“On the night of December 5, the police barged into my house and I was told that Mukhtar had been arrested. They asked for his belongings. I told them that there was none and he had returned to Kashmir long ago. The police then searched my room but found nothing. Next day, I called my daughter in Kashmir, who confirmed that she was also informed by J&K

Police that Mukhtar had been arrested by the Kolkata police in Delhi,” added Hamida.

Hamida said her family first came in touch with Mukhtar nearly 13 years ago, when he used to visit their locality to sell Kashmiri shawls. He fell in love with her younger daughter Mehnaz, who had just passed Class X then. “He looked like a nice man and proposed to my daughter,” said Hamida.

Mukhtar married Mehnaz in 1996 and lived in Kolkata for some time, before returning to Kashmir. “He told me that he had got a job in the Kashmir police. He used to talk about his senior officers. I went to Kashmir a couple of times and saw that he had friends in the police, who admired him,” she added.

Mukhtar frequently visited Kolkata in the last two years and said he was on some official work. In October, when he last came, he spent three days in this house.

“He used to go out for his police work in the day and return in the night. He had no visitors,” said Hamida.

... contd.