BASHARAAT MASOOD
On the night of August 2, 2005, there was a knock on the door of Manya Tancha’s home at Harwan on the outskirts of Srinagar city. When Tancha opened the door, Manya was surprised to see soldiers. There was a message for him, “the army major is looking for you so accompany us.” Manya refused to accompany them and that marked the beginning of another disappearance story of Kashmir .
“They barged into the house and dragged him out,” Manya’s wife Begum Jan says. “I followed them. They took him to the Dara camp and when I tried to enter, the guards prevented us. Next morning, we went to the camp again but we were denied entry”.
Jan says the soldiers, however, gave her a consolation - “They (soldiers) assured me that my husband has been picked up for routine interrogation and would be released in a day,” Jan says.
Two years have passed since the assurance but there is no trace of Manya. Today he is being counted as one among the thousands of missing Kashmiris.
Manya’s missing story took a turn only some days after his arrest. “A few days after he was picked up by (Rashtriya Rifles) RR, they told me they have released Manya,” his brother Abdul Gani says. “They even warned me and asked me not to come to the camp again to ask his whereabouts”. When Gani dared to ask some questions to an officer stationed at the camp, he too had to pay a price for it. “I questioned the officer there that if they have released him where has he gone then?” “He didn't listen to me. Instead I too was detained at the camp. I was interrogated and kept for three days there”.
Jan and Gani didn’t go to the camp again. Instead they sought help of police and civil administration to trace Manya.
“We approached every senior officer in the state administration but to no avail,” Jan says. “We met the deputy commissioner and senior police officers. They didn’t respond. They instead asked us to meet junior officers. Cops of the local police station too didn’t help in tracing my husband,” says Jan.
Two years have passed but Jan hasn’t left hoping. She believes that her husband is alive. “My heart says he is alive,” she says. “How can he leave these kids here,” she says pointing at her five children, one of them too young even to walk.
She says her search for her husband would only end the day he is either back or when “I get to see his body”.
On the night of August 2, 2005, there was a knock on the door of Manya Tancha’s home at Harwan on the outskirts of Srinagar city. When Tancha opened the door, Manya was surprised to see soldiers. There was a message for him, “the army major is looking for you so accompany us.” Manya refused to accompany them and that marked the beginning of another disappearance story of Kashmir .
“They barged into the house and dragged him out,” Manya’s wife Begum Jan says. “I followed them. They took him to the Dara camp and when I tried to enter, the guards prevented us. Next morning, we went to the camp again but we were denied entry”.
Jan says the soldiers, however, gave her a consolation - “They (soldiers) assured me that my husband has been picked up for routine interrogation and would be released in a day,” Jan says.
Two years have passed since the assurance but there is no trace of Manya. Today he is being counted as one among the thousands of missing Kashmiris.
Manya’s missing story took a turn only some days after his arrest. “A few days after he was picked up by (Rashtriya Rifles) RR, they told me they have released Manya,” his brother Abdul Gani says. “They even warned me and asked me not to come to the camp again to ask his whereabouts”. When Gani dared to ask some questions to an officer stationed at the camp, he too had to pay a price for it. “I questioned the officer there that if they have released him where has he gone then?” “He didn't listen to me. Instead I too was detained at the camp. I was interrogated and kept for three days there”.
Jan and Gani didn’t go to the camp again. Instead they sought help of police and civil administration to trace Manya.
“We approached every senior officer in the state administration but to no avail,” Jan says. “We met the deputy commissioner and senior police officers. They didn’t respond. They instead asked us to meet junior officers. Cops of the local police station too didn’t help in tracing my husband,” says Jan.
Two years have passed but Jan hasn’t left hoping. She believes that her husband is alive. “My heart says he is alive,” she says. “How can he leave these kids here,” she says pointing at her five children, one of them too young even to walk.
She says her search for her husband would only end the day he is either back or when “I get to see his body”.
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