Night raids in Kashmir traumatise people

April 27, 2021

Kulgam/Srinagar: Outside her modest home in Frisal village of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, Jawahira Bano (58) is crying, as her neighbours come forward to console her. Her husband Ghulam Nabi Rah (65) has been summoned to the police station Yaripora.

It has been a complete nightmare for the ailing couple for past one week, since their lone child Saima Akhter, in her 30’s, was arrested under anti terror law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by J&K Police, the department she had been associated with until recently.

Now terminated from her services, Saima was a special police officer (SPO) with J&K’s Police Department for past five years, her family says.

The couples’ nightmare started on April 16 after video of their daughter Saima confronting security forces during a raid at their home went viral on social media.  

In the three minute and 57 second video, Saima could be heard saying: ‘…agar meree maa ko kuch huwa na phir aap loag dekhoo gai…Bar bar aatee ho… unkee ghar jao na jahan militant hain. Humareay ghar mein koi nahi hai, bar bar aatee ho aisee he, meree mai bhimar hai…(…if something happens to my mother, then you will see…You come regularly…Go to houses of those where there are militants. There is nobody in our home. You come regularly like this. My mother is ill.)

“They don’t even allow us to have a pre-dawn meal sehri in Ramzan,” she yells.

Cracking a whip against Saima, the police statement said: “Lady SPO” was terminated from the service for ‘glorifying terrorism’ and obstructing government officials in the discharge of their duty.”

It added: “On 14th of April 2021, on a specific input regarding the presence of terrorists in Karewa Mohallah of village Frisal, a search operation was launched. The search party was obstructed to by a lady identified as Saima Akther… The lady resisted the search party & turned violent and uttered statements glorifying violent actions of terrorists. She captured a video through her personal phone and uploaded it on social media platforms for dissemination with the intent of disrupting the search operation.”

In another statement, police said: “…the accused woman uttered anti-India and pro-freedom slogans off-camera thus inviting penal action under ULA(P)Act. The uttering made on-camera was livestreamed for further dissemination on diverse social media platforms with the intention to cause disruption of an ongoing operation and to incite disaffection towards the State. This is punishable under the Indian Penal Code and ULA(P)Act”.
 
It added: “Also, the accused being a police employee is bound by a code of conduct which was brazenly violated by her. Thus the concurrent departmental action has been taken against her”.
 
The statement also termed the SPO as being over ground worker of active Hizb militant.

“The household of the accused is a suspected shelter point of an active Hizb-ul-Mujahidin terrorist namely Aslam Dar and the woman has been on police radar as a suspected OGW; thus was subjected to search. It remains to be investigated whether her act was meant as a disruption tactic to aid escape of the said terrorist when the search operation was underway,” it said.
 
However, Jawahira terms the charges against her daughter being an OGW as “false”. “She was working with the police. And the same person (police) is saying that she was helping militants. Is that possible?” asks Jawahira as she breaks down.
 
She adds frequent raids at their home by security forces had taken mental toll on her daughter. “This was the fourth raid at our home in the recent past. Everybody has a threshold to bear. My daughter’s threshold surpassed on that day,” she says.
 
Jawahira, for a moment, goes inside her house and come out with a holy Quran. “I swear by it. I hope swearing on this holy book in this pious month is enough for you to believe my story which I am going to narrate now,” she says.
 
She says linking her daughter with active Hizb militant is a “cooked story”. “Years back, Dar’s family (now active Hizb militant) from nearby Redwani village had approached us for my daughter’s hand. We didn’t agree on the reason that we wanted son-in-law for our only daughter, who would stay with us,” she says.
 
“This is it. Then we heard (Dar) had joined militancy later. What is our fault? We are being punished for no reason,” she said crying as her husband Rah comes back from police station.
 
“I was asked to write my name on some papers at the police station Yaripora,” says Rah.
 
