I want justice. I want to see my son. I want him if he is alive, and if dead: Agya Kour

By: Sheikh Gulzaar
Srinagar: Family of a youth is awaiting justice for the past 11 years, demanding the whereabouts of their son, they say, was picked up by Special Operations Group of  Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Ichpal’s mother, Agya Kour, said her son left home on March 20, 1999 to get sugar from market, but never returned. “All I remember is that the incident took place one year after the Chittisingpora massacre,” she said, adding, “My son was on way to the market when the SOG picked him up. Since then, I have been moving from pillar to post for justice. I want my son.”

The family resides at Sanat Nagar on the city outskirts after migrating from Arina village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Ichpal, son of Karan Singh, was 13-year-old at the time of his arrest. “An SOG man would demand money from us after we sold a cow. But we refused,” she said.

In 2000, Kour said she filed a report about the case in police station, Saddar, and later moved the JK Human Rights Commission in 2001 when police did nothing.  In its judgment in 2003, the Commission recommended to the government that an amount of Rs 1 lakh be paid to Kour as ex-gratia relief and sent the order to chief secretary for implementation. “The Government shall inform the Commission about its action within one month,” the JKHRC said.

The 2-page report mentioned that the boy’s antecedents were “not shady” and the “police has not stated that he was involved in any anti-national or any illegal action.” Even the senior superintendent of police, Srinagar, in his report said that the youth was not involved in any militancy-related activity.

“The then government didn’t respect the JKHRC verdict. For three years, I was not given the ex-gratia even as I am very poor lady, working as peon and having an  ailing husband,” Kour said.

The ex-gratia was sanctioned to Kour on 10 July, 2006, by the then deputy commissioner, Budgam. But, Kour said, the amount could not compensate her son’s loss. “I want justice. I want to see my son. I want him if he is alive, and if dead, I want the killers behind bars,” she told me .(Writer-South Asia)

Kashmiri Pandit boy’s disappearance

Sage cashmeriana: http://jkmpic.blogspot.com

Srinagar, 29 April:  Five weeks on, there is no word about 21-year-old Kashmiri Pandit boy who went missing from his native village Chandrigam in South Kashmir’s Aishmuqam town.  Such instances are not new to Kashmir but Sushil Kumar’s disappearance is significant for two reasons. For one he is a non-Muslim Kashmiri Pandit. Two, his family is among hundreds of other Pandit families that chose to stay put when other Pandit citizens left Valley in 1990, due to mounting violence and a series of murders.

For years now disappearance of Kashmiri youth has been a global concern. Thousands of Kashmiris have gone missing, either in mysterious circumstances or in state custody. Even though the figures projected by state and local human rights bodies are contradictory safe estimates put the number of those missing around seven thousand. By this estimation more than hundred thousand people who are related to these disappeared persons are suffering the trauma. 

The suffering of ‘half-widows’ is a tragic aspect of this issue because the women whose husbands have gone missing are living an uncertain life, their children growing with a huge sense of insecurity.  There has been lot of international focus on this issue with global institutions supporting campaigns in Kashmir. Amidst such complex situation the disappearance of a Pandit boy should have evoked widespread concern among Kashmiri stakeholders. The nature of Sushil’s disappearance may or may not be like other disappearances yet it demanded a sharper response from the government as well as the separatist groups. But, unfortunately, both ignored this issue, triggering further alienation of the non-migrant Pandits. It took a month for main opposition Peoples Democratic Party to react and slam state government over the issue. At a time when mass graves have exposed the reality behind government denials about custodial disappearances and separatist forces too are being blamed for hatching conspiracies against colleagues, it is the moral duty of both mainstream and separatist leaders that they launch a joint effort to trace Sushil Kumar. 

The state government has big stakes in tracing this boy as it is spending huge money to woo back Pandits putting up in Jammu and elsewhere. If the state fails to trace him it will instil a sense of insecurity not just among those willing to return but among those eight thousand who have been living through all sorts of difficulties alongside their Muslim brethren. On the other hand, separatist leaders have taken upon themselves the arduous task of ‘protecting’ the minority community. Notwithstanding the question how can separatists protect minorities in a vicious conflict that is dotted with political massacres and murders, the separatists should side the victim family.