BASHARAAT MASOOD
His was perhaps the first “disappearance” case in the valley. Militancy had just begun and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had taken over from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, when Khurshid Ahmad Adil was picked up from his radio shop at Iqbal Market in Sopore.
Adil had hardly opened his shop when CRPF personnel, led by two Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), arrived in two vehicles and asked him to accompany them as their officer wanted to see him, people recall.
“They asked him to accompany them,” says his older brother Bashir Ahmad. “They said he would be back soon. Adil, handing over the keys to the shopkeeper next door, asked him to close his shop,” he says. Shopkeepers of the market assembled there. “They couldn’t do anything except identifying the CRPF battalion and noting down the registration number of the vehicles,” says Bashir.
Adil was forced to get into the vehicle, says his brother.
That was the last the shopkeepers saw of Adil. They informed Adil’s parents and that marked the beginning of the search that never ended. His parents and brothers searched the CRPF camp on the outskirts of town at Seer Jageer, as the CRPF personnel who appeared at Adil’s shop that morning were from that camp. Recalling their search, they say officers at the camp assured them that Adil would be released soon.
The disappearance led to a tense situation in the valley, Sopore in particular.
Curfew clamped in town made Adil’s relatives lose contact with the CRPF officer for about four days. A few days later, Sopore Traders Federation met the officer and asked for Adil’s release. The officer again assured it would be done. However, as days passed and Adil wasn’t released, his parents met the officer again.
This time, he denied Adil having been arrested.
“We went to every jail, every interrogation centre and every security camp,” says Ahmad. “Everybody denied his arrest. Nobody provided any information about him”.
That was in early 1990. The search continued for years and when hope of his return faded, the anxious parents moved the J-K High Court. After nine years of Adil’s disappearance, J-K Police submitted a report in the High Court saying two DSPs of the CRPF were involved in his disappearance. The police, in its report, also said that an FIR (252/90) had been lodged against the two CRPF officers under Section 365 and 302.
But court intervention failed to give any relief to the parents of Adil. His family now seems to have given up hope of seeing him alive, except Adil’s mother.
Ahmad says: “We have lost all hope. We want his mortal remains. We believe he has been killed and buried in an anonymous grave.” But the mother refuses to believe it. As Adil left home for the shop that day 17 years ago, she had asked him to return home early. “He is alive,” she says. Every
His was perhaps the first “disappearance” case in the valley. Militancy had just begun and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had taken over from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, when Khurshid Ahmad Adil was picked up from his radio shop at Iqbal Market in Sopore.
Adil had hardly opened his shop when CRPF personnel, led by two Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), arrived in two vehicles and asked him to accompany them as their officer wanted to see him, people recall.
“They asked him to accompany them,” says his older brother Bashir Ahmad. “They said he would be back soon. Adil, handing over the keys to the shopkeeper next door, asked him to close his shop,” he says. Shopkeepers of the market assembled there. “They couldn’t do anything except identifying the CRPF battalion and noting down the registration number of the vehicles,” says Bashir.
Adil was forced to get into the vehicle, says his brother.
That was the last the shopkeepers saw of Adil. They informed Adil’s parents and that marked the beginning of the search that never ended. His parents and brothers searched the CRPF camp on the outskirts of town at Seer Jageer, as the CRPF personnel who appeared at Adil’s shop that morning were from that camp. Recalling their search, they say officers at the camp assured them that Adil would be released soon.
The disappearance led to a tense situation in the valley, Sopore in particular.
Curfew clamped in town made Adil’s relatives lose contact with the CRPF officer for about four days. A few days later, Sopore Traders Federation met the officer and asked for Adil’s release. The officer again assured it would be done. However, as days passed and Adil wasn’t released, his parents met the officer again.
This time, he denied Adil having been arrested.
“We went to every jail, every interrogation centre and every security camp,” says Ahmad. “Everybody denied his arrest. Nobody provided any information about him”.
That was in early 1990. The search continued for years and when hope of his return faded, the anxious parents moved the J-K High Court. After nine years of Adil’s disappearance, J-K Police submitted a report in the High Court saying two DSPs of the CRPF were involved in his disappearance. The police, in its report, also said that an FIR (252/90) had been lodged against the two CRPF officers under Section 365 and 302.
But court intervention failed to give any relief to the parents of Adil. His family now seems to have given up hope of seeing him alive, except Adil’s mother.
Ahmad says: “We have lost all hope. We want his mortal remains. We believe he has been killed and buried in an anonymous grave.” But the mother refuses to believe it. As Adil left home for the shop that day 17 years ago, she had asked him to return home early. “He is alive,” she says. Every
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