CART-PULLER WENT MISSING AFTER ARREST; AS THE FAMILY WAS SEARCHING FOR HIM, HIS BROTHER DIED IN ENCOUNTER

Mir Ehsan

Fourteen years ago, Jana Begum had three sons. One fell to army bullets, she says, while another disappeared after his arrest by Border Security Force (BSF) jawans stationed at Batergam, but not in that order.

First came the arrest and the subsequent disappearance of Ghulam Nabi Magray, who was then 19 years old. That was on January 3, 1993. Older brother Ghulam Hassan was killed in an encounter later.

Jana Begum says she had no regrets about Hassan's killing as he was a militant. He was associated with the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen. But she is angry about the disappearance of Magray, who used to pull a cart to earn for the large family, which had eight female members besides her youngest son, Nazir Ahmed, who was only six years old when Magray was arrested.

Magray was returning home after day's hard work when he was arrested.

It was during the family's search for Magray that Ghulam Hassan was killed in an encounter with the army. "I have lost two of my sons, and have no regrets about my oldest son. He was a militant," says Jana Begum. "But what was the fault of my other son?"
"He had nothing to do with militancy and had no political affiliations," she says.

The old and frail Jana Begum, who lives in a mud house, has no hope of Magray ever returning. She believes he was killed in custody. "I have the firm belief that my son was killed in BSF custody and his body dumped into some stream," she says.

Her youngest son Nazir sees a reason behind the "disappearance". "His only fault was that he was brother of a militant. As the BSF could not arrest my older brother, they arrested Nabi instead," says Nazir. Immediately after the arrest, the family, along with local villagers, approached officials of the BSF camp "where he was detained". "Officers at Batergam camp assured them that he will be released within three days," says Nazir. "It's now 14 years since the arrest. We have no news of him. I think he was killed soon after his arrest," adds Nazir.

All his mother now wants is justice. "I want all those BSF men who killed my son in custody for no reason to be punished," says Begum.

Fearing reprisals, the poverty stricken family had decided not to lodge a case with police or file a report with human rights groups. "After the disappearance of my son and killing of the other, I didn't want to lose my remaining son and gave up the case," says Begum. The family has no faith in the police or state administration.

"We are poor people and nobody speaks for the downtrodden. But I have full faith in the Almighty. The BSF personnel responsible for disappearance of my son will meet with the same fate," says Begum.

'I AM WAITING FOR HIS RETURN, HE WILL DEFINITELY RETURN'

Inam ul Haq

Pursuing PhD after getting his Masters degree in commerce from Aligarh Muslim University, Syed Basharat Ahmad was on a month's visit to his home in Batamaloo, when he disappeared. In a few days he was to return to submit a synopsis for his PhD.

But before that, Basharat was asked by his father to go to Sopore on a business errand. In Sopore, while Basharat was riding a tonga (horse cart), he was picked up by the 50 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), according to four others who were picked up along with Basharat. Basharat, along with neighbours Shabir Ahmad Mir and Ghulam Mohiudin, was arrested on October 12, 1990. Two tonga drivers were also held.

After a few days, all except Basharat were released, says Basharat's mother Haleema Shah, adding that he was carrying Rs 2.35 lakh with him when he was arrested.

"We got to know (of the arrest) six days later," says Haleema. "We rushed to Sopore and went to Doabgah CRPF camp. They denied having arrested him. We searched for him in every camp."

They went to every police official and bureaucrat for help. "In spite of the four arrested along with him giving eyewitness accounts, CRPF denied having held Basharat," says his mother. "My husband and I went to all higher-ups. But nobody could ascertain my son's whereabouts".

There was a ray of hope in 1996 when a person who had gone to visit his arrested brother in Kot Bhalwal Jail told them that Basharat was lodged in that jail. "We immediately rushed to Kot Bhalwal, only to be told that Basharat wasn't there," Haleema says adding that afterwards they went to Tihar and Jodhpur jails too in search of Basharat.

