Mohammad Numan
Raja Begum is suffering from dementia, but even after 10 years she remembers the afternoon of March 30, 1997. This was the day when Raja Begum had last seen her son.
Begum's son, Nisar Ahmed Wani, a resident of New Colony Batamaloo was picked up by the Army during a search operation. It was Sunday, when Army's 20 Grenadiers cordoned the area. The soldiers picked up Nisar, a tailor, along with three other residents of the locality. The other three were released a few days later but Nisar didn't return
"We just had finished lunch when the Army barged into our house," recalls Raja Begum. "They were looking for some militants. We didn't know anything. They thrashed all of us and dragged my son out. That was the last time I saw him."
The family, thereafter, lodged an FIR at Batamaloo Police Station. And then a search began. "I have visited almost all the bureaucrats and top Army officials but failed to trace my son," she says. "He was the lone breadwinner for our family."
Heartbroken, but determined Raja Begum continued her search. "I went to the Army camp at Boatman colony, Bemina," she says. "They denied his arrest".
Begum didn't stop there. She filed a petition in the J&K high court. Here too, the case was disposed off but that didn't deter her. "I approached the then state home minister Ali Mohammad Sagar several times," she says. "Each time his PA told reassured me of Nisar's release." She visited the then J-K Governor too but even he couldn't help.
The distraught mother then had one more option left. She took up the case with State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). "After investigation, they (SHRC) recommended grant of ex-gratia," she says. "They told me that no action could be taken against the Army and advised me to go to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). They told me that only they could act against the Army."
During her search, Begum was duped many times. "People took money from me after promising to provide whereabouts of my son," she says. "I remember an ikhwani (a counter-insurgent) taking Rs 50,000 for giving information, but he never showed his face."
The 60-year-old Begum is exhausted but her determination to trace her son has not died down. Even after 10-years of his disappearance, she believes her son would return. "My son is very dear to me," she says. "He can't leave me alone. He will return one day."
Raja Begum is suffering from dementia, but even after 10 years she remembers the afternoon of March 30, 1997. This was the day when Raja Begum had last seen her son.
Begum's son, Nisar Ahmed Wani, a resident of New Colony Batamaloo was picked up by the Army during a search operation. It was Sunday, when Army's 20 Grenadiers cordoned the area. The soldiers picked up Nisar, a tailor, along with three other residents of the locality. The other three were released a few days later but Nisar didn't return
"We just had finished lunch when the Army barged into our house," recalls Raja Begum. "They were looking for some militants. We didn't know anything. They thrashed all of us and dragged my son out. That was the last time I saw him."
The family, thereafter, lodged an FIR at Batamaloo Police Station. And then a search began. "I have visited almost all the bureaucrats and top Army officials but failed to trace my son," she says. "He was the lone breadwinner for our family."
Heartbroken, but determined Raja Begum continued her search. "I went to the Army camp at Boatman colony, Bemina," she says. "They denied his arrest".
Begum didn't stop there. She filed a petition in the J&K high court. Here too, the case was disposed off but that didn't deter her. "I approached the then state home minister Ali Mohammad Sagar several times," she says. "Each time his PA told reassured me of Nisar's release." She visited the then J-K Governor too but even he couldn't help.
The distraught mother then had one more option left. She took up the case with State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). "After investigation, they (SHRC) recommended grant of ex-gratia," she says. "They told me that no action could be taken against the Army and advised me to go to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). They told me that only they could act against the Army."
During her search, Begum was duped many times. "People took money from me after promising to provide whereabouts of my son," she says. "I remember an ikhwani (a counter-insurgent) taking Rs 50,000 for giving information, but he never showed his face."
The 60-year-old Begum is exhausted but her determination to trace her son has not died down. Even after 10-years of his disappearance, she believes her son would return. "My son is very dear to me," she says. "He can't leave me alone. He will return one day."
No comments:
Post a Comment