SRINAGAR, 8 June 2004 — The Prevention of Terrorism Act haunts ordinary Kashmiris, although the stage is set for revoking the notorious law.
POTA’s very first victim was a Kashmiri. Ghulam Mohammad Dar created history by becoming the first person in India to be booked under the draconian law.
Dar’s crime: He allegedly sheltered militants belonging to the outlawed Hizbul Mujahedeen fighting for an independent Kashmir. Dar, a carpet weaver, was arrested Nov. 20, 2001 and immediately booked under POTA. He was thrown into prison. And his mother, wife and children were thrown out of their home which was forcibly occupied by policemen.
He languished in jail for 14 months although there was not a shred of evidence against him. He was released on parole in February 2003. But his ordeal finally ended when Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government formally withdrew the case against him soon after coming to power.
Today, Dar is ecstatic. “I have heard that the United Progressive Alliance government is going to repeal POTA. It’s like a dream come true. Allah knows how much my family and I suffered because of POTA”, he said.
Dar said that ex-Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s right-wing Hindu government enacted POTA to terrorize Muslims across India, particularly in Kashmir.
“But, more than Vajpayee, I hold the Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference state government responsible for my ordeal. Farooq invoked POTA in Kashmir. As many as 150 Kashmiris were detained under POTA. Farooq enjoyed licking Vajpayee’s and Advani’s boots. He owes an apology to each Kashmiri detained under POTA”, he said.
Dar is a free bird reunited with his family but another Kashmiri “terrorist” — Yasin Malik — is still behind bars. This Malik is not the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief but has paid the price for being his namesake. An engineering graduate and resident of Baramulla, Malik had a valid visa stamped on his Indian passport to go to Pakistan. He was stopped at the Wagah checkpoint by immigration officials who mistook him for the JKLF leader.
And by the time they realized their mistake, greed overtook them. They demanded a bribe to let him go. But Malik did not have enough cash to bail himself out. So immigration officials tore some pages from his passport, declared him a terrorist and threw him into jail in January 1999.
And believe it or not, he is still in jail although the Punjab Human Rights Commission has been diligently pursuing Malik’s case.
Activists petitioned Vajpayee, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and the chief ministers of Kashmir and Punjab to set him free. But nothing happened. Now they have renewed their appeal. If Indian authorities refuse to release him, activists will approach Amnesty International.
