Kashmir girl Shazia seeks father’s whereabouts in Kashmir
Srinagar: Life took an ugly turn for a young
Kashmiri girl Shazia Anwar who was only a year old at the time after her father Syed Anwar Shah. left for routine work and went missing at Doolipora Vilgam in Kupwara in 2001 and she has been searching for whereabouts of her father in this conflict zone.
“We grew anxious and searched for him at all possible places after my father did not return till evening, adding that they failed to locate him. We lodged an FIR, but the police too failed to locate his whereabouts,” said Anwar’s wife, Naseema Begum who along with her daughter, Shazia also participated in a sit-in in every month organized by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) at Pratap Park in Sriangar.
Pertinently, the APDP organizes monthly sit-in here to press for whereabouts of their relatives who went missing in custody of various Indian police and security agencies since 1990 in this land of dispute.
“Over the years, my daughter Shazia accompanied me to jails and interrogation centres. She used to wake up in night and ask for her father’s whereabouts. In the initial years, I used to tell her that he would return, but gradually the reality dawned upon her,” Naseema said.
“I approached everybody including police and civil officials for tracing my husband, but except assurances and promises, I got nothing,” says Naseema.
Disappearance of the sole breadwinner has made the going tough for the hapless family. Presently putting up in two rented rooms at Safa Kadal, Naseema’s brother-in-law sells clothes on handcart to support the mother-daughter duo.