His father Syed Mohammad Amin filed a habeas corpus writ. On High Court orders, SHO Sopore was asked to file an FIR and the IGP and DIG of police told to disclose the ground of Basharat's arrest. According Haleema, the High Court, after examining the four witnesses arrested along with Basharat, told the SHO concerned to register a case. The SHO did not arrest anybody in connection with the matter. The CRPF also constituted a court of inquiry. The results of the inquiry were yet to be known, adds Haleema.

For the last one year, Haleema, who is a retired schoolteacher, has been battling it alone. "My husband died last year. The last word he uttered was 'Basharat'. Now I have to go to court and other places alone," says the 62-year-old Haleema.

Pointing at a photograph, Haleema adds, "This is my son. Maybe he was arrested as he was sporting a beard. I hope he is somewhere in a jail. I am waiting for his return. He will definitely return."

SHE KNOCKED ALL DOORS, BUT NO TRACE OF HER SON

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."

A DISAPPEARANCE BEFORE THE MILITANCY BEGAN IN KASHMIR

Majid Jahangir

This missing case is different in that it took place before insurgency began. Farooq Ahmed Teli of south Kashmir's Tral was detained by police in 1988. Thirty years old then, Teli, a resident of Diver Tral, was picked up from his residence in March 1988 for allegedly duping some local people. Teli was a labourer and the family's lone bread earner.

Jelli his wife, accompanied by his brother, went to see him at Pahalgam police station. His wife says they met him in the lockup. He told them he was innocent and asked them to do something urgently for his release. The two assured Teli that everything will be fine. It was the last they saw of him.

The family has never seen him since and believes he is no more. Police say he escaped from custody.

"The next time we went to see him (Teli), police told us he had escaped from custody," recalls his wife who was then six months pregnant. "We were shocked to hear it and immediately lodged a case with the police."

Teli's neighbours and close relatives started a search for him. "We went from pillar to post, but to no avail," says his neighbour Mohammad Amin who has been following the case for the last 19 years. "A few policemen told the family in private that he had died in custody."

After Teli went missing, his wife faced tough days both on the domestic front as well in her search for her husband. "I worked as a domestic help and earned for my two sons and a daughter. Besides, I had to save money to follow my husband's case," says Jalli.

The family met senior police and civil officials to know the whereabouts of her husband and lodged a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission in 1997 accusing the police of custodial disappearance. The court later issued summons to police officials of the district. The court was informed by police that Teli had escaped from custody and an FIR was already registered in the case. Even as the family still waits for justice, they have lost all hope of Teli's return.

"I don't believe my husband will return," says Jelli. "He was intelligent. Had he been alive, he would have contacted us. But that never happened. So we have the firm belief that he is no more," says Jelli who had to face strange questions from her youngest son born after his father went missing. "My son Manzoor Ahmed asks me how he would recognise his father whom he has never seen. I have no answers for his simple questions. I console him giving him false hope."

A SCUFFLE THAT COST DEARLY

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.

EIGHT-YEAR-OLD JAVEED WENT MISSING AFTER HURLING STONE AT CRPF VEHICLE

MAJID JAHANGIR

On October 3, 1990, eight-year-old Javeed Ahmed Dar was playing cricket at a Rajbagh locality when he was picked up for daring to hurl a stone at moving vehicles of the CRPF, according to his friends.

Javeed was the youngest to have disappeared in custody in Kashmir.

"I remember that autumn of 1990. All schools were closed as Eid Milad was being observed. That day, my eight-year-old son was picked up," recalls Javeed's mother Suriya of Ladroo village of Sopore in Baramulla district. "It was Javeed's friends who narrated how he was picked up by a security patrol near Rajbagh."

It was the desire to give quality education to Javeed in Srinagar that attracted his grandfather Abdul Aziz Bhat to Rajbagh. The family secured his admission to a private English medium school. Their dream of providing Javeed good education remained unfulfilled.

