SrinagarSitting in a corner of her wood-panelled room, Fatima Begum (58) is surrounded by a dozen women neighbours and relatives who are trying to console her and keep her hopes alive.
Rosary in hand, she is holding on to prayers for her son, Bilal Ahmad Kawa, who was picked up by the Delhi police at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Jan 10, and remanded to police custody for ten days by a Delhi court two days later.
At their home in the Aali Kadal area of old Srinagar, Kawa family is beset with fears.
His mother is frantic lest her son end up like so many Kashmiri youth who had to endure over a decade of imprisonment before their innocence in terror-related cases was proved.
According to his family, he had told no one at home that he was flying to Delhi. He had planned the visit as a surprise for his two small daughters who, along with their mother, routinely shift to Delhi during winters.
No one had any inkling of the shock they were in for.
Shortly after he was picked up by a special team of the Delhi police and the Gujarat Anti-Terror squad, authorities claimed that Kawa was a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative and had been declared a proclaimed offender in the year 2000 Red Fort attack case.
How could he be a militant and an absconder when he has been issued an Aadhar card and pays his GST bills in his own name? Bilal’s sister, Heena, asks.
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Nobody from the police or any other agency has come to our house these 17 years. How can he suddenly be declared a terrorist?
The family says that Bilal has an Indian passport and had recently got it renewed at the passport office in Srinagar.
One has to go through a lot of police verification before receiving a passport. Why didnt the police arrest him if he had been an absconder? they ask.
Running a leather business, Bilal would travel to Delhi frequently, and as usual, had flown to the city this year as well to see his wife and children.
His family asserts that the case against him has been fabricated that he has been framed.
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Bilals arrest comes months after the acquittal and release of four Kashmiri youth after 12 to 16 years of incarceration.
Muhammad Rafiq Shah, Muhammad Hussain Fazili and Tariq Ahmad Dar and Gulzar Ahmad Wani a PhD scholar hailing from Pattan in the Baramulla district, were acquitted of all terror charges on May 17, 2017. The first three after 12 years, and the last after 16 years.
Shah, Fazili and Dar were arrested from Srinagar in November 2005 in connection with bomb blasts in the New Delhi markets of Sarojini Nagar, Kalkaji and Paharganj on October 29, 2005. The police, however, had failed to prove the charges against them.
A large number of Kashmiri youth, arrested on charges of complicity in terrorist activities or association with terrorist organisations, or on mere suspicion, without any proof, had to spend many years in jail before being freed or released when the police could not produce any evidence against them.
Bilal Ahmad Kawas arrest, which has rocked the state Assembly, with the opposition demanding his unconditional release, is the latest case in the process.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police has already made it clear that there have been no charges ever against Bilal.
There is no case against him here, says Kashmirs Additional Director General of Police, Munir Khan. We have talked to the Delhi police in this regard. They say that there was a warrant (number 50012) against him. The citys CID cell is coordinating with the Delhi Police in this regard, he adds.
The Kashmir Police has also made clear that they have also not received any notice declaring Bilal a proclaimed offender.
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