SRINAGAR: Displaying utensils used by their missing children, scores of men, women and children appeared in Press Enclave, Srinagar on Monday seeking whereabouts of their loved ones who disappeared during last two decades allegedly at the hands of different security agencies.
The silent protest was held under the banner of Forum For Justice To Enforced Disappeared Persons Of Jammu and Kashmir (FJEDP).
The parents, daughters, sisters, and brothers of missing were carrying photographs of their loved ones and narrated woeful tales before reporters.
Gulshan Banoo from Gangbou, Batamaloo while narrating her woeful tale said that they are looking for Manzoor Ahmed Dar from past 16 years and he is still untraced.
My son Manzoor Ahmed was a shopkeeper who was picked up by 20 Grenadiers in 1997 when he was returning to his home. He was not having any affiliation with any militant outfit and we were surprised over his detention, she said.
Banoo said that Manzoor was taken to Army Camp located at Boatman Coloney Bemina and when we visited there we were told to visit next day and take Manzoor home, she said adding next day they were surprised when Army officers told them that they have not picked up Manzoor. We have been roaming from pillar to post to have a glimpse of him. We incurred lot of expenditure during all these years in search of our beloved son, she said adding that she has lost eyesight while her husband had recently suffered a paralysis attack.
A few years back we heard that Manzoor was seen in one of the Central Kashmirs Army Camps. We went there but one of the Army officers known by name Shakoori denied that charge and we were disappointed, she said adding that they have already registered a case at Police Station Shergari, she said and appealed the government to help them in tracing out their beloved one.
Another woman Ruqaya from Palhalan Pattan said that government forces picked up her husband Bashir Ahmed Hajam in 1992 and after that she never heard from him again. My husband was a vendor who was arrested by army personnel from 20 Grenadiers at Batamaloo Srinagar. He was not a militant but a vendor who was feeding his family through hard labour, she said. (CNS)
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