Sheikh Nadeem
As Eid nears, many families in Kashmir will wait for their beloved ones to reach home, to have the family together for Eid joy and feasts, however, that seems a distant dream with Government in no mood to release any detainees.
In the Kashmir valley and in Jammu, more than 4000 people, as per a report, were detained in connection with the abrogation of Article 370, the partial special status to Jammu Kashmir, At such a time, when Politicians are also being sent an extension after extension, the PSA detention of former chief minister of Jammu Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti has also been extended by three months, a family from South Kashmir has appealed the authorities to release their sole-bread earner son who has been languishing in Kathua Jail under contentious Public Safety Act from 18 Months.
Tariq Ahmad Malik, 28, Son of Nazir Ahmad Malik, a resident of Dandweth area in Kokernag of Islamabad (Anantnag) district was arrested under the Public safety act and has been languishing in the Kathua jail for the past eighteen months, his neighbours told The Kashmiriyat.
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Tariq is father to an infant and a lone brother of three sisters. He was arrested eighteen months ago, after that, he was booked under Public Safety Act and shifted to Kathua Jail, his old mother told The Kashmiriyat. Detailing further she said that, the family is too poor to afford frequent meetings with Tariq. “I do not know howsoever, we must meet him.”
Hundreds of prisoners from across the Kashmir valley are languishing in jails amid the massive on spread of covid 19 in entire india, the detainees, especially in Uttar Pradesh, are facing, the wrath of a hot indian summer, as well. Many of them have been sent extensions to their PSA Detention time in May for a period of three months.
Here in Kashmir, the families are worried about the well being of their loved ones. “it is very tough for us to go there and meet our son, Nadeem,” a family from Kulgam told The Kashmiriyat. They said that 18-year old Nadeem was arrested on 06 August without any provocation, he has never seen the Police station, and he was picked up during a nocturnal raid at his home in Bolsu Kulgam. “The next week, after searching him intensely, we were told that he had been flown away to an Uttar Pradesh Jail”.
The Jammu Kashmir Government after a period of almost nine months started releasing the prisoners who had been detained under Public Safety act during the abrogation of special status of Jammu Kashmir in August last year. “The quashing of PSA normally started from three months, but this time, the situation has been ugly, the courts released almost nobody”, a senior lawyer Mujeeb Syed told The Kashmiriyat.
Tariq’s mother said that she wishes to see her son before she breathes her breath. “I cannot always be living here with this remorse, i also await for regenerating happiness and kiving a happy life,” Tariq’s sister said while appealing the administration to release Tariq before Eid ul Fitr.
His wife, in conversation with The Kashmiriyat said that she faces immense problems, ‘how to earn and how to feed an infant baby’.
“Our family is dependent upon him. He is neither a militant nor a stone-pelter, It is a sheer harassment. We appeal Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu, Director General of Police and IGP to look into the matter and pave way for his release,” family said while demanding the release of Tariq Ahmad Malik before Eid ul Fitr.
In Kulgam Nadeem’s family is a little less hopeful, his father a carpenter by profession says, that he wanted to at least go and meet Nadeem, so that they could at least give him something for the month of Ramdhan. “i am unsure, how they are spending Ramdhan in the jail, they are, i am sure, going through a really miserable time.” His father says the people out there have animosity, which is deeply rooted in “widespread confusion” about Islamic identity and the “lazy contrast between ‘radical’ and ‘moderate’ Islamic practice”.
Hundreds of families in Kashmir including those of business heads, activists, youth and the old aged are awaiting their release in Kashmir.