KASHMIR: The Mother of all Tragedies! A Painful Report on 4 Missing Kashmiris

Quayyum Raja

As a columnist, I should be able to control my emotions while writing a report, but after all, I am a human being, who can not remain completely unaffected by what I have discovered and experienced today in Tattapani, a border town of disputed Kashmir, the mother of all sorts of tragedies. Therefore, please forgive me if this report seems incoherent.

I am from Pakistani administered Kashmir. About two weeks ago, I received an email from a parliamentarian Professor Bhim Singh of the Indian- held Kashmir. He is also a human rights lawyer. I was shocked to learn that 4 Prisoners of War from the Pakistani administered Kashmir were in Indian jail since 1965 war between India and Pakistan. Their families were told that they had been martyred and their families had been commemorating their martyrdom every year ever since. However, a prisoner released from the Indian jail a few years back told the families his former inmates that they were all alive in Central Jail Jammu. The nephew of Alam Sher approached the Red Cross in Islamabad, but was told that the Indian authorities would not allow the Red Cross to see the files of prisoners arrested before 1982. The file of these prisoners somehow caught an eye of Professor Bhim Singh, who had already successfully secured the release of many political prisoners. Professor Bhim Singh contacted the nephew of inmate Alam Sher, whose phone No. was on the Red Cross file. The families of the inmates sent Professor Bhim Singh a letter of authority to represent them. Mr. Singh filed a writ petition to the Indian Supreme Court to produce these men in the court and hand them over to the Pakistani authorities, which has chosen to remain silent this far.

I wrote a column in several Pakistani dailies, requesting the Pakistani authorities to take necessary steps. A reader of my column named Shahed Hanif Malik, an NGO officer in Islamabad, sent me an email, suggesting a meeting with the families of the prisoners. We both met with the families on 12.11.2011 in Tattapani, three hours car drive from my home town Khuiratta. A 62 years old Ms. Fateh Begum, who was only 17 at the time of the disappearance of her 21 years old husband Baga Khan, sat beside me, who started slowly how and when her husband and brother disappeared. . She had only 10 months old son Mohammad Riaz, who is now a father of three grown up children. As tears rolled down her cheek, Fateh Begum said she was urged repeatedly by relatives and neighbors to marry again, but she did not. Many Kashmiri women, who remarried after they were told their husbands were martyred, now, think, if their former husbands are also alive in prisons. Mohammad Bashir was 2 years old when his father Burkat Hussain disappeared. Inmate Alam Sher’s brother passed away, but his dutiful nephew Mohammad Ayub born in 1966, a year after the disappearance of his uncle is fighting for him. He has gone to everyone, but of no avail.

My emotions have eroded me at least for the time being. All I can say in the name of humanity that please:

1. Exercise whatever influence anyone of you have to persuade the Indian authorities to release the said prisoners without going into an unnecessary bureaucratic process.
2. Help Kashmir to be reunited to end the sufferings of thousands of Divided Kashmiri Families.

Quayyum Raja

Chairman: Kashmir Justice Forum

Mobile: 03465211284

Email:  aq_raja56@hotmail.com