Frozen in time: On the eve of Srinagar elections, Perveena Ahenger spends another day awaiting her son Javed’s return. He disappeared 19 years ago. — Photo by writer

Away from the din of electioneering, Perveena Ahenger is bracing herself for yet another day of struggle.

For two decades now, she has lived a missionary’s life, searching the Valley for signs of pain - the kind she has suffered for 19 years when her teenaged son Javed was allegedly picked up by the police for investigation.

He never returned, but his disappearance triggered in Kashmir a mass movement for the search of those went missing; their families say the numbers are over 10,000. But the government disagrees, with PDP’s Mufti Saeed telling the assembly earlier as the Chief Minister that the numbers are not more than 30.

Perveena, who, in 1994, launched the Association for Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) to fight her battle, shrugs at the claim. She is determined to prove it wrong. So while Srinagar and Baramulla prepare for the Lok Sabha polls on May 7 and May 13, respectively, Perveena is getting some forms printed. These are meant for a fresh survey into the numbers that disappeared during armed conflict the Valley.

The fight, says the 50-year-old, is not for numbers; it is for people, who were sons, husbands and brothers to someone.

For years now, she has religiously led protests in the city heart to hammer the point that there’s a problem that needs solution. For those like her, it’s a question of life and death.

“We can’t go on swinging between hope and despair. We just want a judicial enquiry into the disappearances. Let it be known if our wards are alive or dead. That’s all we ask of,” she says.

She says she has made a strong case of six families whose members disappeared. These are awaiting union Home Ministry’s sanction for the prosecution of security officers, found guilty.

One such mother is Hazra - all alone at 59 in a Bandipora village of the Baramulla parliamentary segment. She had six sons - three were allegedly killed in anti-militancy operations; one went missing 13 years ago; the remaining two abandoned her. Back in Srinagar’s Habbakadal, a similar story is repeated in another dilapidated home, where Mugli, of 60 years, awaits her only son’s return. She has done that for a decade. After being divorced 20 years back, she fondly raised her son. “He grew up to be a teacher at a local government school,” says a proud mother, whose eyes have tired from wait.

Such stories of pain abound, but politicians forget to record them in their election speeches. The PDP, which promised a judicial commission before being elected in 2002, could not deliver. In the recent assembly elections, the NC was installed in the government and CM Omar Abdullah promised to review cases of human rights violation. How far he goes to keep his word remains to be seen.