After 7 years, his fiancée is still waiting for him

NEW DELHI: Seven years ago when Mohammad Iqbal Jan left Kashmir for Delhi, he had only wedding plans in mind. First branded a terrorist and then acquitted after seven years of incarceration, he will finally go home. There is one piece of good news for him though — his fiancé is still waiting for him.
“He hoped he would be released every time there was a court date.Years slipped by and hope grew dimmer, but she promised to wait till the end of her life. Fortunately justice was delayed but not denied,” said Iqbal’s family friend, Jeelani Soofi. Wrongly jailed for seven years, Iqbal and Mushtak Ahmed Kaloo, both Kashmiris and childhood friends, are free men now. They came here in November 2006 for some business, but were picked up by Delhi Police’s special cell. Convicted by a lower court under serious charges of intent to carry out terrorism, carrying explosives and unlawful activities, HC acquitted them earlier this week and ordered their immediate release.
“They had also planned to finish some wedding shopping here. We got to know about the arrest only through the news. It was a shock,” said Mushtak’s brother, Abdul Majed Kaloo.
Iqbal, a gas agency businessman, was a youth activist and district president of J&K National Panther’s Party. His defence counsel, Professor Bhim Singh, who is also chairman of the party, said, “He was supposed to meet me in Delhi but I was not there at the time. He ended up losing seven years of his youth.” After he fell ill in Tihar, Iqbal was shifted to a Srinagar jail from where he is expected to be released.
Mushtak’s family hasn’t met him for years because they feared coming to Delhi. “We come from a respected family in Bandipora, where our father was a pharmacist. Mushtak was the second of three sons and took care of the family. Others came to him for advice,” said Abdul.
Mushtak’s shoe business has closed and the family is under debt. His wife, whom he had married just a year before the arrest, has struggled to bring up their (then) 5-month-old son. “At 42, he will have to start from scratch, with bigger responsibilities,” said Soofi.
Mushtak now sports a long beard and looks sombre, says his family. “Lost and among strangers, he turned to religion for solace,” said Abdul. While Mushtak’s family waits for his release in Kashmir, Iqbal’s family waited outside Tihar all Friday evening to reclaim their brother, cousin and friend, but he was not released.
Time and again, cops have been found not doing due diligence, either picking up innocent people or not having enough evidence to back their arrests. “They say Kashmir is India’s atoot ang (limb that cannot be severed) but they should also treat us like that. We will never come back,” said Abdul.