In the first week of August last year, the stage was set for the government of India to remove the special status of the conflict-ridden Jammu and Kashmir. To ensure that everything be under control, the government led by Narendra Modi detained thousands of people across the erstwhile state. The govt didn’t even forgive the mainstream politicians who acted as a bridge between the Centre and the state from years. Dozens of pro-Indian politicians and activists including the former three Chief Ministers of the region are still under detention.
These politicians usually are talk of the town but thousands of Kashmiris who were detained on the pretext of ‘threat to law and order’ and then shifted to outside valley are still behind bars, although the government claimed that ‘everything is normal in Kashmir.’
TwoCircles.net will be doing a series of stories in which we will be highlighting the struggle of families whose kins have been detained and shifted to different jails across the Country.
In the 3rd part of the stories, our Correspondent from Kashmir Auqib Javeed traveled to South Kashmir’s Volatile Pulwama district to meet a 51-year-old man who managed to meet his son, currently detained in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly but failed to talk to him. Here is the Journey from Pulwama to Bareilly.
Pulwama: In the first week of August 2019 the Jammu and Kashmir Police along with other government agencies had started the mass operation of detaining people who could be a ‘threat to law and order’ based on their previous records with the police. Media reports suggest that thousands of Kashmiris were detained across the erstwhile state, including mainstream and separatist leaders — many of whom continue to be incarcerated in different jails far from their homes.
Over five months on, thousands of people are still under detention and their families struggle to meet them, Many don’t even know about the whereabouts about the detainees. But 51-years old Mohammad Maqbool Hurra of Kakpora, Pulwama decided to meet his son Irfan Hurra @Irfan Molvi ‘come what may.’
Irfan, 26 years old, was detained by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on August 4, 2019. He was kept in a local Police station and then shifted to Central Jail in Srinagar some 40 kilometers away from his home.
‘The cops from a local police station came to my house on August 3 at around 1:00 AM and asked whereabouts of my son. I told them that he is in a local Dar-Ul-Uloom(Religious school) and they asked for my Identity card and took it,’ Sr Hurra said.
Hurra assured them that he will send his son to the police station, Kakpora, Pulwama next day.
The cops left the house with a stern warning that if Irfan didn’t come to the police station, the NIA (National Investigating Agency) or any other agency might detain him.
‘Phir hume nahi kehna (Don’t ask us then if your son would be detained) by NIA or any other agency’, the cops warned said Hurra.
The next day, Hurra left home in search of his son. “I found him in a local mosque and I narrated him the whole story and asked him that he should go to the police station,” Hurra said.
Irfan was reluctant to go to the police station but his father forced him fearing that he might be arrested as cops from the Kakpora police station had warned.
Hurra accompanied his son to the police station where he was detained.
On the next day, Hurra’s brother informed him that Irfan has been shifted to Central Jail Srinagar.
Since then, several days passed and Sr Hurra neither met his son nor had any clue about his whereabouts.
‘Curfew was imposed in the entire state, phones and other means of communication were shut and it was difficult for us to locate our son’, Hurra says.
The 51-years-old couldn’t bear the separation from his son and decided to travel to Srinagar some 40 kilometers away from his home town amid strict restrictions in the entire valley.
‘I had nothing with me-no curfew pass, no communication but I managed to reach Srinagar along with my brother.’, Hurra says.
On reaching Srinagar, Hurra was shocked to know that his son had been shifted to District Jail Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.
‘I returned back home disappointed, all I was thinking was about my son. I recalled how the local SHO assured that my son will be safe in his custody and how he betrayed me,” Hurra says adding that if he knew that the cops will betray him he won’t have handed his son over to them.’
This was something Hurra had never expected or experienced. He has never traveled outside valley and has no idea where to go and how to meet his son. The economic crises at his home was also the reason that initially hampered his travel.
Un-ending Tragedies series’s other parts are here:
Un-ending Tragedies II: How Kashmiris are struggling to meet their kin detained outside
But after over 45 days Hurra decided to travel to UP to meet his son.
‘I took some money from my neighbors and booked Air tickets with the help of my son’s friend but I didn’t know where to go.’, Hurra said.
A day before leaving the valley Hurra was thinking about his son the whole night.
‘Can I meet him? Is it possible for me to reach him?’ These questions were striking his mind again and again.
Fortunately, a student from Pulwama, who was studying in Delhi came to know about Hurra and decided to volunteer to help him make the Journey.
‘I reached Delhi and the boy accompanied me to UP. After 4 days of travel we finally reached the District Jail Bareilly.’, Hurra recounts.
Despite having never traveled outside the valley, Hurra came all the way from Kashmir to meet his son. He braved great difficulties to meet Irfan but little did he know that he would not be able to speak to him.
‘I met my son, we hugged and wept. As I started talking to him, a security guard taunted me for speaking in Kashmiri.’, Hurra says.
He didn’t know any language other than Kashmiri and there was so much to talk, so much to share between a father and a son longing to meet for weeks.
‘Kashmiri mai baat mat karo, Hindi mai karo(don’t talk in Kashmiri talk in Hindi) the security guard instructed’, says Hurra.
‘I was so helpless, we wept and I told my son not to lose hope.’, Hurra narrated.
‘He hugged me and whispered in my ear saying Baba, I was tortured here.’
Hurra’s family only hopes that their son returns home alive. The family is now planning to sell their land to pay the loans that were taken to meet their son.