Disappearance Trek

Irshad Ahmad Dar, 30, has never gone trekking, a familiar pastime among Kashmiri youngsters. Over the past nine months, however, he has become a familiar face for villagers in the mountains around Gangbal lake in northwest Kashmir’s Sonmarg area, which he has been visiting every week. The villagers know him as the brother of a “disappeared person”. “People suffer worse tragedies here, but at least many of them find some sort of closure. If I stay at home for some time, I start thinking about what happened to my brother. I rush to the mountains thinking he is stuck in a ditch somewhere, waiting for me to pull him out,” he says. On June 13, 2020, Irshad’s brother Hilal, 25, had left his home in Srinagar’s Bemina area along with four other young men for a one-day trek. The others returned to their homes in the evening, but Hilal did not. Inquiring about him, Irshad visited the homes of Hilal’s trekking companions. He was told that he got tired and stopped at a spot about 1 km before the destination of their 15-km uphill trek. On their way back, they did not find him there. There has been no trace of him since.

“After searching almost every inch of the area where he disappeared, I ­reported it to the police and resumed the search with the help of villagers and local guides,” says Irshad. But, while he was searching for his brother, Kashmir IGP Vijay Kumar issued a statement on June 23 that Hilal had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen. “If his parents bring him back, we won’t ­arrest him,” he said. Irshad rushed back to Srinagar “to see whether there is any truth in the ­statement”. The ­police told him it was a case of mistaken identity as they were talking about someone else with the same name.

Irshad says the IGP’s statement “hampered our search for Hilal”. Outlook couldn’t get a comment from the IGP despite several attempts to reach him on phone. “He is yet to give a statement on my brother’s ­disappearance,” says Irshad. “If ­someone joins the militants, the ­police and his family come to know about it within weeks. It has been nine months and there is no trace of him. The police say he is missing. Hilal completed his MBA from the University of Kashmir in 2018, and ­enrolled for a PhD after qualifying both NET and JRF. He was also working with a Delhi-based ­company. He had come back on March 23 ahead of the pandemic lockdown and got a fixed internet connection ­installed to work from home. He had a day off on June 13, a Sunday, and posted on Facebook that he was going on a trek and would return in the evening.”

Besides visiting army camps looking for information about his brother, Irshad also contacted the men who bury militants killed in encounters across the Valley. “I showed them ­pictures of my brother and they said they had not buried him. By then 21 militants had been buried in the ­graveyard in Sonmarg,” he says.

When he is not in the mountains searching for Hilal, Irshad meets ­politicians and police officers, ­appealing for their help. He has met BJP leaders Ashok Koul and Altaf Thakur, Apni Party leader Altaf Bukhari, former CMs Farooq Abdullah of the NC and Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP, among others. He has also ­written to the Lt Governor and met two of his advisors. “Wherever I find a ray of hope I go there,” he says.

Ganderbal SP Khalil Ahmad Paswal says a special investigation team has been constituted to investigate the case. “To ascertain all aspects of the case, whether he has been killed, or disappeared, or fell from some hill or joined the militants, his fellow ­trekkers will be put to the narco test.  As of now, we have no clue what ­happened to him,” he adds.

By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar