Author:
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: September 21, 2004
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20040918133211&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0&BUDGAM:~At~19,~when~he
At 19, when he sneaked across the
Line of Control (LoC) for arms training, he wanted to return to the Valley
to fight the Army and become a martyr.
When Ghulam Mustafa returns seven
years later, he just wants to cling on to his new faith, Christianity,
and live a quiet life in his border village.
It was in 1997 that Mustafa crossed
the LoC, fed up with the daily routine of ``abuse and humiliation'' at
the hands of the Army in his village, Tangdhar in Kupwara sector. He wanted
to learn how to handle arms but landed in a Pakistani prison, charged with
spying for India.
Left amid criminals and drug traffickers
at Chaklala prison in Rawalpindi, Mustafa's idea of Pakistan began to change.
``It didn't take me long to figure out I had made a wrong choice. For the
first six months, I was put through the worst kind of interrogation and
torture. They just wanted me to admit I was an Indian spy. I was so tired
of life that I just prayed for death so that my misery would come to end,''
says Mustafa.
His captors would begin the day
by greeting him with ``Ram Ram'' rather than Asalaam-u-Alaikum. ``This
was how I began to hate them. Then they would throw food at me and hurl
abuses too. Initially, I was allowed to write letters to my parents, but
that too was stopped by the jail authorities when I had no money to pay
them,'' he added.
The humiliation didn't stop there,
Mustafa says, there were attempts to sexually abuse him.
Then Mustafa came across a Nigerian,
J Kennedy, a prisoner charged with drug trafficking.
``I felt traumatised by the experiences
inside the prison. Amid this hopelessness, I met Kennedy who offered me
a copy of the Bible to read. He also introduced me to a few evangelists
who would come to the prison to meet Christian detainees. They gave me
a cross to wear and would also pray for me. I felt better,'' he says.
Then one day the warden of the jail
in Lahore, where he had been moved last year, told him he would be released.
He was to be part of a group of 30 Indian prisoners released in exchange
for Pakistani prisoners from India. He returned on August 30.
After a debriefing session with
the J&K police, he is back in the Valley but Mustafa is worried about
his new faith. He is not sure if he could openly practise his new faith.
His mother who met him on Friday recoiled in horror when he told her about
his Christian beliefs.
"She told me that I would have been
under strain and pressure and not mentally sound to make such decision.
She told me that my grievances should be against individuals but not against
Islam,'' he says.
Right now, he has other worries
too. When he returns to his border village, he hopes the Army wouldn't
bother him again. ``I crossed the LoC in 1997 to get arms training but
there I was accused of being an Indian spy. I hope the Army here doesn't
see me the same way,'' he says.
