Memories of an overlooked chapter of Muslim displacement that unfolded in the Valley at the peak of militancy from its border villages to the other Kashmir were revived this week by the death of Raja Liaqat Ali Khan, the naib tehsildar of Ganderbal, following a cardiac arrest.

The fast-flowing waters of the Kishanganga river, also known as the Neelum, bore witness to that haunting migration as Liaqat's coffin was placed on the bank, which doubles as the line of control (LoC). His close relatives, standing on the other side of the river, were only able to catch a last distant glimpse.

Driven by fears of State excesses, Liaqat’s father Raja Izhar Khan, his stepmother and siblings were among hundreds who migrated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) from villages in Keran, Tanghdhar and some other border areas around the same time when Pandits migrated to Jammu and other places. PoK officials put their recent numbers at over 40,000.

Liaqat, 52, passed away at a Srinagar hospital on April 25. Before his body could reach his home village, his separated close relatives and acquaintances in PoK learnt about it through social media. Large crowds gathered on both sides of the LoC for his last rites.

"We could not identify them, nor hear their screams due to the gushing waters. But they were clearly mourning. Liaqat Sahab’s father is already dead, but his siblings were possibly on the other side. They were quite young when they migrated,” Ghulam Rabani Wani, a retired government employee from Mundiyan, 2km from Keran, said.

After Liaqat's father divorced his mother, he was raised by his uncle, Sharafat Ali Khan, then a senior officer, who also did not migrate. His father and siblings from the other marriage went to the other side.

Hundreds of people had migrated to PoK from Keran and adjoining villages in 1989 or 1990.

Another local said around 50 per cent of Keran's population had migrated along with almost all residents from Khoriyan, Bore, Bitchwal and Bogna villages.

“There was a small bridge connecting us to the other side. Those were very tense days, and people feared they might be targeted. Around 2,000-3,000 people left their homes,” the local, who requested not to be identified, said. “They initially lived in camps that were set up for Muhajirs (migrants). The well-off built their lives and are living in different parts of PoK and even Pakistan.”