[Reader-list] The Kashmiri Encounter

[syed bismillah]

There are many Kashmiris locked inside Tihar jail. No one knows how many exactly but it is estimated that there are hundreds. Almost all of them are suspects in "terrorism related" offences. When people hear of the police allegations against these Kashmiris the public gets an image of these people as some kind of unthinking fanatics. However, if we listen to the stories of each one of these locked up in the high risk cells we see a reality which is very frightening and also heart rendering.

The stories of the families of these men have their own story to tell. I know their stories because I was one of them. I went to visit my brother in Tihar and went through all the trials and tribulations of family members of those whose dear ones are locked behind bars. We would travel around one hour to one and half hour to reach the jail by around eight in the morning and sign the register. Then we would all wait in a large hall, rather like a railway station waiting hall. Our turn would come around 12 or 12.30 when a jail authority would scream "high risk". By then all the others would have left.

Then we go into the room with people standing around all shouting at their jailed relatives. My brother would stand in a corridor with bars across and a deep drain separating us. It was impossible to have a conversation in the midst of the noise and the mulaqat would last barely ten minutes and we would be herded out. In these ten minutes we could give him money for coupons, clothes but not books.

This system was fortunately changed and the jail decided to have the families of the high risk prisoners mulaquat in the evenings. This meant we did not have to rush in the mornings and we got ten minutes extra. 

I was fortunate because I was able to rent a house, of course with great difficulty. But the other family members who come from Kashmir only for a day for this precious twenty-minute meeting do not find any hotel willing to give them rooms even for a few days. The only way they get the hotel or lodging is by hiding their identity and the two or three days they spend in Delhi is full of fear and humiliation. I have been interviewing the families of some of these people and I find they are afraid to speak even to me. 

 





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