The couple seems devastated by the tragedy that has befallen upon them following arrest of their lone child. Both Jawahira and Rah are patients suffering from serious ailments. While medical records show Jawahira suffering from carcinoma on chest for which she was undergoing chemotherapy at PGIMER Chandigarh, Rah is a cardiac patient. Two days after her daughter’s arrest, Jawahira had to attend a chemo session at the hospital in Chandigarh. She missed it and there is possibility of not even getting proper medication now for her carcinoma as her daughter is now in jail.
 
The neighbours recall how modest couple originally from Khudwani village had shifted to Frisal to escape frequent floods, and how in the subsequent years, the family built a modest house after living for years in a tin shed braving wind and snow.
 
“It is a deluge to them. It was their daughter who was taking care of her both parents. She was also their bread winner. Her father was a vendor; however ailments have limited him to home. I don’t know how they will survive now?” say neighbours of the couple, who had arrived at their home to console them.
 
Exhausted after frequent crying, Jawahira pleads for her daughter: “If they think my daughter is guilty, then they should arrest me and my husband as well as it is impossible for them to live without her. We are ailing. If we are guilty, it is better for them to burn our entire family once for all.”
 
Yearning for her daughter, ailing Jawahira has gone some five-six times to Kulgam police station where her Saima is lodged. She is also perturbed about her daughter’s illness, which she doesn’t reveal.
 
Nearly 75 kilometres away from Jawahira’s village in Kulgam, lives Rubeena (35) at Batpora area in Srinagar outskirts. She cannot see. She is visually impaired since birth. She used to see the world through the eyes of her mother, now no more.
Her mother Khatija (60) died on April 15. Her death family alleged occurred following a night raid by security forces at their home.

“I was sleeping downstairs with my mother. I heard some noises. I thought it was sehri time. However, noises grew shriller. I could hear my mother and father arguing with some people. I heard them asking for my brother Javaid Ahmad,” says Rubeena.

“I also got up and addressed to these people, who now I could comprehend were security personnel. I told them that my brother was ill and won’t be able to come with them. However, they pushed me and entered inside the room where my brother was sleeping,” she says.

Unlike Rubeena, her other two sisters are married and younger sibling Javaid Ahmad is lone brother of the three sisters.

That night when security forces personnel barged inside Ahmad’s room, he recalls being asked about his mobile phone and laptop. “I was asked to come along. My mother, father and sister were pleading with the Task forces personnel to let me go,” says Ahmad, who works as a graphic designer locally in the area.

Visibly shaken, Ahmad is unable to comprehend as to why security forces conducted raid at his home. “You can check my record. I have never in indulged in anything wrong,” says Ahmad in a jittery voice.

As Javaid was questioned outside, his mother Khatija was frantic for her only son. “She would become perturbed about hearing news of boys getting killed. Encounters, gun fights and other such things,” says Rubeena.

While, she along with her father pleading with the security forces to leave Ahmad, Rubeena recalls her mother had collapsed inside near the main door.

Later, Ahmad was left and asked to report to Zakura Police Station next morning. However, world was devastated for the family already.

“My mother had only cried Haleema (name of her relative living adjacent to them) which I came to know later. I also heard a cop shouting to his colleague to handle my mother to which there was a reply that she is ‘dead’,” says Rubeena.

Later, the people protested in the area and the family recalls how some senior police officers had approached them to “maintain calm”.

“We were offered financial help which we rejected. Neither we will fight for justice as we have seen cases of justice getting dusted in Kashmir. Our only worry is Rubeena,” says brother-in-law of Ahmad, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat (39).
For now, there are relatives to take care of visually impaired Rubeena, however when the dust settles and everyone gets along in their lives, there seems to be no sight for her.

Indianewsstream tried to reach to the police for their version on the case, however repeated calls to the concerned couldn’t elicit any response.

“I am newly appointed to the area. Please, take to the SP sahab,” said a police officer from nearby Zakura police station.

Later, when we tried to reach to concerned SP Hazratbal, his operator said: “Sahab is busy in COVID-19 duty”.