Yameen Dar
“Why are we raising our sons, they come and take them whenever they like,” says half widow, who has as 30 years long linger.
On 12th April, ’21 in Kashmir, nobody noticed that Zahoor Ahmed Zargar, the youngest among the three brothers and the sole bread earner in the family was taken forcibly by the Police without prior notice or any warrant while he was attending his shop in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar, but the chronicle actually goes way back in the past.
ALSO READ: The Search for the Disappeared in Kashmir
The year is 1990 one of the three brothers was Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar decides to leave his family, chose a path for himself, and joined one of the militant organizations, its insurgency in Kashmir and this is the story of many households of the Valley. But for the Zargar family, this was followed by many raids (Chappa) the first raid by the forces in the year 1992, Kashmir is in its worst affair and with one brother already left and his whereabouts unknown, the raid ended with the forceful disappearance of the eldest brother Fayaz Ahmed Zargar and his brother-in-law Siraj-u-din, who on the night of the raid had attended his in-laws.
Somehow after many days passed Fayaz Ahmed somehow reached home, only once when he reached home he came to know that his brother-in-law is still disappeared and unheard of, unfortunately, Fayaz Ahmed Zargar didn’t return to the same home he was forcibly taken from, with one brother already left, the youngest one too young to bear any responsibly and his sister now left half-widow, a word common in Kashmir.
On 30th April, ’21, The New York Times, published a story of an Indian guy striving to save the life of his parents in the times of the Covid pandemic, they titled it ‘One son’s 48-hour flight to save his parents’. You can visit the store and go through the narrative of how this son is leaving no stone unturned to seek out help, with an ill mother in one side of the country and an unfit father in some other city, this son is making sure he reaches out to both of them.
“More than 30 years have passed but we have only seen raids and got abuses, but for what? Why are we being treated like this? We have no-fault. First, they took my husband and brother, and then in 2017, they took my son Adil Siraj and my nephew Dawood Zargar. They said they will release them in four days as soon as the air thins with Burhan Wani’s word everywhere, but they didn’t and it has been 5 years now. Adil was 20 and Dawood 15 at that time. We were hoping that our sons would by now take responsibility but I fear they would meet the same fate as their uncle and father. If that was not enough they took my brother, the youngest one in the family and now the only bread earner, on the 22nd of April, again saying it only for questioning but it’s has been more than a week” said Afroza Begum, wife of Siraj u Din, while talking to The Kashmiriyat.
“Our brother (Fayaz), who by the horrors and the tortures, he has been through when he was forcibly taken back in ’92, is not the same person. He is asthmatic and is in the bed, with his oxygen saturation dropping after he tested covid positive. We have no other male in the family. And they took my brother also. Our neighbors are by some ways helping and asking us if we need anything. But that is not the way to live, our only sin is that one of our brothers left home and joined an extremist outfit, what he chose for himself brought calamity to us afterward, my son was 6 month, nephew not born at that time Zahoor Ahmad was 7-9 years old, what is their fault? Why are they behind bars for something that is not their deed or fault? Our only request is too honorable Lt. Governor that these are hard times and we want at least Zahoor Ahmed Zargar released as he is the only bread earner and for now the only male in the family” said Afroza Begum.
With all the male members of the Zargar family taken, and the eldest brother unhealthy there is no bread earner in the family. All this seems a miserable tragic story, but what comes is that the future of the family the two sons is also taken. Unlike the Indian guy reported by The New York times, leaving no stone unturned to save his parents. Doesn’t ‘they’ owe it to Adil and Dawood that they being sons leave no stone for the sake of their family in such hard times.