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| India-Pakistan |
| From Kupwara to Kolkata, a cross-border jihadi love story |
| 2009-07-19 |
| KUPWARA: Late in June, Kolkata resident Junaid Alam Sheikh arrived in Kupwara to holiday in the Lolab valley with his wife and small children. He also hoped to catch up with an old friend he had not seen for a decade and to recover an old debt he was owed. Now, Mr. Sheikh is in Kupwara jail, facing prosecution on terrorism charges: charges which could lead to his spending a decade or more in prison, before he is deported back to Pakistan. Mr. Sheikh, the Jammu and Kashmir Police says, is in fact a Pakistani national who served as an al-Badr operative in the mountains of Kupwara, before escaping to build a new life in Kolkata. Thurunnisa Sheikh, the mother of Mr. SheikhÂ’s two children, has seen her life destroyed by a past she did not know existed. Born in 1975, Mr. Sheikh has told police he grew up in the Pakistani town of Rawalpindi. He studied at the Iqra Public School until 1990, when he failed his ninth-grade examinations. Kaloo Sheikh, Mr. SheikhÂ’s father, could no longer afford to support his studies: there were six other siblings to be supported. Mr. Sheikh told the police he worked odd jobs, but became increasingly frustrated with his life. In 1997, Mr. Sheikh was drawn to the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir but not, unlike many others, because of calls from right-wing clerics. Al- Badr, then among the more important jihadist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir, offered him Rs.1 lakh up front for volunteering for a two-year tour of duty across the Line of Control, with promises of more if he returned. During the summer of 1999, Mr. Sheikh crossed the Line of Control in Kupwara, as part of a surge of terrorists who took advantage of the withdrawal of troops from IndiaÂ’s counter-insurgency formations to fight the war in Kargil. He was assigned to a Kupwara-based al-Badr unit, operating under the command of an operative code-named Junaid. Like other jihadist units in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. SheikhÂ’s group soon found itself embroiled in some of the most intense fighting seen in the State. Within days, Mr. Sheikh decided that he wanted a less dangerous livelihood. He stole Rs.8 lakh from his commander, and fled the mountains. The money was to prove his downfall. Mr. Sheikh decided to head for Kolkata, a city he had been told offered anonymity and the prospect of escape to Pakistan through Bangladesh. Before leaving Kupwara, he left the money with a local shopkeeper for safekeeping. Once in Kolkata, Mr. Sheikh has told police, he dropped his plans to return to Pakistan: al-Badr, he understood, would execute him as a traitor if he ever returned home. Posing as a migrant from Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Sheikh found work in the city. For two years, he drove a taxi. Later, from 2001 to 2003, Mr. Sheikh worked as an ambulance driver at the MR Bangur Hospital in KolkataÂ’s Tollygunge area, and then got a job chauffeuring a doctor in KolkataÂ’s Salt Lake area. He married in 2003, and fathered two children, Mohammad Rehan Khan and Nasreen Khatoon. Early this summer, hoping to fund an independent business, Mr. Sheikh decided to return to Kupwara and seek the return of the money he left behind. His friend promised him the money but instead called the police. Thurunnisa and the children are still in Kupwara, struggling to make sense of the events around them. Later this week, police are expected to go to Kolkata to investigate the case further and return Mr. SheikhÂ’s family to their home. Divided by a bitter conflict and an iron border, it is unlikely the family will ever be reunited. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #1 *sniff* I love a happy ending |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-07-19 11:57 |