‘I will wait for him till my last breath’

As she talked to Express at Joggers’ Park, Bandra, the 5-feet-tall, burkha-clad 20-year-old final-year B.Com student said the taunts have long stopped. The tears for her love have decreased. But her determination to marry Atif is unwavering.

Never mind that he’s likely to be in jail for a long time — it’s been two years but the charges are yet to be framed). Never mind that Wafa’s relatives want the alliance called off.

Atif’s father Nasir, a wealthy timber merchant, said he had advised Wafa to look for another groom, since his son’s case would drag. ‘‘I can’t think of marrying anyone else,’’ she said firmly. ‘‘He is the best man I’ve met. I will wait for him till my last breath.’’

‘‘My entire family is supporting me for we know Atif is innocent,’’ said Wafa, a resident, like Atif, of Padgah, a largely Muslim village of prosperous timber merchants near Thane. ‘‘I have faith in love and hope in Allah.’’

Atif’s advocate Mubin Solkar said he had sought interim bail for a year so the two could marry. ‘‘But the prosecution is delaying matters and now it will be heard only after the court vacation,’’ said Solkar.

Ask Wafa how love happened and she breaks into a beaming smile. ‘‘I knew him since childhood, but I fell in love with him seven years ago,’’ she said. ‘‘Atif is my cousin and is nine years older. So, I was hesitant… But the day he proposed, though I liked him, I asked him to ask my parents. Finally, we got engaged in June 2001,’’ she added.

Father Usman said he never let her cry. ‘‘I keep telling her,’’ he said. ‘‘Truth is truth, and, Inshallah, Atif will be acquitted.’’ However, Wafa’s mother Wasima — suffering from diabetes and tension — is under intense pressure to get her daughter married. ‘‘Relatives tell her to break the engagement; they say Atif will not be released,’’ said Nasir.

‘‘But both families have decided that the marriage is on despite our anxiety that the trial is delayed.’’

On March 13, 2003, a bomb ripped through a local train at Mulund station, killing 11 and injuring more than 50.

Sixteen people were accused, including Atif Mullah, from whom an AK-56 rifle was recovered, the police said. A graduate from Wilson College, he had captained the college cricket team and was a product manager with a pharma multinational.