It has been a 17-year wait. But the belief of this family in Pulwama’s remote Muran village that the family head, Mohammad Afzal Sheikh, will return home one day is not shaken, yet. “17 years is a long time. I am still optimistic of my father returning some day,” says his only son Sajjad Salem who was six years old when his father, then 47 years old, was picked up along with eight others. “I still remember that cold night of 1990 when my father was arrested from the house by a BSF raiding party,” he says. “In the family we all knew my father was innocent and will be released soon. But that never happened,” he says adding that all other persons arrested along with his father had returned one after another. The ailing wife of Sheikh has been looking after the family. “Don’t ask me how I spent these years without my husband,” says Saja Begum. “I don’t know whether he is dead or alive.” Salem says BSF officers in Pulwama first refused having arrested his father. “When we built up pressure, BSF accepted that they had arrested him,” said Salem, who was recently employed by the Education department as a teacher in place of his missing father. “We pleaded to the officers of the 142 Battalion to allow us to meet our father,” he says. “First they refused to give us an audience. Thereafter, we were not even allowed to venture near the camp where we believe our father was being held.” The family moved court in 1991. For eight years, the family contested the case in JK High Court. The court held a detailed inquiry into the missing case. “The court report clearly mentions that my father was picked up by the BSF and he disappeared in custody of the BSF,” says Salem reading out the court report. Even though many people told Salem and his family that Sheikh had probably died in custody, Salem along with his three sisters and aged mother, has not ended their search for their father. “I want BSF to tell us what transpired after he was picked up,” he says. “Our family will fight the case till we get justice.” “My father was a simple teacher. We had even produced a non-involvement (in militancy) certificate issued by a Senior Superintendent of Police in front of BSF officers. But, that too didn’t work.” To trace his father, Salem took the help of his uncles and cousins who work with the army and the police but they too failed. “My uncles and cousins hold top posts in the army and police. Even they could not trace my father,” says Salem.
