Justice has been deluding from past 15 years to a widow from Nesbal Sumbal area of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district whose husband was allegedly put to death by security agencies in a ‘fake’ encounter on 17 May 2001.Bashir Ahmed Bhat son of Late Ghulam Nabi Bhat, a resident of Nesbal Sumbal according to his wife was living a peaceful life after his release from Tihar Jail. “Even after his release, he was not allowed to earn bread and butter for the family, was hounded, implicated and put to death,” alleged his family members.His wife Syeda Begum told CNS that even after the expiry of 15 long years authorities did not bother to register a case against the Army unit involved in the killing of her husband. “Like majority of the youth in Kashmir, my husband was a militant too who was arrested by security agencies from New Delhi in 1996. He spent four years in Tihar jail and was released in 2000. He shunned the path of militancy after his release and opened up a Darasgah for a living,” she said.
Syeda Begum added that security agencies didn’t want Bashir Ahmed to impart religious education to kids and they started harassing him on the one or the other pretext. “Security agencies had claimed that it recovered some arms and ammunitions from a fruit truck in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. The blame was put on my husband and he was arrested on 15 May 2001 outside Makhdhoom Sahab shrine in Srinagar city. After interrogating him for two consecutive day’s security agencies brought him to Nesbal and shot him dead in an orchard,” she said. Syeda Begum alleged that her husband was killed in cold blood as he had refused to join the ranks of renegades who were ruling Valley at that time. “The irony is that police refused to register an FIR against the security agencies responsible for the cold blooded murder of my husband. I have four children and was expecting justice from State Human Rights Commission but the case is still pending there and till date no action has been initiated against the culprits,” she said adding that nobody from separatist groups offered any kind of help to her. (CNS) (Photograph attached)