| Wailing, waiting mother dies silently | | |
Sports Reporter
Srinagar, Oct 10: "Chaandaan Ha Sarhaddan Bah Chchess Waddan Myiaani Maashoaqo, Cholhoma Door bah Chchess Waddan Myiaani Maashoaqo" (I searched you on borders, where are you my beloved? I'm wailing; You went far away from me, O' my son I'm wailing). A mother who longed for her son's return for 13 years died silently in her ruined house at Fateh Kadal, Old City on October 5 last week.
Haseena Begum was the founding member of Association of Parents for Disappeared Persons (APDP). , Her son Syed Anwar Shah was picked up and subjected to enforced disappearance by unknown agencies on July 21, 2000. Earlier, another mother Mogli also died the same way while waiting for the return of her disappeared son.
Haseena's daughter-in-law, Naseema, while talking to GNS said, "I don't know what to do as my sole guide (mother-in-law) left me all-alone to fight this "cruel world".
She said her 8-year-old daughter Shazia is completely shattered as "after waiting for her father's return her only grandmother left to heavenly abode." "I believe my husband is alive and he is in forces' custody. I tried a lot to convince myself that he (Anwar) is no more but am unable to agree upon," the broken-up Naseema said.
Talking to GNS, Chairman, Association of Parents for Disappeared Persons (APDP) Parveena Ahanger said that during 23 years of strife more than 1,500 women have become half widows, 70,000 dead and more than 8,000 have disappeared across Kashmir.
"State government must institute an independent commission of inquiry into the complaints of disappearances and other human rights violations," she said, adding APDP calls upon the state to comply with its obligations under the International human rights laws and also provide adequate compensation to the families of the disappeared persons.
Association of Disappeared persons (APDP) is holding protests every month to demand whereabouts of their kith and kin who are subjected to enforced disappearances since last 24 years. |
|
