Srinagar, Feb 5: Last one year for Zahid Farooq’s family- killed by paramilitary BSF on Feb 5, 2010- has been traumatic. His father, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh is suffering from insomnia, sister Farhat has been under depression, and mother Parveena Begum weeps for hours together.
“Our life has been shattered,” Farooq said. “The mother is living life for the sake of it. She weeps, and weeps all the time. Her tears have dried up now.”
Sheikh has three children, son Zahid Farooq, daughters Aqsa Farooq and Farhat Farooq.
“Farhat suffers from depression. She never sits alone in the home. She cries often. She is scared after Zahid left us,” Sheikh said. “My 4-year old daughter Aqsa always comes to us saying that Baya has come after she hears the sound of aeroplane or a helicopter. She repeats his name several times in the day.”
Other than family, there have been some changes in their locality too. The square outside their house was christened as Lal-Chowk. Now after the killing of Zahid it has been re-named as “Shaheed Zahid Chowk”. The name has been inscribed in green English letters on all the walls and electric poles surrounding the square. His killing also brought the otherwise fragmented community together who fought for justice along with the distraught father for whole one year.
However, one thing which had not changed is the status of case.
“It has been year since he was martyred. The case has not proceeded even on snail’s pace” Sheikh said. “The justice seems to be a far fetched dream”.
He said they wanted justice and demanded that the accused should not be released.
“We want the criminals back to Central Jail prison. We want they should be granted strict punishment,” Sheikh said. “Why it has become an exercise that when authorities commit wrong then there are commissions, investigations and all time consuming processes. They do since they want people to forget it. But my fight is against this forgetfulness. I will go to Supreme Court to seek justice for my son”.
Despite being a high profile case, Sheikh said government could not succeed in delivering the justice to bereaved family.
“Chief Minister always refers to our case whenever he expresses his views on human rights. I say that despite being the status known to everybody, nothing has happened,” he said.
On Saturday, the residents of Nishat and surrounding places paid tributes Zahid on his death anniversary. They affirmed their resolve to fight till justice is granted.
Pertinently, Zahid went out with his friends to play cricket on February 5, 2010 when a BSF contingent allegedly opened fire on them killing him on the spot. Following Zahid’s killing, police, under intense public pressure, registered a case under FIR no 04/2010 under section 302/109, 201 of RPC at Police Station Nishat. The accused in the case were the BSF constable Lakhwinder Singh and his commandant R K Birdi.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 5 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 5 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 6 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST