable, was emotionally shattered. The family, too stricken to speak, left it to time and God to guide them. Eventually, with immense courage, Arusa broke the news. A silent video clip from the hospital room captured the gut-wrenching moment: her voice trembling, breath short, words breaking into sobs.
“I couldn’t cry in front of you… I didn’t know how to tell you,” she wept. “I saw our children… lying still… while you lay here. All I could do was pray.”
Rameez, too weak to move, trembled in disbelief, his grief erupting in tears as he clutched at what remained of his world.
Three weeks on, Rameez is physically stronger, but the pain is far from gone. On Wednesday, he will return to Poonch — not to resume life as before, but to stand at the graves of Zain and Zoya, and recite Fatiha in their memory. It is not closure he seeks, for there may never be any. It is connection — a chance to mourn, to whisper to the wind the names of those who once filled his home with joy.
“He’s still in shock,” said Adil Pathan, a close relative who has accompanied Rameez through his medical journey. “But somehow, Allah has given him the strength to bear this unbearable grief.”
Doctors at GMCH Jammu remain concerned about Rameez’s left arm, which may need further surgery. “He had multiple injuries, especially to the chest,” said Dr. Ashutosh Gupta, Principal and Dean. “We managed to stabilize him, but his left arm is not responding fully. We are monitoring it for the next 15 days.”
On Tuesday, before his discharge, Rameez attended a physiotherapy session at Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) in Jammu. Medical staff remain cautiously hopeful that further surgical intervention may be avoided.
As the family prepared for their journey home, Arusa recalled that fateful day through blurred memories. “There was a loud explosion,” she said, her voice quivering. “Then everything changed.” A family friend added, “They were trying to leave for Surankote — seeking a safer place. But a shell fell nearby. The children died on the spot. Rameez was critically injured.”
The tragedy has touched hearts far beyond their village. People from across the region — many who didn’t even know the family — visited GMC Rajouri and GMC Jammu to offer condolences. Their grief became a collective mourning, echoing through the corridors of hospitals and homes.
Even in death, Zain and Zoya remained inseparable — bound not only by blood, but by fate. And now, as Rameez prepares to walk again, he walks with sorrow as his shadow, and remembrance as his guide.