Soon after Javeed was picked up, Suriya shifted to Rajbagh from Sopore and began the search for her son. "I stayed at my parents' house at Rajbagh for two years to locate my son. We went everywhere, visited every jail. But could not locate him," says Javeed's mother.

The family approached the then Senior Superintendent of Police, Counter-Intelligence, Kashmir and senior CRPF officers in Srinagar. One of the police officers, Suriya says, told the family that Dar was lodged in the Airport interrogation centre. The family immediately went to the interrogation centre, but could not trace him.

"We also met the then advisor to the Governor and he instructed the agencies concerned to inform us about Javeed's whereabouts," says Suriya. "But he could not be located."

The family turned to local shrines with only one prayer: "Allah will help the family find Javeed."

"We have been passing through a traumatic phase for the past 17 years. We are a poor family and only Allah knows how we have spent these years," says Suriya.

But she has not given up the hope of meeting her son. "I still have the firm belief that I will meet my son who must be a young man now," she sobs.

WHERE IS FAYAZ? WILL PARIHAR PLEASE ANSWER THE BEIGS

BASHARAAT MASOOD

Like everyday, Fayaz Ahmad Beig left home for the University in his motorcycle. But on September 6, 1997, like all other days, he didn’t reach the Centre for Central Asian Studies, where he worked as a photographer.

He didn’t even return home. Late in the afternoon, some University students informed the Beig family that police had taken him away from near Hazratbal, outside the campus.

After running from pillar to posts and searching all possible places, Abdul Rashid Beig, Fayaz’s father gathered that on orders of H R Parihar, then SP Pulwama, his son was arrested by Special Operations Group (SOG).

So when Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Parihar was arrested in the fake encounter cases, a hope was rekindled in the senior Beig’s heart - he hoped to see the grave of his son. At least now, 10 years later.

“Parihar knows where my son is. I want news of him whether he is dead or alive. If he is dead, they should hand over the body. I want to die in peace,” says a tearful Beig.

“The entire family went out looking for him,” his father said. “For the next three days, we visited every SOG camp in Kashmir. We visited Pulwama, we visited Shopian and to Anantnag. But nothing came out.”

Teachers, students and employees of Kashmir University then demonstrated against Fayaz’s arrest forcing the then SHO of Nageen, Ghulam Hassan Naaz to order a field inquiry. The family was then informed that SOG of Pulwama had arrested Fayaz.

A day later, the family got a clue. Fayaz’s motorcycle was spotted at Lethpora, Pulwama. A SOG constable was riding it. The family visited Pulwama and a gunman confirmed that Fayaz was lodged at the camp and that he has been arrested on the direction of Parihar, then SP Pulwama.

“I visited the IGP office,” recalls Beig. “His PRO informed that a meeting of all the SPs would be convened on September 10 (1997) regarding my son. On the D-day, I again visited his office where then SSP Pulwama, Karnail Singh handed me a letter for Parihar asking him to release my son.”

The following day the old man met the SP of Awantipora. “He assured me that they will release Fayaz the next morning,” he said. But, that was just the beginning of the tormenting year ahead. In fact, more bad news was waiting for him. As the senior Beig reached home, there was a message for him from SHO of Soura - “Produce Fayaz before him (SHO)”. The father left his home for the police station, Soura.

“SHO Abdul Rashid Khan told me that a sub-inspector from SOG camp Lethpora has filed an FIR that Fayaz has fled from custody,” Beig said. “How could that happened? Only few hours ago, the SP had confirmed his arrest and assured me of his release,” said the depressed man.

The family didn’t lose hope and continued their unending search. The family also approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). In 2000, the SHRC concluded that Fayaz has been picked up by Parihar and his men and was forced to disappear. SHRC called for action against police officials.

Seven years have passed and the directions are yet to be complied with. Now that police have launched an internal inquiry to probe the fake encounter killings and Parihar is already behind the bars, Beig and his family hopes to get some news of their lost son. “Is Fayaz is dead or alive,” asks Beig not knowing whether he would ever get an answer.