Mothers in Kashmir Ask, Can Elections Return My Missing Children ?

Parveena Ahangar has been looking for her son for 29 years.

To look for her son, Parveena went to the courts. But due to AFSPA which gives armed forces special rights, permission for interrogation wasn’t granted.

(Photo: The Quint/Kanishk Dangi)

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

“We are demanding that our children be returned to us. We don’t want money, we don’t want jobs. We just want our children.”

Parveena Ahangar, Founder, APDP

This is the voice of Parveena Ahangar, a mother who has been looking for her son for 29 years, and the founder of Kashmir's Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). Javed Ahmed, Ahangar's son, disappeared on 19 August 1990 from Kashmir and still hasn't been found.

To look for her son, Parveena went to the courts. But due to AFSPA which gives armed forces special rights, permission for interrogation wasn't granted. After hopelessly trying for four years, Parveena started APDP in 1994.

“Some spoke about their brothers, some about their husbands and sons – I gathered them all and started a <i>dharna</i>. If our children have been picked up, then where have they been kept? If the law applies to me and you, doesn’t it apply to them? Why haven’t they been punished?”

Parveena Ahangar, Founder, APDP

No Hope For Elections

The entire country is gearing up for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But Parveena has no hope from the elections. She says that governments change, but her destiny remains the same.

“Farooq Abdullah came, then Mufti Sayeed, then Ghulam Nabi Azad and Omar Abdullah... Elections have been held so many times. But if no one has done anything in 30 years, what will they do now? Everyone fulfils formalities, nobody understands our pain.”

Parveena Ahangar, Founder, APDP

According to the APDP, nearly eight to ten thousand people are missing in Kashmir. Parveena says that it is called "forced disappearance." The Association wants an independent body to investigate cases of missing children and people.

Will 2019 elections alleviate the pain of these "half-widows," "half-mothers" and "half-sisters" in Kashmir?