—
The last box wasn’t a fruit carton and wasn’t a “recovery” from the flood. It was a small Hewlett-Packard printer-cartridge carton that contained the Amrik Singh documents that Musa had left with her after he returned from one of his trips to the US. She opened it to double-check that her memory served her right. It did. There was a sachet of old photographs, a folder of press clippings reporting Amrik Singh’s suicide. One of the reports had a photograph of the Singhs’ house in Clovis with police cars parked outside it and policemen milling around inside the No Go zone they had marked off with the yellow tape you saw in TV serials and crime films. There was an inset photograph of Xerxes, the robot with a camera mounted on to it that the California police had sent into the house before they went in to make sure nobody was lurking around waiting to ambush them. Other than the press clippings there was a file with copies of Amrik Singh’s and his wife’s applications for asylum in the US. Musa had given her a long, comical account of how he had got the file. He, along with a lawyer who had argued hundreds of asylum cases on the West Coast—the friend of a “brother”—visited the American social worker in Clovis who had been dealing with Amrik Singh’s case. The social worker was a wonderful man, Musa said, old and infirm, but dedicated to his job. He had socialist leanings and was furious with his government’s immigration policy. His small office was lined with files—the legal records of the hundreds of people he had helped to get asylum in the US, most of them Sikhs who had fled India after 1984. He was familiar with the stories of police atrocities in Punjab, the army invasion of the Golden Temple and the 1984 massacre of Sikhs that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi. He lived in a time warp and wasn’t up to date on current affairs. So he had conflated Punjab and Kashmir and viewed Mr. and Mrs. Amrik Singh through that prism—as yet another persecuted Sikh family. He had leaned across his desk and whispered that he believed the tragedy occurred because neither Amrik Singh nor his wife had come to terms with the rape that Mrs. Amrik Singh was bound to have suffered while she was in police custody. He had tried to convince her that mentioning it would greatly enhance their chances of getting asylum. But she wouldn’t admit to it and had grown agitated when he suggested that there was no shame in talking about it.
“They were simple good folks, those two, all they needed was some counseling, they and their little ones,” he said, handing over copies of their papers to Musa. “Some counseling and some good friends. Just a little help and they would still have been alive. But that’s too much to expect from this great country, isn’t it?”
Right at the bottom of the printer-cartridge carton was a fat, old-fashioned legal file that Tilo didn’t remember having seen before. It was a set of loose, unbound pages, perhaps fifty or sixty pages, stacked on a piece of cardboard and tied down with red straps and white string. Witness testimonies in the Jalib Qadri case from nearly twenty years ago:
Memorandum of Statement by Ghulam Nabi Rasool s/o Mushtaq Nabi Rasool, r/o Barbarshah. Occupation—Service in Tourism Department. Age 37 years. Statement recorded under Section 161/CrPC
The witness states as under:
I am a resident of Barbarshah in Srinagar. On 8.03.1995 I saw a military contingent positioned at Parraypora. They were frisking vehicles there. An army truck and armored vehicle were also parked there. One tall Sikh army officer surrounded by many military personnel in uniform was conducting the frisking. A private taxi was also parked there. In the taxi there were some civilian personnel wrapped in a red blanket. On account of fear I remained some distance away from this scene. Then I saw a white Maruti car coming. Jalib Qadri was driving and his wife was in the passenger seat. On seeing Jalib Qadri the tall army officer stopped his vehicle and made him to get out. They pushed him in the armored vehicle and all the vehicles including the private taxi went away in a convoy via the Bypass.
Memorandum of Statement by Rehmat Bajad s/o Abdul Kalam Bajad, r/o Kursoo Rajbagh, Srinagar. Occupation—Agriculture Department. Age 32 years. Statement recorded under Section 161/CrPC
The witness states as under:
I am the inhabitant of Kursoo Rajbagh and work in the Agriculture Department as field assistant officer. Today, on 27.03.1995, I was at my home when I heard noise coming from outside. I came out and found people were gathered around a dead body which was tucked into a sack-bag. The dead body had been recovered by local youth from the Jhelum Flood Channel. The youth removed the body from the sack-bag. I found it to be the body of Jalib Qadri. I recognized him because he had been living in my neighborhood for the past twelve years. After inspection I identified the following apparel:
1. Woolen sweater khaki colored
2. White shirt
3. Gray pants
4. White undershirt.
Besides this both eyes were missing. His forehead was bloodstained. Body was shrunk and decomposed. Police came and took custody and prepared a custody memo which I signed.
Memorandum of Statement by Maroof Ahmed Dar s/o Abdul Ahad Dar, r/o Kursoo Rajbagh, Srinagar. Occupation—Business. Age 40 years. Statement recorded under Section 161/CrPC
The witness states as under:
I am a resident of Kursoo Rajbagh and deal with business. On 27.03.1995 I heard noise coming from the bank of the Jhelum Flood Channel. I went to the spot and found that the dead body of Jalib Qadri was lying on the bund tucked in a sack bag. I could identify the deceased because he was residing in my neighborhood for a period of twelve years and we offered prayers in the same local mosque. On the deceased body the following apparels were seen:
1. Woolen sweater khaki colored
2. White shirt
3. Gray pants
4. White undershirt.
Besides this both eyes were missing. His forehead was bloodstained. Body was shrunk and decomposed. Police came and took custody and prepared a custody memo which I signed.
Memorandum of Statement by Mohammed Shafiq Bhat s/o Abdul Aziz Bhat, r/o Ganderbal. Occupation—Mason. Age 30 years. Statement recorded under Section 161/CrPC
The witness states as under:
I hail from Ganderbal. I am a mason by profession and presently I am working in the house of Mohammed Ayub Dar in Kursoo Rajbagh. Today, on 27.03.1995 at about 6:30 a.m. in the morning I went to the Jhelum Flood Channel for washing my face. I saw a dead body in a sack-bag floating in the river. One leg and one arm was visible from outside. On account of fear I did not report this to anybody. Later I went to Mohammed Shabir War’s house to perform my labor as a mason. I found the same dead body in a sack-bag which was recovered by the locals from the Jhelum Flood Channel. The dead body was decomposed and soaked. The apparel on the body was as follows:
1. Woolen sweater khaki colored
2. White shirt
3. Gray pants
4. White undershirt.
Besides this both eyes were missing. His forehead was bloodstained. Body was shrunk and decomposed. Police came and took custody and prepared a custody memo which I signed.
Memorandum of Statement by brother of the deceased, Parvaiz Ahmed Qadri s/o Altaf Qadri, r/o Awantipora. Occupation—Service in Academy of Arts, Culture and Languages. Age 35 years. Statement recorded under Section 161/CrPC
The witness states as under:
I am a resident of Awantipora and the brother of the deceased Jalib Qadri. Today after the identification and Postmortem I took the dead body of my brother Jalib Qadri from the Police. The police separately filed an injury memo and receipt for the dead body. The contents of the memos were read to me which I acknowledge to be correct.
Memorandum of Statement by Mushtaq Ahmed Khan alias Usman alias Bhaitoth, r/o Jammu City. Age 30 years. Statement recorded on 12.06.95 under Section 164/CrPC