Victimised for loyalty to India,says family

Wasim,whose detention by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was first reported in The Indian Express on Friday,has been described as a “key conspirator” in the bomb plot. Wasim is the third suspect from Kishtwar in J&K to be picked up after Aamir Abbas and Abid Hussain.

In November-December 2010,Jammu and Kashmir Police smashed a Hizb recruitment module and arrested four operatives of the group. The police were tipped off by Riaz-ul Hassan Malik,a National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) employee,who complained that his youngest son,Junaid Akram Malik,had been abducted by the Hizb. The police operation could not,however,locate Junaid.

Shamima Begum,the mother of Waseem and Junaid,said one of the Hizb operatives who was arrested had put the police after her older son. “Azhar Ali (who is now in Jammu’s Kot Balwal jail) was our tenant. He wanted to grab our house in Kishtwar town,but we resisted,” said Shamima,who is the headmistress of a government school in Kishtwar.

Riaz-ul Hassan Malik was until recently private secretary to the chief engineer at Kishtwar’s Dul Hasti hydel power project. He was transferred to Jammu at the beginning of this month,but is yet to join at his new post. Shamima and he have two daughters besides sons Waseem and Junaid — Aafiya,21,a student of law,and Shabia,18,who is studying to be a dental surgeon.

According to Shamima,Junaid,who had completed Class 10,was abducted by Azhar Ali from Jammu’s Jewel Chowk area on November 8,2010,when he was going to attend the wedding of a friend’s sister. Though Riaz-ul Hassan was in Kishtwar then,Shamima had been living in Jammu to ensure a good education for their children,the family said.

The eldest of the four siblings,Waseem,was then in Bangladesh,studying for a graduate degree in medicine. Following Junaid’s abduction,Shamima said,she forbade Waseem from coming home until just before Eid at the end of August. He returned to Bangladesh on September 9,she said.

However,early this month,Riaz-ul-Hassan got a letter from the SSP,Kishtwar,asking him to call his son from Bangladesh to help with the Delhi blast probe,Shamima said. “We got the SSP to talk with Waseem on the phone on October 2,and he readily agreed to return,” she said.

On October 4,the family received Waseem at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. “We handed him over to the NIA officials who were accompanying us,” Shamima said. “They said they would release him soon,but they now say they need him for longer,” she said.

SSP,Kishtwar Bhim Sen Tuti confirmed that he had asked Riaz-ul-Hassan to summon his son Waseem to India from Bangladesh to appear before the NIA. Waseem’s brother Junaid,Tuti said,was an active Hizbul Mujahideen militant. Waseem’s name reportedly cropped up after an NIA official met Azhar Ali in Kot Bhalwal late last month.

Shamima alleged her family was being made to pay a price for their loyalty to India. “One of our sons has been kidnapped by militants,another has been arrested on the disclosures of his abductors… We don’t know whether Junaid is alive or has been killed,” she said.

”We got three Hizb operatives arrested. Ours is an educated family,whose members work for the government. Why will we work for Pakistan when India has given us everything,respect,position,dignity and a decent living?”