'His release's brought misery’

Srinagar: Saleema Begum dreads this day. It is the seventh anniversary of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight IC 814 and the memories have returned, like every year since 1999, to haunt Zargar family.
Saleema’s son Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, chief of Al-Umar Mujhadeen, was one among the three militants released in exchange of the passengers of hijacked plane. He was the only Kashmiri militant released at Kandahar, while two others, including Jaish-e-Mohommad chief Moulana Masood Azhar and Omar Sheikh, were Pakistani nationals arrested in Kashmir for subversion. Life has been a nightmare for them since.
Since 1999, when Mushtaq was released, the family has slipped into oblivion and avoided the gaze of the media. But this has hardly helped them because they have always been on the radar of the security forces in the state.
“My son Fayaz Ahmad was arrested after Mushtaq was released. He spent two years in jail only because he was Mushtaq’s brother. Zahoor, my other son, was also picked up from the street and released after three months of interrogation,” says Saleema.
25/12/06 Ishfaq-ul-Hassan/Daily News & Analysis

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