Inam ul Haq
This disappearance story has its genesis in a scuffle. Fifteen years ago, Sajad Ahmad Bazaz, who ran a grocery store at Hazaratbal, had a scuffle with Asghar, a militant from Nageen, as Asghar hadn't paid the bill for goods purchased from Sajad, the Bazaz family remembers.
A few days later, Asghar was arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF).
Thereafter, Asghar turned an informer. He took the BSF party not to a militant hideout but directly to the home of Sajad. In captivity, Asghar had not forgotten the scuffle with Sajad. "Sajad was sipping tea at home when there was a knock on the door," says Fayaz Ahmad, his older brother. I went out to see who it was. I was surprised to see BSF men. They grabbed me and my brother and paraded me before a masked person."
This is the story of December 12, 1992 when Srinagar was under curfew. The masked man, it later came to be known, was Asghar, who had became an informer for security forces. Sajad was taken away by security forces.
He has not returned home.
The father even took the case to the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, but Sajad remains untraced to this day. "I went to the police station to file an FIR," says 75-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Bazaz, who has been bed-ridden for 15 months now. "The SHO heard me patiently. But I was surprised to know that he hadn't filed an FIR. I am illiterate," he says.
Bazaz went to every jail, every interrogation centre and every security force camp hoping to find his son. "I couldn't find him anywhere," he says. "I went to Delhi and met the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. He assured me that my son would be safe and would be released".
The father also met the then Minister of State for Internal Security Rajesh Pilot. "I met him three times," he says. "He wrote a letter to then Governor asking him to act immediately". The letter that was also forwarded to the then Inspector General of BSF read: "Let me have the facts about this case. I would also appreciate knowing of the system the state government adopts to inform citizens of whereabouts of their family members in such cases".
Pilot's letter to the J-K Governor too failed to secure Sajad's release.
The family filed a case in J-K High court seeking whereabouts of their son. The court constituted a Commission which concluded that Sajad was arrested by BSF personnel. The J-K Crime Branch, in its investigations, too found the Deputy Commandant of BSF, D S Rathore and Asghar involved in the disappearance.
It has been 15 years since Sajad went missing in BSF custody. The fake encounters too have been exposed. But Sajad's family is hoping against hope. "He would be alive," says his father. "I can die peacefully only after I see him or his grave. I need to know about him". Perhaps that is why the family has declined the compensation from the state government.
This disappearance story has its genesis in a scuffle. Fifteen years ago, Sajad Ahmad Bazaz, who ran a grocery store at Hazaratbal, had a scuffle with Asghar, a militant from Nageen, as Asghar hadn't paid the bill for goods purchased from Sajad, the Bazaz family remembers.
A few days later, Asghar was arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF).
Thereafter, Asghar turned an informer. He took the BSF party not to a militant hideout but directly to the home of Sajad. In captivity, Asghar had not forgotten the scuffle with Sajad. "Sajad was sipping tea at home when there was a knock on the door," says Fayaz Ahmad, his older brother. I went out to see who it was. I was surprised to see BSF men. They grabbed me and my brother and paraded me before a masked person."
This is the story of December 12, 1992 when Srinagar was under curfew. The masked man, it later came to be known, was Asghar, who had became an informer for security forces. Sajad was taken away by security forces.
He has not returned home.
The father even took the case to the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, but Sajad remains untraced to this day. "I went to the police station to file an FIR," says 75-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Bazaz, who has been bed-ridden for 15 months now. "The SHO heard me patiently. But I was surprised to know that he hadn't filed an FIR. I am illiterate," he says.
Bazaz went to every jail, every interrogation centre and every security force camp hoping to find his son. "I couldn't find him anywhere," he says. "I went to Delhi and met the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. He assured me that my son would be safe and would be released".
The father also met the then Minister of State for Internal Security Rajesh Pilot. "I met him three times," he says. "He wrote a letter to then Governor asking him to act immediately". The letter that was also forwarded to the then Inspector General of BSF read: "Let me have the facts about this case. I would also appreciate knowing of the system the state government adopts to inform citizens of whereabouts of their family members in such cases".
Pilot's letter to the J-K Governor too failed to secure Sajad's release.
The family filed a case in J-K High court seeking whereabouts of their son. The court constituted a Commission which concluded that Sajad was arrested by BSF personnel. The J-K Crime Branch, in its investigations, too found the Deputy Commandant of BSF, D S Rathore and Asghar involved in the disappearance.
It has been 15 years since Sajad went missing in BSF custody. The fake encounters too have been exposed. But Sajad's family is hoping against hope. "He would be alive," says his father. "I can die peacefully only after I see him or his grave. I need to know about him". Perhaps that is why the family has declined the compensation from the state government.
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