Srinagar, Aug 12: It is now more than ten days that little Zainab is crying inconsolably. Too little to understand the compulsions of the time, the child is uttering only one word- Papa. “Where is my Papa? Please get him back,” Zainab, a kindergarten kid goes on non-stop.
 Zainab’s mother, Roshan Ara is consoling her child, yet she herself like other members of the family has not been able to come to terms with the shock she got 11 days ago.
 In the midnight of July 31 a police party forcibly entered into their house at Humhama Budgam and dragged out Roshan’s husband Bilal Ahmad Kaloo, whisking him immediately to police station Humhama. Bilal is running a shop ‘Sainik Mobiles’ outside Srinagar International Airport.
 For days together the perturbed family was left guessing where Bilal was taken. And finally when Roshan saw her husband five days after his arrest at police station Budgam, she came to know from him that he was beaten profusely all through the night he was lifted from his home for his “no sin”.
 Next day the family came across another shock. Bilal had been shifted to district jail Kathua and booked under Public Safety Act.
 Bilal was not alone in such an ordeal. An imam of the locality, who is a retired engineer in his late 70s, and a neighbour were also picked up on the same night by the police.
 The families of the detainees were refused a copy of the detention order and the grounds of detention at DC Office Budgam, which otherwise is a legal duty for the authorities to abide by.
 “They avoided to give us the copy on one pretext or the other,” Roshan said, adding a copy was obtained from secretariat on August 10, nine days after the PSA was slapped on Bilal. This held true in case imam also, while the documents of the third detainee were collected by a lawyer from Hira Nagar jail.
 While, the grounds-of-detention affiliates Bilal as “stone pelter” and levels allegations against him of instigating youth (whose names have not been mentioned); the family maintains that he was never involved in stone pelting or any other subversive activity.
  “This is ridiculous. My husband was not involved in stone pelting or any other activity,” said Roshan.
 “He works at his shop and has a family comprising a child, old parents; how can he afford to indulge in any activity that would lead him and his family to trouble?” she questioned.
 A worrying mother Roshan said little Zainab is every minute pressing to see her father. “How can I make her understand that he is in jail? He cannot come unless allowed,” she asks.
 And, Zainab struggles to say: “Please get him back.”

Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST