Monday, 12 March 2012
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Holding hands
When young minds meet and want to take an initiative an idea is born. And like that Athrout-a helping hand, came into being. Saima Bhat reports
Some young minds of Nawakadal area in downtown Srinagar wanted to do something to help the needy. They started a charitable organization Athrout and tried to go beyond the tokenism of local mohalla committees.
They had just entered their teenage, some of them were not even born, when armed insurgency broke out in Kashmir. Still they were aware that the number of widows and impoverished was increasing. They wished to contribute to the society. The five or six of them gathered in the Darasgah (where Quran is taught) of the local Masjid, to come up with some idea. They wanted to save lives. “One who saves a single life is as if he saved the whole humanity”: they were taught at the Darasgah.
Athrout was started in 2006. Initially, they used to contribute money themselves as all of them were in some employment. The chairman, an Imam in the Masjid recalls that in 2006 he was giving a Eid sermon exhorting the people to pay the Sadkai-Fitr (Eid donation). “The people showed interest and paid their pending Sadkai-Fitr,” Imam of the masjid Bashir Ahmad Nadwi said. The money was distributed among the poor.
The members’ contribution continued to grow as many others joined in.
“Other people were showing interest and we found that many people were in need in our society because years of conflict had pushed many families into poverty,” he said, adding, “Some families could not even afford a single meal, how can they pay for medicine”.
They started counselling the elders, and youngsters, about religious binding on Muslims to pay their Zakaat and the Prophet’s (SAW) practice and teachings about helping the needy.
Imam Bashir Ahmad, a scholar from Nadwat-ul-uloom Islamic University, Lucknow is a businessman and all of the elder members of Athrout are working in private and government sectors. But they spare time in the evenings and on Sundays for social work.
Abdul Majeed, accountant of Athrout, says, “When we started providing help to people, we received cases of kidney failures, cancer patients and other serious ailments and we realized how such ‘deadly’ diseases have become burden on those families who cannot afford costly medicines and then we started a clinic where we are providing free consultations and free medicines”.
They hold free clinics on Sundays where volunteer doctors- physicians, pediatrician and gynecologists, see patients without charging any fee. Some medical representatives are also associated with Athrout.
The organization mostly works in - providing basic necessities to the poor families on monthly basis, providing school fee and other educational paraphernalia to needy students, helping very poor parents in getting their daughters married and providing healthcare to those who can’t afford it.
The organisation provides grocery and other household to 40 families every month in kind besides sponsoring around 25 poor students. Apart from marrying off eight poor girls in 2010 CE, Athrot helped 7,000 patients in different ways and distributed medicines worth more than 15 lakh rupees, free of cost. It has also provided hand carts with vegetables and fruits to some people to help them earn a living.
Athrout has 25 permanent members. While the eldest member is in his fifties, the youngest is just 13 years old.
Initially only the members made the contributions but later they accepted donations from other people. A family had donated an ambulance after their father’s health improved after taking Athrout’s medicine. But the ambulance was stolen before the month of Ramadhan.
Abdul Majeed says, “All the members were sad and the younger members were even weeping when a person came in Masjid and inquired about why the boys were weeping. We told him about the ambulance and he promised to donate a new ambulance from Zakaat”. After two months the thief was caught by the police and stolen ambulance was returned. Athrout has two ambulances and are now planning to arrange medical camps in rural areas.
There are too many people who need help, Imam Bashir says, and it is our duty to get them help in a dignified manner.
“A widow and her two daughters were living in abject penury in the absence of a breadwinner. They have just one room and a washroom which neither had a door nor hot water. One of our member informed us and we took a donor along who helped the family,” says Imam Bashir. The members ask their friends and their friends’ friends… almost anybody known to them for help. The organization requests local shopkeepers, some of whom are their members, to keep collection boxes in their shops. This is in addition to the monthly contribution of the members. Athrout accepts Zakat, Sadkai-Fitr, donations and hides of sacrificial lambs.
The yearly budget of the organization is between 3 to 3.5 lakh rupees from which those 40 families and 25 students are supported on monthly basis. However, when they get any case of needy patient or more needy family they refer them to their donors.
Some young minds of Nawakadal area in downtown Srinagar wanted to do something to help the needy. They started a charitable organization Athrout and tried to go beyond the tokenism of local mohalla committees.
They had just entered their teenage, some of them were not even born, when armed insurgency broke out in Kashmir. Still they were aware that the number of widows and impoverished was increasing. They wished to contribute to the society. The five or six of them gathered in the Darasgah (where Quran is taught) of the local Masjid, to come up with some idea. They wanted to save lives. “One who saves a single life is as if he saved the whole humanity”: they were taught at the Darasgah.
Athrout was started in 2006. Initially, they used to contribute money themselves as all of them were in some employment. The chairman, an Imam in the Masjid recalls that in 2006 he was giving a Eid sermon exhorting the people to pay the Sadkai-Fitr (Eid donation). “The people showed interest and paid their pending Sadkai-Fitr,” Imam of the masjid Bashir Ahmad Nadwi said. The money was distributed among the poor.
The members’ contribution continued to grow as many others joined in.
“Other people were showing interest and we found that many people were in need in our society because years of conflict had pushed many families into poverty,” he said, adding, “Some families could not even afford a single meal, how can they pay for medicine”.
They started counselling the elders, and youngsters, about religious binding on Muslims to pay their Zakaat and the Prophet’s (SAW) practice and teachings about helping the needy.
Imam Bashir Ahmad, a scholar from Nadwat-ul-uloom Islamic University, Lucknow is a businessman and all of the elder members of Athrout are working in private and government sectors. But they spare time in the evenings and on Sundays for social work. Abdul Majeed, accountant of Athrout, says, “When we started providing help to people, we received cases of kidney failures, cancer patients and other serious ailments and we realized how such ‘deadly’ diseases have become burden on those families who cannot afford costly medicines and then we started a clinic where we are providing free consultations and free medicines”.
They hold free clinics on Sundays where volunteer doctors- physicians, pediatrician and gynecologists, see patients without charging any fee. Some medical representatives are also associated with Athrout.
The organization mostly works in - providing basic necessities to the poor families on monthly basis, providing school fee and other educational paraphernalia to needy students, helping very poor parents in getting their daughters married and providing healthcare to those who can’t afford it.
The organisation provides grocery and other household to 40 families every month in kind besides sponsoring around 25 poor students. Apart from marrying off eight poor girls in 2010 CE, Athrot helped 7,000 patients in different ways and distributed medicines worth more than 15 lakh rupees, free of cost. It has also provided hand carts with vegetables and fruits to some people to help them earn a living.
Athrout has 25 permanent members. While the eldest member is in his fifties, the youngest is just 13 years old.
Initially only the members made the contributions but later they accepted donations from other people. A family had donated an ambulance after their father’s health improved after taking Athrout’s medicine. But the ambulance was stolen before the month of Ramadhan.
Abdul Majeed says, “All the members were sad and the younger members were even weeping when a person came in Masjid and inquired about why the boys were weeping. We told him about the ambulance and he promised to donate a new ambulance from Zakaat”. After two months the thief was caught by the police and stolen ambulance was returned. Athrout has two ambulances and are now planning to arrange medical camps in rural areas.
There are too many people who need help, Imam Bashir says, and it is our duty to get them help in a dignified manner.
“A widow and her two daughters were living in abject penury in the absence of a breadwinner. They have just one room and a washroom which neither had a door nor hot water. One of our member informed us and we took a donor along who helped the family,” says Imam Bashir. The members ask their friends and their friends’ friends… almost anybody known to them for help. The organization requests local shopkeepers, some of whom are their members, to keep collection boxes in their shops. This is in addition to the monthly contribution of the members. Athrout accepts Zakat, Sadkai-Fitr, donations and hides of sacrificial lambs.
The yearly budget of the organization is between 3 to 3.5 lakh rupees from which those 40 families and 25 students are supported on monthly basis. However, when they get any case of needy patient or more needy family they refer them to their donors.
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Ashiq bleeding to death haunts father
Muhammad Akbar is yet to come to terms with the shock of watching his young son, Ashiq Hussain bleed to death before his eyes.
Recalling his helplessness, Akbar says, “The army men fired him in chest. I took him in my lap, but they (army men) snatched him and let him bleed to death in the compound of the house.”
The last cries of his dying son still echo in 60-year-old Akbar’s mind. “I could only see him tumbling on ground with blood oozing out of his body. His screams for help, while struggling on ground, still haunts me. I was helpless and could not do anything.”
Akbar has spent his life working as labourer to feed his seven-member family. Living in a modest four-room mud house, the family aspired to build a proper house and to see Ashiq’s 20-year-old sister Shafiqa marry.
“We were living a simple life and never thought about the outside world. But these people (army) have snatched him (Ashiq) from us.”
Wailing over his death, Ashiq’s 50-year-old mother Misra faints after every few minutes.
Shafiqa and Shaista say government relief would not fill the vacuum created by the death of their brother. “We don’t want money. We want killers of our brother to be punished,” they say.
Meanwhile, an atmosphere of mourning prevails in Lesar village of Rafiabad over Ashiq’s killing. Many villagers used to call him Ashiq totla (stammerer) affectionately.
Although he was himself forced to leave studies midway (in class 8th) Ashiq aspired to provide better education to his young sister and to see another get married.
“Ashiq was very social. Although eloquent but he never mustered courage to speak before the elders. Even most of the people from our village didn’t know him well as he never used to roam unnecessarily with his friends,” remembers his childhood friend, Shabir Ahmad.
Shabir said owing to poverty Ashiq was spending majority of his time in household work after discontinuing his education few years back.
“We all three brothers are unfortunate for not completing our education. But we hope Shaista (youngest sister) would realize the dream of education and I would provide her full support,” Shabir recalls the conversation he had with Ashiq in recent past.
(C) Rising Kashmir
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
When teenager converted to be John Douglas
It was a chilly evening of January 2011. 16-year-old Imran (name changed) was walking down his colony lane, all alone, pensive, in this summer Capital. His was a typical scene of jilted teenage lover, whose affair with the girl of his age ended after three years of romance –mostly on mobile phone and Facebook –as the duo reached their class 10th.
Suddenly a friend of his appeared at the site and broke the lull by asking reasons for being gloomy. Imran couldn’t hide but spoke his heart out. His friend responded with a joyful remedy by offering him a phone number of a “pretty girl who loves spending time chatting with boys”. But there was a precondition that she attends call only in the night hours.
CALL OF HOPE
The number brought a new hope in the life of this lover-boy, mostly alone at his home, as his mother has passed away around a decade back while father is often out for business tours.
Imran was so tempted on getting the contact number that he straight rang her up that very moment. But the voice at the other end had the plea. “I am busy with my parents. Will call you later,” the sweet voice revealed and dropped the phone.
Imran kept waiting for the call. At around midnight the phone tinkled. At was she speaking prettily. The duo kept talking for over an hour till they realized that they could be friends.
The very next day, their date realized at a mall in this Himalayan region City. While Imran had hired an auto to reach the venue, the girl had come in her sedan.
Finding his new girlfriend driving car, inferiority complex hit the boy who hails from a middle-class family and he did what’s mostly typical of Bollywood flick. “I faked to have left my car at a workshop for some repairs,” he quips.
SEDUCING PARTY
The couple kept dating for a few days till finally the girl invited him for a party at a hotel. Excited, the 10th standard lover reached the venue well in time.
The girl had booked a room there. But to his surprise there were no other guests. The charming face opened her purse to take out two small red Vodka bottles and offered one to him, he says.
“Though I hesitated because of not having touched liquor all my life, as she insisted I started boozing with her,” Imran recaps. This date ended with the booze.
The next day, he received a call from the girl. But unlike the past, this time there was a shock. “She threatened me to come to the hotel at once or else my video of boozing will be uploaded on the Facebook… Scared, I rushed there only to find that she had really captured my video and was waiting to click the upload button on the laptop screen,” Imran recaps.
“I stopped her saying what she wanted,” he recaps adding she demanded to share physical intimacy with him.
“If you want to delete your video, have Vodka and listen to me…,” she told him. Imran says he had to meet her demands to get the video deleted. The tech-savvy, boy didn’t take any risks by deleting the video alone. Instead he formatted the hard disk meaning that entire data was lost.
But this date made him “confident” that he could have multiple girlfriends, he confides. And this confidence worked. “I started flirting with many girls apart from her.”
“But as girlfriends come at a heavy cost, I started running short of money,” says the boy.
NEED FOR MONEY
One Saturday Imran says he needed Rs 1,500 to date a girl. His father was away and so he banked on his friend, the guy who had given him the “pretty girl’s number.”
The friend, however, pleaded pocket money constraints. But after a few minutes, Imran received a call from the girl whose phone number his friend had offered. The seductress had a surprising revelation for the boy in need.
“Apart from offering to pay Rs 1,500, she said if I go to church, I’ll get lots of money,” he recaps. Imran says he refused the second option pleading how would it be possible for him to go there?
“Don’t worry I’ll take you there,” she said. The very next day, it was a Mass at a Church and she took him there.
PASTOR FACTOR
This was where Imran says he was introduced to Father Chander Manni Khanna aka Pastor CM Khanna "who asked me to join spiritual classes and took me as his son.” The Pastor, for now is a key accused in the alleged apostasy case and was arrested for some days by police.
The Pastor, Imran says, started calling him to his residence and even introduced him to a girl whom he claimed was his daughter. “She became my girlfriend and we would roam around in Khanna’s car,” he says.
The Pastor, as per the boy, would often invite him for lunch, breakfast or any other meals. “Once they cooked some meat which had been frozen in ice cubes. On finishing the lunch, I was told that it was swine meat,” he says adding he couldn’t think much about the forbidden meat because of being under the influence of liquor.
“Khanna and I would booze together at his home,” Imran alleged.
“Finally they both(Father and daughter) asked me to convert.”
“They even gave me some literature including the New Testaments to read,” Imran says.
THE CONVERSION
After a few weeks, the boy says, he got convinced. On the second Sunday of the bygone Ramazan, Imran says he was baptized along with three other boys adding after that 8, 28,28 and 30 people converted on the coming Sundays, respectively. By now Imran was given a new name: John Douglas.
On the night of Shab-e-Qadr in Ramazan, he says, the Pastor called him to his home for dinner. “After dinner, Khanna and I kept boozing beer till late at night.” Going home wasn’t any problem. “They would offer me their car to drive.”
Besides, the class 11th student says he was given a ATM card with ***(name with held) inscribed in it, and had some 64,000 Rs in the deposits.
“I got two Samsung Galaxy phones. One for myself and other for a new girlfriend, who later ditched me.”
After a few days, Imran’s mother came in his dream rebuking him that “born from womb of a Muslim mother why he wanted to die death of Non –Muslim?” “Her words irritated me and I abused her a lot,” the boy admits adding the next morning he called on the Pastor and revealed the dream before him.
“He told me it was all satanism adding that I should recite Bible at her grave.” Imran says he straight left for the graveyard and recited atleast 15 pages of the book there.
“I was so fascinated towards the religion that I would feel pride carrying the Testaments along even to school.” This was when some of his friends came to know about his conversion.
“They asked me to revert but I didn’t listen to them.”
BLACK SUNDAYAnd then came the Black Sunday. Imran says he was asked to attend a prayers at a place other than church.
“There were candles lit up all around and an empty glass was lying inside. As prayers went on someone brought a jug full of red liquid and poured it into the glass.”
When Imran asked what it was, he was told it was swine blood which they all had to drink.
“For a moment I couldn’t even think of touching but then in no time Khanna took some sips, next I drank it and after that many more including Khanna’s daughter did the same.”
CLOSE AIDE
Imran says he became a close aide of the Pastor and would even stay with them.
One day, as per the boy, Khanna’s daughter called him to his home in the afternoon, saying that she had installed a latest operating system on his new laptop.
When I reached there she asked me to distinguish between two videos of schoolchildren on the laptop.
He couldn’t find any difference. “Then she told me that in one of the videos, kids were leaving for Friday Prayers at Masjid while at some other school the children were playing,” he says adding that he was told the “schools which don’t allow kids to offer the congregational Friday Prayers were given financial support.”
In the meantime, Khanna walked in and said: “Your are my son and I’ll send you to California soon.”
RAGDA HINDRANCE
Imran says he replied that for that he would have to get a passport. But the boy says the June 2008 Radga played a spoilsport. “The concerned police station had listed me among the stone pelters so I couldn’t get police clearance for the passport.”
When Khanna came to know about the hindrance, he intervened asking “me to get six photographs.” “And the very next week, he showed me my passport adding that I would be leaving for California for further studies on November 15,” Imran says but adding in the same breath that the Pastor didn’t handover his passport to him.
HIS POWER
Imran says Khanna was “all powerful”. Two of his close aides(names with held) would carry guns and his daughter told me that “it was all because of the Father’s influence.”
“If you want we can give you AK 47 riffle licensed, she told me!”
Imran says one day he himself saw “Khanna’s influence doing a miracle”.
“I was driving his car under the influence of alcohol and happened to hit a person near Ram Bagh, a police man at once caught hold of my collar. But I asked him to let me make a call or he would have to repent,” the boy says.
Imran made the cop speak to Khanna and the very next moment he was released. “And you won’t believe I learnt that the man I hit was whisked away by police.”
In the meantime, one afternoon, Imran says he was shown small packets containing white powder like substance named “enjoyment packet.”
While others only smelled its quality, the boy says he was asked to taste one. “It was bitter but made me feel on the top of the world and I started consuming it often.”
SMELLING RAT
But somewhere in the hearts of his heart, Imran says one question would often strike his mind.
“Why will a person who treats me like his son make me booze, have illegal relationships and roam around like a freak… Will my own father ever offer me wine, money and sex?” the boy whose health has deteriorated due to frequent boozing and other “illegal acts”, argues.
These queries started to remain in the back of his mind, till a revelation made him think the other way. I came to know from one of the persons that my video of getting baptized was lying in the mobile phone of a cleric.
“This alerted me and I realised they were playing a dirty game with me and planned to teach them a lesson because by now I was feeling that my health had deteriorated as I couldn’t even stand properly.”
THE REVENGE
He came up with revenge at one of the baptizing ceremonies as the tech-savvy boy carried a spy cam along. The trick worked. He captured the footage, which subsequently leaked on the internet sites leaving the people including civil society members and clerics concerned.
At the Court of Grand Mufti Bashir-Ud –Din, Imran had confronted Khanna when the latter appeared before him for hearing. Initially Khanna, the clerics present at the Court said, had tried to refute the allegations but the moment Imran appeared, the Pastor was shocked and confessed his involvement. Khanna was subsequently arrested by police.
On Thursday while the Supreme Court of Islamic Shariat in Srinagar pronounced the Fatwa, two New Delhi based newspapers issued similar reports about Pastor Khanna and even his wife alleging that the family was involved in luring Muslim youth to Christianity through “unfair means”.
WHY REVERSION
But why did you revert? Some of his friends who knew about his activities had been after him that he should meet some Muslim clerics to know what Islam is. “I knew nothing more than Nimaz and recitation of first five paragraphs of Holy Quran which my mother had made me memorize before she died,” he admits.
Imran says luckily he happened to meet a senior cleric and founder of a Darul Uloom who looked at him with a smiling face.
“Son I have no burgers or pastries to offer other than this Chachwaru(local bread) and he subsequently told me about the basics of Islam which made me feel sorry of my deeds,” the boy admits adding that nobody forced him to revert but he did it out of his own.
Your story is exciting like a Bollywood flick? “Please don’t take it as excitement. It should make you worry. What if your own brother was at my place?" he rep lied to this correspondent.
With this Imran goes emotional requesting that “please to add my appeal in the story.”
HIS APPEAL
“I want to inform all my brothers and sisters, kiths and kins, nears and dears that please don’t believe or trust a person who is unknown to you and don’t trust a girl blindly because I faced so much because of a girl and she intrigued me into drug addiction, illegal affairs, boozing and all sinful life,” he confesses.
“And don’t make friendship with someone who shows undue concern because I was misguided by my best friend. I request all parents to check that whether or not their wards attend to schools regularly and what all are their activities including talking on phone.”
THE MISSIONARY IRONY
Whenever news of any conversions pops up in Kashmir, fingers mostly point towards the Christian Missionary run schools. But like many other such cases, Imran was never a missionary school student.
In reality, it’s the missionary schools, which have produced some of the best people in the society. Valley’s head priest Mirwaiz Dr Umar Farooq, who is spearheading the campaign against apostasy, happens to be a Burn Hall alumni. On the other hand Ishfaaq Majeed Wani, one of the pioneers of the militancy and then Commander-in-Chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was a Biscoe Boy while same is true for US trained pilot Nadeem Khateeb who ended up being a militant and was killed in an encounter in Doda area, a few years back much to the shock of his parents who were of the impression their son was working in US after completing his commercial pilot training there.
There are many more in the list of Missionary school alumni like National Conference President and Union Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, his Chief Minister son Omar Abdullah, former Chairman JK Bank Dr Haseeb Drabu, separatist leader Sajad Gani Lone and of course Masrat Alam, the most wanted man during 2010 Ragda. Daughters of Peoples Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti happen to be Presentation Convent Higher Secondary School (PCHSS)Alumni.
Missionary schools like Tyndale Biscoe School, Burn Hall, PCHSS and Saint Joseph, for around a century, have been known for imparting best of the education as is evident from the versatility in their alumni and interest of almost everyone to get their wards admitted there.
Veteran separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani’s granddaughters study at PCHSS Raj Bagh while same is true for daughter of another senior leader Shabir Shah. Mirwaiz’a close aide, Advocate Shahid Ul Islam who did some interlocution between the Muslim clerics and the Missionary people over the apostasy issue is no exception to it. While Shahid and his siblings too had studied at missionary schools, same is true for his daughters. And he openly admits it.
In the yesteryears prior to eruption of militancy when wives of Army and Air-force officers mostly taught at the missionary schools like the Presentation Convent, these teachers would hold voluntary classes for children of economically backward families, after school hours.
“After school duty these teachers would voluntarily return from their homes in casuals and hold classes for the children of poor families in the school neighbourhood,” recaps a Raj Bagh resident.
BOTTOMLINE TRUST
Well, coming back to Imran and his reversion. A question on how he managed to capture the baptism video without being caught takes you by surprise. “Could you ascertain when I took your video on my mobile as you interviewed me,” he replies with a smile on his face as he showed this correspondent my interactive video.
“I no more trust any one so easily that’s why I captured you in my phone,” he adds as he slips down the chair due to his deteriorating health. He can’t sit properly and needs to lie down frequently. Medicos say drugs and drinking liquor like a fish have badly affected his health!
Suddenly a friend of his appeared at the site and broke the lull by asking reasons for being gloomy. Imran couldn’t hide but spoke his heart out. His friend responded with a joyful remedy by offering him a phone number of a “pretty girl who loves spending time chatting with boys”. But there was a precondition that she attends call only in the night hours.
CALL OF HOPE
The number brought a new hope in the life of this lover-boy, mostly alone at his home, as his mother has passed away around a decade back while father is often out for business tours.
Imran was so tempted on getting the contact number that he straight rang her up that very moment. But the voice at the other end had the plea. “I am busy with my parents. Will call you later,” the sweet voice revealed and dropped the phone.
Imran kept waiting for the call. At around midnight the phone tinkled. At was she speaking prettily. The duo kept talking for over an hour till they realized that they could be friends.
The very next day, their date realized at a mall in this Himalayan region City. While Imran had hired an auto to reach the venue, the girl had come in her sedan.
Finding his new girlfriend driving car, inferiority complex hit the boy who hails from a middle-class family and he did what’s mostly typical of Bollywood flick. “I faked to have left my car at a workshop for some repairs,” he quips.
SEDUCING PARTY
The couple kept dating for a few days till finally the girl invited him for a party at a hotel. Excited, the 10th standard lover reached the venue well in time.
The girl had booked a room there. But to his surprise there were no other guests. The charming face opened her purse to take out two small red Vodka bottles and offered one to him, he says.
“Though I hesitated because of not having touched liquor all my life, as she insisted I started boozing with her,” Imran recaps. This date ended with the booze.
The next day, he received a call from the girl. But unlike the past, this time there was a shock. “She threatened me to come to the hotel at once or else my video of boozing will be uploaded on the Facebook… Scared, I rushed there only to find that she had really captured my video and was waiting to click the upload button on the laptop screen,” Imran recaps.
“I stopped her saying what she wanted,” he recaps adding she demanded to share physical intimacy with him.
“If you want to delete your video, have Vodka and listen to me…,” she told him. Imran says he had to meet her demands to get the video deleted. The tech-savvy, boy didn’t take any risks by deleting the video alone. Instead he formatted the hard disk meaning that entire data was lost.
But this date made him “confident” that he could have multiple girlfriends, he confides. And this confidence worked. “I started flirting with many girls apart from her.”
“But as girlfriends come at a heavy cost, I started running short of money,” says the boy.
NEED FOR MONEY
One Saturday Imran says he needed Rs 1,500 to date a girl. His father was away and so he banked on his friend, the guy who had given him the “pretty girl’s number.”
The friend, however, pleaded pocket money constraints. But after a few minutes, Imran received a call from the girl whose phone number his friend had offered. The seductress had a surprising revelation for the boy in need.
“Apart from offering to pay Rs 1,500, she said if I go to church, I’ll get lots of money,” he recaps. Imran says he refused the second option pleading how would it be possible for him to go there?
“Don’t worry I’ll take you there,” she said. The very next day, it was a Mass at a Church and she took him there.
PASTOR FACTOR
This was where Imran says he was introduced to Father Chander Manni Khanna aka Pastor CM Khanna "who asked me to join spiritual classes and took me as his son.” The Pastor, for now is a key accused in the alleged apostasy case and was arrested for some days by police.
The Pastor, Imran says, started calling him to his residence and even introduced him to a girl whom he claimed was his daughter. “She became my girlfriend and we would roam around in Khanna’s car,” he says.
The Pastor, as per the boy, would often invite him for lunch, breakfast or any other meals. “Once they cooked some meat which had been frozen in ice cubes. On finishing the lunch, I was told that it was swine meat,” he says adding he couldn’t think much about the forbidden meat because of being under the influence of liquor.
“Khanna and I would booze together at his home,” Imran alleged.
“Finally they both(Father and daughter) asked me to convert.”
“They even gave me some literature including the New Testaments to read,” Imran says.
THE CONVERSION
After a few weeks, the boy says, he got convinced. On the second Sunday of the bygone Ramazan, Imran says he was baptized along with three other boys adding after that 8, 28,28 and 30 people converted on the coming Sundays, respectively. By now Imran was given a new name: John Douglas.
On the night of Shab-e-Qadr in Ramazan, he says, the Pastor called him to his home for dinner. “After dinner, Khanna and I kept boozing beer till late at night.” Going home wasn’t any problem. “They would offer me their car to drive.”
Besides, the class 11th student says he was given a ATM card with ***(name with held) inscribed in it, and had some 64,000 Rs in the deposits.
“I got two Samsung Galaxy phones. One for myself and other for a new girlfriend, who later ditched me.”
After a few days, Imran’s mother came in his dream rebuking him that “born from womb of a Muslim mother why he wanted to die death of Non –Muslim?” “Her words irritated me and I abused her a lot,” the boy admits adding the next morning he called on the Pastor and revealed the dream before him.
“He told me it was all satanism adding that I should recite Bible at her grave.” Imran says he straight left for the graveyard and recited atleast 15 pages of the book there.
“I was so fascinated towards the religion that I would feel pride carrying the Testaments along even to school.” This was when some of his friends came to know about his conversion.
“They asked me to revert but I didn’t listen to them.”
BLACK SUNDAYAnd then came the Black Sunday. Imran says he was asked to attend a prayers at a place other than church.
“There were candles lit up all around and an empty glass was lying inside. As prayers went on someone brought a jug full of red liquid and poured it into the glass.”
When Imran asked what it was, he was told it was swine blood which they all had to drink.
“For a moment I couldn’t even think of touching but then in no time Khanna took some sips, next I drank it and after that many more including Khanna’s daughter did the same.”
CLOSE AIDE
Imran says he became a close aide of the Pastor and would even stay with them.
One day, as per the boy, Khanna’s daughter called him to his home in the afternoon, saying that she had installed a latest operating system on his new laptop.
When I reached there she asked me to distinguish between two videos of schoolchildren on the laptop.
He couldn’t find any difference. “Then she told me that in one of the videos, kids were leaving for Friday Prayers at Masjid while at some other school the children were playing,” he says adding that he was told the “schools which don’t allow kids to offer the congregational Friday Prayers were given financial support.”
In the meantime, Khanna walked in and said: “Your are my son and I’ll send you to California soon.”
RAGDA HINDRANCE
Imran says he replied that for that he would have to get a passport. But the boy says the June 2008 Radga played a spoilsport. “The concerned police station had listed me among the stone pelters so I couldn’t get police clearance for the passport.”
When Khanna came to know about the hindrance, he intervened asking “me to get six photographs.” “And the very next week, he showed me my passport adding that I would be leaving for California for further studies on November 15,” Imran says but adding in the same breath that the Pastor didn’t handover his passport to him.
HIS POWER
Imran says Khanna was “all powerful”. Two of his close aides(names with held) would carry guns and his daughter told me that “it was all because of the Father’s influence.”
“If you want we can give you AK 47 riffle licensed, she told me!”
Imran says one day he himself saw “Khanna’s influence doing a miracle”.
“I was driving his car under the influence of alcohol and happened to hit a person near Ram Bagh, a police man at once caught hold of my collar. But I asked him to let me make a call or he would have to repent,” the boy says.
Imran made the cop speak to Khanna and the very next moment he was released. “And you won’t believe I learnt that the man I hit was whisked away by police.”
In the meantime, one afternoon, Imran says he was shown small packets containing white powder like substance named “enjoyment packet.”
While others only smelled its quality, the boy says he was asked to taste one. “It was bitter but made me feel on the top of the world and I started consuming it often.”
SMELLING RAT
But somewhere in the hearts of his heart, Imran says one question would often strike his mind.
“Why will a person who treats me like his son make me booze, have illegal relationships and roam around like a freak… Will my own father ever offer me wine, money and sex?” the boy whose health has deteriorated due to frequent boozing and other “illegal acts”, argues.
These queries started to remain in the back of his mind, till a revelation made him think the other way. I came to know from one of the persons that my video of getting baptized was lying in the mobile phone of a cleric.
“This alerted me and I realised they were playing a dirty game with me and planned to teach them a lesson because by now I was feeling that my health had deteriorated as I couldn’t even stand properly.”
THE REVENGE
He came up with revenge at one of the baptizing ceremonies as the tech-savvy boy carried a spy cam along. The trick worked. He captured the footage, which subsequently leaked on the internet sites leaving the people including civil society members and clerics concerned.
At the Court of Grand Mufti Bashir-Ud –Din, Imran had confronted Khanna when the latter appeared before him for hearing. Initially Khanna, the clerics present at the Court said, had tried to refute the allegations but the moment Imran appeared, the Pastor was shocked and confessed his involvement. Khanna was subsequently arrested by police.
On Thursday while the Supreme Court of Islamic Shariat in Srinagar pronounced the Fatwa, two New Delhi based newspapers issued similar reports about Pastor Khanna and even his wife alleging that the family was involved in luring Muslim youth to Christianity through “unfair means”.
WHY REVERSION
But why did you revert? Some of his friends who knew about his activities had been after him that he should meet some Muslim clerics to know what Islam is. “I knew nothing more than Nimaz and recitation of first five paragraphs of Holy Quran which my mother had made me memorize before she died,” he admits.
Imran says luckily he happened to meet a senior cleric and founder of a Darul Uloom who looked at him with a smiling face.
“Son I have no burgers or pastries to offer other than this Chachwaru(local bread) and he subsequently told me about the basics of Islam which made me feel sorry of my deeds,” the boy admits adding that nobody forced him to revert but he did it out of his own.
Your story is exciting like a Bollywood flick? “Please don’t take it as excitement. It should make you worry. What if your own brother was at my place?" he rep lied to this correspondent.
With this Imran goes emotional requesting that “please to add my appeal in the story.”
HIS APPEAL
“I want to inform all my brothers and sisters, kiths and kins, nears and dears that please don’t believe or trust a person who is unknown to you and don’t trust a girl blindly because I faced so much because of a girl and she intrigued me into drug addiction, illegal affairs, boozing and all sinful life,” he confesses.
“And don’t make friendship with someone who shows undue concern because I was misguided by my best friend. I request all parents to check that whether or not their wards attend to schools regularly and what all are their activities including talking on phone.”
THE MISSIONARY IRONY
Whenever news of any conversions pops up in Kashmir, fingers mostly point towards the Christian Missionary run schools. But like many other such cases, Imran was never a missionary school student.
In reality, it’s the missionary schools, which have produced some of the best people in the society. Valley’s head priest Mirwaiz Dr Umar Farooq, who is spearheading the campaign against apostasy, happens to be a Burn Hall alumni. On the other hand Ishfaaq Majeed Wani, one of the pioneers of the militancy and then Commander-in-Chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was a Biscoe Boy while same is true for US trained pilot Nadeem Khateeb who ended up being a militant and was killed in an encounter in Doda area, a few years back much to the shock of his parents who were of the impression their son was working in US after completing his commercial pilot training there.
There are many more in the list of Missionary school alumni like National Conference President and Union Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, his Chief Minister son Omar Abdullah, former Chairman JK Bank Dr Haseeb Drabu, separatist leader Sajad Gani Lone and of course Masrat Alam, the most wanted man during 2010 Ragda. Daughters of Peoples Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti happen to be Presentation Convent Higher Secondary School (PCHSS)Alumni.
Missionary schools like Tyndale Biscoe School, Burn Hall, PCHSS and Saint Joseph, for around a century, have been known for imparting best of the education as is evident from the versatility in their alumni and interest of almost everyone to get their wards admitted there.
Veteran separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani’s granddaughters study at PCHSS Raj Bagh while same is true for daughter of another senior leader Shabir Shah. Mirwaiz’a close aide, Advocate Shahid Ul Islam who did some interlocution between the Muslim clerics and the Missionary people over the apostasy issue is no exception to it. While Shahid and his siblings too had studied at missionary schools, same is true for his daughters. And he openly admits it.
In the yesteryears prior to eruption of militancy when wives of Army and Air-force officers mostly taught at the missionary schools like the Presentation Convent, these teachers would hold voluntary classes for children of economically backward families, after school hours.
“After school duty these teachers would voluntarily return from their homes in casuals and hold classes for the children of poor families in the school neighbourhood,” recaps a Raj Bagh resident.
BOTTOMLINE TRUST
Well, coming back to Imran and his reversion. A question on how he managed to capture the baptism video without being caught takes you by surprise. “Could you ascertain when I took your video on my mobile as you interviewed me,” he replies with a smile on his face as he showed this correspondent my interactive video.
“I no more trust any one so easily that’s why I captured you in my phone,” he adds as he slips down the chair due to his deteriorating health. He can’t sit properly and needs to lie down frequently. Medicos say drugs and drinking liquor like a fish have badly affected his health!
Earlier Published on Greater Kashmir
Thursday, 19 January 2012
32 bullets, he took ‘em all, to shield others from unrelenting guns
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| Abdur Rauf Wani (24) |
It was the morning of January 21, 1990. The sun came up without much sparkle but it shone on young Rauf’s face for the last time. For, by noon, he was lying on the ground in his favourite blue jacket and green shoes, his body pierced by a hail of troopers’ bullets.
And, two decades later, his family and those who saw him getting killed along with 52 other peaceful protesters in Kashmir’s first massacre since the armed rebellion broke out in 1989 against the Indian rule, try to look back on the event that gave birth to a generation of angry youngmen, a violent uprising and a separatist sentiment never seen before in Kashmir.
On that fateful morning, Abdur Rauf Wani (24) and his father G A Wani, a government employee, watched from the window a huge but peaceful procession passing through Maharaja Bazar, triggered by the news of molestation of women in the old city, strict curfews and restrictions. It was also just a day after New Delhi appointed Jagmohan as J-K Governor in a bid to control mass protests by Kashmiris.
In the street below, men in thousands raised their fists, with slogans ‘Hum Kya Chahte… Azadi’ (We Want Freedom) renting the air. Nothing unusual, as people had grown used to these reminders. But Rauf, unable to contain the surge of emotions within, turned to his father and what followed was a little “more unusual”. “Bauji, this’ll be now begairti (disgrace), should we not join now,” Zulehama Banday, Rauf’s older sister recalls his brother’s conversation with dad. The senior Wani looked back, waited for a moment and then nodded his head. “Should I go,” Rauf again insisted. “Yes,” his father replied.
Zulehama says it was the first time that the family had okayed Rouf’s request to join the peaceful protests. Rauf was soon away, smashing a flower vase in hurry. He stumbled but got up immediately. He performed ablutions, fixed the shoe laces, adjusted his jeans and slid both arms in the blue jacket that he had slung on his right shoulder till then.
Onto the road. “A neighbour tried to stop him but he wouldn’t,” recalls Zulehama, who by now had joined her father at the window to see Rauf disappear in a swarm of youngmen. The long strip of rally that begun from Jawahar Nagar and Ikhrajpora, Rajbagh to reach Budshah Chowk. Earlier proposed to stopover outside UNO at Sonawar, people in the front decided to drum up more support from inner city. The crowd swerved towards Maisuma that would lead demonstrators to inner city till it reached Gaw Kadal Bridge over the Jhelum.When the front-liners of crowd were halfway across the Gaw Kadal, the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire with automatic machine guns from three directions. In the next few minutes, the bridge with littered with corpses and blood. The first day of Governor Jagmohan’s rule would pass in the bloodshed.
Muhammad Altaf Qureshi (50) remembers how the march was stopped with automatic machine guns and how a fearless youngman braved bullets from an unremitting gun nozzle. “Without any provocation and warning, they fired on us,” he recalls. Qureshi, who was in the third row, says the sounds of unrelenting gunfire triggered a stampede on the wooden bridge. The charge pushed him on the deck and soon blood-stained bodies were dotting the spot. Whosoever tried to stand on his legs would be fired upon. In this melee of bullets and screams, Qureshi noticed a youngman getting up, pushing aside with his hands both the dead and alive. “A trooper was showering bullets from a short distance and this youngman shielded people by blocking troopers’ view,” Qureshi recalls. “He took all the bullets on his chest.” The youngster was none other than Rauf. Troopers with faces masked had emptied their carbines by puncturing Rauf’s abdomen and chest. The act of bravery saved scores from getting killed. Rauf finally collapsed, his face upwards; blood painting his blue jacket and green shoes with red. Qureshi watched silently. He was motionless.
The crowd had dispersed. ‘Mayhem’, ‘Massacre’, ‘God’ were the cries he heard from the receding crowd. On the bridge, troops were leaping on the corpses, kicking survivors and finishing them off. Qureshi pretended dead, hiding his face under someone’s blood-splattered torso. “I preferred to lie with the bodies, knowing for sure I will be shot if I stirred. I closed my eyes and remembered Allah and recited Kalima without letting a sound come out,” he recalls. Then the image of his three-month-old daughter flashed in his mind. He soon heard policemen speak in Kashmiri, shouting loud if someone was alive. “For a while I pretended dead,” he says. As if mere sack of flesh, blood and bones, the scene had deadened his body. He was picked up by a cop of J&K Police who inquired if he was alright. He saw policemen heave the bodies into a truck, over a tarpaulin and disappear from the spot. “I was taken to a nearby fire station, from where I called up my home. They were waiting for my corpse after a friend and survivor told them about the massacre,” recalls Qureshi.
The news travelled to home faster than the body of Rauf. Zulehama, the other siblings and father panicked. Rauf had wished martyrdom when a funeral procession passed by the family’s house months back. Zulehama watched their elder brother Parvez Wani readying for Police Control Room (PCR), Batamaloo, where the injured and dead were taken. At PCR gate Parvez struggled hard to enter the premises, as relatives of victims had already started to pour in.
Back home, Rauf’s father was restless. He had allowed his son join the peaceful march. A sense of guilt had overtaken him. Others in the family were crying and consoling each other, assuming Rauf might have swum the river below the wooden bridge. Or he must have stayed at someone’s house. “We were not sure, however,” Zulehama says. But at PCR, Parvez was face-to-face with reality: he was handed the bullet-ridden body of his brother. Thirty two holes, he counted, had punctured Rauf – the highest number of bullets fired on anyone in the rally. “And when the body reached our home…everyone……” Zulehama is unable to continue. It was not for the first time that he had risked his life to save others.
In 1984, Rauf risked his life to save a Sikh laborer who was shot on head while he was lacing his shoes in the street. Family members say that the labourer had cried for help, and when others in the neighbourhood shut their doors and windows, Rauf rushed out and took him to the nearby hospital. “He was 18 then,” Zulehama says. Three years later, in 1987, Rauf along with hundreds of youth was dragged to jail for supporting a political party Muslim United Front (MUF). Rauf was bundled into the notorious PAPA-2 interrogation chamber for 21 days.
Zulehama also remembers how young Rauf would shift a mound of sand outside a neighbour’s house making way for guests during a marriage. Rauf was laid to rest at a graveyard in Sarai Bala, besides Dastageer Sahib Shrine. Soon after, the family sold their property and moved to another locality. And in 2006, Rauf was posthumously honoured with Robert Thorpe award.
Zulehama knows police had registered a case which was, however, closed in 2005 and those involved in Kashmir’s first massacre were declared untraceable. But when I ask her what does she think and if she wants the case reopened, her silence is coupled with soaked eyes. For a moment she speaks nothing. Then she says: “Yes. It must be.” “When I think of my brother,” she says, “the thoughts are not just of the wonderful time we shared. It is of the brutal way in which he was killed, the irrationality of the act, and ultimately, the offenders and the Indian justice system.”
| By Baba Umar ( journalist from Kashmir) |
