Terrorist?
March 1, 2007 | Filed Under Mumboji
One of my friends passed me an interview of Mohammed Afzal. He has been given the death sentence for the parliament attack that happened in India.
The guy finds himself alone in his struggle as he has not been allowed a fair representation at the courts. In fact, I fear, this interview will probably be the only time we will hear his side of the story. There is no greater injustice in a democracy than to muffle the voice of a person.
Kashmiri’s have never had it fair. Both India and Pakistan are fighting an ego war on the land of Kashmir and it ultimately leads to someone becoming the scapegoat.
Here’s a part from the interview that really moved me:
What comes to your mind when you think of your wife Tabassum and Son Ghalib?
This year is the tenth anniversary of our wedding. Over half that period I spent in jail. And prior to that, many a times I was detained and tortured by Indian security forces in Kashmir. Tabassum witnessed both my physical and mental wounds. Many times I returned from the torture camp, unable to stand, all kinds of torture including electric shock to my penis, she gave me hope to live…We did not have a day of peaceful living. It is the story of many Kashmiri couples. Constant fear is the dominant feeling in all Kashmiri households.
We were so happy when a child was born. We named our son after the legendary poet Mirza Ghalib. We had a dream to see our son Ghalib grow up. I could spend very little time with him. After his second birthday I was implicated in the case.
What do you want him to grow up as?
Professionally, if you are asking, a doctor. Because that is my incomplete dream.
But most importantly, I want him to grow without fear. I want him to speak against injustice. That I am sure he will be. Who else know the story of injustice better than my wife and son?
[While Afzal continued talking about his wife and son, I could not stop recollecting what Tabassum told me when I met her outside Supreme Court in 2005 during the case’s appeal stage. When Afzal’s family members remained in Kashmir Tabassum dared to come to Delhi with her son Ghalib to organize defence for Afzal. Outside the Supreme Court New Lawyers chamber, at the tiny tea stall on the roadside, she chatted in detail about Afzal. While sipping and complaining the tea for excess sugar she told about how Afzal enjoyed cooking. One picture she painted stuck me deep—one of those dear private moments in their lives, he would not allow her to enter kitchen, make her seated on the chair nearby and Afzal would cook, holding one book in his band, a ladle in the other and read out stories for her.
I agree that terrorism is a bane. And even if we assume that Afzal is the culprit, I wonder what leads one to terrorism. How does one inspire someone to create inhumane acts. Of course there is a constant brainwashing of individuals leading them to feel the atrocities all the more. But we as countries too do things that we can feel ashamed of. And later they come back and haunt us.
I can’t believe that someone who names his son, Ghalib, can be a terrorist. The poet in me refuses to accept it.
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5 Responses to “Terrorist?”
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Please visit http://www.cageprisoners.com – for so many other Gurus languishing in jails. It is a travesty in the name of Freedom, Justice and Human Rights, all that democracies across the world uphold and commit such crimes that individuals don’t matter in the global scheme of things. We live in the world of collectives and cartels and conglomerates, individuals can be sacrificed at the altar of Global dominance.
No one in the world is more dangerous than a fanatic, a brain-washed person (acting as a tool in hands of a power hungry) who imposes his own prejudice on the world and refuses to see things as they are. Being a centre of misery he/she spreads it around the world as he/she goes.
It is sometimes difficult to decide to feel angry with such or to pity them.
But more importantly, what is the solution to the problem? darkness is removed with light and nothing else has the power to do anything with darkness. Being limited human being as we are, we need to find the right solution that works in the imperfect world that we live in.
Something tells me whatever that solution would be, it will need a intellect sharp enough to grasp it and heart large enough to implement it.
Unheard of….. can pple be so bad as this… Are we a developing country? developing in whattt??? Where r we headed for….
Dear friend,
by the same kind of argument, a man who painted this cannot be adolph hitler:
http://www.snyderstreasures.net/images/artworks/batsunset.jpg
dear anonymous friend… i don’t know if you will come back here. the link you shared, well it is a beautiful painting – no doubt. Though I am not surprised by it. I was not referring to artists not being terrorists.
Ghalib has stood for poetry. From his life and works he comes out as a person who does not excessively worship God, hardly even prays. So if Afzal calls his son Ghalib, based on the name of the poet, then it tells a little bit about his character. Though I may be wrong and I am just speculating.