In the hope of getting news of my son, i visit jails

The family filed an FIR at the Parimpora Police Station. "But police failed to help us. Beyond registering a case, they have done nothing to find our son," says Bhat.

THE last 11 years have seen Ghulam Hassan Bhat move from one one jail to another, in and outside the Valley. He says all his belongings have been sold off to fund his search for son Shabir.

On a bright morning in April, 1996, Shabir Hussain left his village for work as usual. But the day held something different. He was picked up by army personnel from the Sharifabad Camp on his way, says Bhat.

“We heard the news of my son’s arrest from the neighbours,” he says, “The army had cordoned off the area and picked up my son during an identification parade,” he says. “He was taken to the Badami Bagh Camp for interrogation. But we couldn’t trace him there,” says Bhat.

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The family filed an FIR at the Parimpora Police Station. “But police failed to help us. Beyond registering a case, they have done nothing to find our son,” says Bhat.

Then started the rounds to various jails in the country. “In the last 11 years I have visited almost every jail in the hope of getting some news of my son,” he says.

He says he also met senior police and army officers but they did not give any satisfactory answers.

Bhat says the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has also done nothing ever since the family filed a case with it. The family also filed a case in the Sadar court, which has been pending for six years now.

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The search has left Bhat almost bankrupt. “We have spent huge amounts, more than two and half lakh has been spent already,” he says.