Srinagar: Nearly a month after three Gujjar men went missing under mysterious circumstances from south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, the J&K Police have failed to make any headway in the case. The family of the victims are suspecting foul-play.
The three men, who worked as labourers, have disappeared at a time when the Gujjar tribe of J&K is increasingly finding itself on the receiving end of a surge in militancy-related violence along the Pir Panjal region, which separates Kashmir valley from the Jammu division.
Riyaz Ahmed Bajad. Photo: By arrangement
The victims were identified as Riyaz Ahmad Bajad (25), his younger brother Showkat Ahmad Bajad (18), residents of Chandan Panjan village in Qazigund area, along with Mukhtar Ahmad Awan, a native of Pratap Pora Lammer near Chowgam village in Devsar. The trio was reported missing on February 13.
The three men originally hail from Chita Danda Panglar in Rajouri district of Jammu division and earned a livelihood by working as daily wage labourers in winters. Riyaz has a six month old daughter while Mukhtar is father of three minor children.
A relative of the two brothers, Shiraz Ahmed, said that he received a call from Riyaz’s family at around 5 pm on February 13, informing him that the mobile phones of the trio, who had gone to attend a marriage in Kulgam, were switched off.
In their last communication after disembarking a passenger vehicle in Mir Bazar chowk of Kulgam on the fateful day, Showkat told his family that he was on the way to the wedding venue, which was a 20-minute walk away.
“I made a phone call to an acquaintance who said that they never showed up in the marriage,” Ahmed, who guards a bank ATM in Kulgam, said, “Their mobile phones were continuously off. Then we checked the CCTV footage of a hotel in the area”.
A 15-second grainy footage shared by Ahmed with The Wire shows a man in black overalls standing near a white vehicle parked on the roadside in Mir Bazar chowk. The young man who is looking in the direction of the approaching trio takes a sharp turn as they cross him.
As the man in black joins the trio, the four halt abruptly. An uneventful exchange of words takes place for four to five seconds between them before the man in black crosses the road while the trio keeps walking ahead. The Wire has confirmed the authenticity of the video.
Showkat Ahmed Bajad. Photo: By arrangement
When contacted, senior superintendent of police (Kulgam), Sahil Sarangal, said that the matter was under investigation without specifying any details.
Najma Begum, wife of Riyaz, appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir government and lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha to intervene in the matter.
“I don’t know what happened. I want my husband back. He fed us by working as a daily labourer. I have a six-month old daughter. How am I going to raise her? If the government can’t help, then they should kill me too. I want justice,” she said over the phone.
Speaking with The Wire, Mukhtar’s wife Rubeena Begum said, “When we spoke with our relatives, they said that they didn’t turn up. My husband has never gone anywhere like this without informing me. We have three children and he is not someone who would fall into any stranger’s trap,” she said.
Ahmed said that the tragic incident has turned the life of the two poor families upside down. He said that the aggrieved families have been visiting many government offices since the disappearances last month. “But there is no news of them,” he said.
Even though law and order is beyond the purview of the elected government in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the issue reverberated in the ongoing budget session of the assembly with two members of the ruling National Conference seeking the intervention of the house on Monday (10 March).
However, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather didn’t allow debate on the issue and the two legislators – Peerzada Feroze Ahmad Shah, who represents Devsar constituency of Kulgam, and Mian Mehar Ali from Kangan constituency in Ganderbal, were marshalled out of the hall.
The Gujjar tribes, who belong to the poorest of the poor in Jammu and Kashmir, lead a nomadic life and most of them make a livelihood by raising herds of livestock on the pasturelands of Pir Panjal region, a treacherous range of mountains along the Line of Control, where some foreign and local militants are suspected to have taken refuge.
Last month, a young Gujjar man from Kathua district allegedly died by suicide after facing torture in police custody. In a video recorded before his demise, the victim alleged that the police were trying to frame him in a false case of militancy, prompting a court in Kathua to direct J&K police to file an FIR and investigate the allegations.
