THERE was a time, says the family of Abdul Rashid Waza, when his neighbours were jealous seeing his seven young sons help him in the fields. Till son Mohammad Maqbool went missing.

Most people in Zandeferan village on the Baramulla-Uri highway either earn their living from their fields or through working as labourers.

Waza and his wife Fatimah had high hopes from their sons. But everything changed when their 18-year-old son Maqbool went missing. Family says Maqbool left home in December 1991 promising to return in the evening. Sixteen years on, Maqbool's is one of the oldest missing persons cases in the tehsil.

"We thought he will return the next day. But he didn't," says Mohammad Ismail youngest brother, "My father visited all security force camps, neighbouring police stations, but, every one denied they knew anything about Maqbool."

"He was a farmer. We don't know how he disappeared," he says.

Maqbool's disappearance proved to be a big setback for the family. His parents scanned jails in and outside the state looking for Maqbool, says brother Abdul Ahad.

While the family was still grieving for Maqbool and his another brother's death, Waza died. In 1997, another son Abdul Rehman, who was working in a hotel in Sumbal died in crossfiring, says the family. Their mother Fatimah, too, died of a fatal stroke.

In 2002, the eldest of the Waza brothers, Ali Mohammad, also died. "I have to look after four orphans now," says Abdul. But he still hopes for his brother's return.