Many youth have gone missing during the last 22 years of strife in Kashmir and for many of them there is no record or even an FIR in a police station. Most of their families have given up hope of seeing them again. Javaid Naikoo reports the unreported missing from Shopian
In the last more than two decades hundreds of youth have gone missing and they don’t figure in any records – neither of the police nor in any NGO’s working in Kashmir.
Most of these families have tried everywhere to glean any information about the whereabouts of their kin but years of efforts have proved futile. The families of these unfortunate, unreported missing persons have been living a traumatic life.
Nazir Ahmad Bhat, son of Ghulam Qadir Bhat from Hergam Shopian was 18 years old, when on December7, 1991 he went missing from his home. Haleema, the mother of Nazir Ahmad has been carrying his now worn out photograph in her pocket right from the day Nazir left his home.
“Since the day Nazir left home, we started searching for him everywhere we could. Our search started from the neighborhood and ended with the relative circle we have. Then we went to the police stations one after another across the valley, years passed but we are still hopeful that he will be somewhere and he will come back,” says Haleema.
Haleema’s husband died last year. She lives with her younger son Abbas Ahmad, who works as a peon in a nearby private school.
Abbas was a young teenager when Nazir went missing. He says, “I remember the day, we went to the nearby police station to lodge Nazir’s missing report there, however during (19)90’s the police station was set ablaze by a crowd and after re-establishment of the police station, no record of Nazir’s missing was available there.”
The family does not know anything about Nazir after he left his home. “We don’t know whether he joined a militant group or if he was killed or he is alive somewhere,” the family says.
Abbas who earns Rs 2000 from his job barely manages to make two ends meet. He can’t afford medicines for his mother who is suffering from heart ailments.
“Many a time we decide to visit a heart specialist in Srinagar, yet every time I fail to manage even the doctor’s fee,” says Abbas.
On the morning of October 28, 1990 Hajra sent her son Javaid Ahmad Gundroo to buy milk.
“Since then I have not seen him,” Says Hajra of Shopian.
During the peak of militancy in Kashmir, the family contacted militant groups at various places to know whether Javaid has joined any of them or went to Pakistan administered Kashmir for arms training or if he was killed somewhere after he left home.
“Till date nobody came here to report or ask about his missing and neither we approached any media organization or NGO to report his missing except twice; once when Army personnel from Bihi-Bagh camp cordoned off our house and started asking about Javaid some eight years ago and at another time when we went to police station Shopian to avoid trouble from the forces,” says Hajra.
Javaid was pursuing graduation the year he left home and his family was hopeful that he would get a job soon and help the family.
“Our family became disturbed after Javaid went missing, my mother was on the bed for many years as she was suffering from paralysis,” says Tasleema, sister of Javaid.
During the times of gun battles between militants and security forces at various places in Kashmir, the family would see press and TV reports about the ones killed in such incidents. “We always feared Javaid may be among them,” say the family members. “We want him to come back, we wish he is alive,” says his mother Hajra.
Mudasir Ahmad Turey son of Ghulam Mohammed Turey of Bona Bazar Shopian has been missing since October 18, 2001.
“On that day we were in Srinagar for some work and on our return we found Mudasir missing from home. Without wasting any time, we started looking for him everywhere we thought he could be. Even today everybody in the home curses the day and regrets why we left him alone at home,” says his brother Javaid Ahmad.
The family has been living in uncertainty since that fateful day as the family has had no news of him, says Javaid.
“There was an encounter in Poonch in which a number of militants were killed,” says Javaid without remembering the date. “After sometime the photographs of the slain militants were displayed at Police station Shopian as there were rumours that some of the slain were from Shopian and that Mudasir was among the killed. However, as in previous such cases it was just a rumour,” says Javaid.
My father and mother died because of Mukhtar Ahmad. All day and night they would remember him,” says Altaf Ahmad, brother of Mukhtar.
Mukhtar Ahmad son of Abdul Rehman Beig, from Bona Bazar Shopian was 14 years old when in July 1991 he left his home. He used to live with his cousin Bashir Ahmad, from whom he was learning tailoring.
Their cousin Nazir Ahmad says that they tried all means to locate Mukhtar Ahmad. “The areas like Aharbal, Kongwattan and Pir Panjaal ranges during those days were considered as militancy prone areas and we not only searched for him in such far flung areas, but also looked for him everywhere we could go in Kashmir,” he says.
Altaf, who is an embroidery worker, says that Mukhtar’s missing “brought misery after misery” to the family.
Their mother lost mental balance during the last years of her life. “I would be ashamed of myself when my mother would do insane things,” says Altaf. “His mother over the years would abuse security forces publically and would repeatedly say that ‘they took my son’.”
A family has searched their missing son from Kashmir to Pakistan and finally decided to live with the belief that their son must have been killed while crossing the LoC.
Sharief Ahmad of Bonagam Shopian, barely 18, was a daily-wage employee in Public Health Engineering department when he left his home.
Though the family members don’t remember the exact date Sharief left his home, a day hardly passes when they would not talk about him.
“Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches,” says Tahir, brother of Sharief Ahmad. “Life has never been the same since he (Sharief) left.”
These cases of the few missing from one area inside the valley may be indicative of the real number of the highly contentious and widely disparate figures of the disappeared put forth by the government and human rights groups working in Kashmir.
