Srinagar, July 31 (KMS):  In occupied Kashmir, the father of a missing youth has said that he is out on a mission to locate whereabouts of his young son, Muhammad Younis, who has been missing from the custody of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) since 2002.

Abdul Ahad Reshi said that the life took an ugly turn when personnel of BSF’s 118 battalion raided his house at Beeru in Budgam on July 17, 2002. “The troopers accompanied by a government gunmen, Ghulam Hassan alias Chottu, dragged my son, Younis and bundled him in a Gypsy. Our pleas fell on dead ears and the personnel ruthlessly thrashed and abused us. That was the last time I saw Younis,” the father said. 

He said that on the next day he rushed to the BSF camp at Sanat Nagar, but the personnel denied having arrested his son. “I was shocked when the BSF personnel told me they had no information about my son. However, when I recognized the personnel who had arrested my son, an officer offered me one lakh rupees to hush up the case but I offered him three lakh rupees to locate my son. The officer could not utter a word,” he maintained. “How can a father do business on son,” he cried, adding “My son used to earn his livelihood by doing embroidery work on curtains. Confident of his innocence I vowed to fight for his release. But destiny had something else in store."

“To wipe out evidence of my son’s custodial disappearance, the BSF personnel killed Chottu, the government gunmen. He had started to blackmail them,” he added. Police had also failed to locate whereabouts of my son or take any action against the accused, he said in a chocked voice.

“During past 19 years, I have seen countless bodies of innocent Kashmiris who were killed by troops in fake encounters. Most of them were later branded as militants. I think either my son has been killed by BSF personnel or in languishing in some jail. As a father I have every right to know what happened to my son. It is the duty of the puppet authorities to tell me is he alive or dead?” he asked.