Meema Akhtar | Credit: Aamir Ali Bhat
Nearly 20 years later, on January 5, 2018, Asif came home from the public park just before dusk. He was 19, and had just finished class 12 – a pious young man who supported the Jamaat-e-Islami, and eagerly participated in Islamic seminars. That evening, he drank his tea, made wudu (ablutions) and went to pray in the nearby mosque.
“He didn’t return,” says Meema. “I never saw him again. I don’t even have his picture. He was so simple and pious he never liked anyone taking his picture.”
Ten months later, on October 24, Asif was killed in an armed encounter in Nowgam, Srinagar, along with the scholar-turned-militant Sabzar Ahmad Sofi.
In his 19 years as Meema and Ali’s son, Asif never learned that he had been adopted. The couple doted on him. “Asif was my world,” Meema said. “We still don’t know Asif’s real parents. And he died without knowing his own real story.”
On the January evening when he failed to return from prayers, Meema called him repeatedly, but his phone was switched off. Ali, now aged 52, went to look for him at the mosque. Asif wasn’t there. Ali knocked on the door of every neighbour, but nobody had seen him.
“We searched for him everywhere,” Ali said. “We contacted friends, relatives and neighbours but didn’t find him.”
They continued their search until news arrived that jolted them and changed their lives forever. Asif’s picture brandishing an AK-47 rifle was making the rounds on social media. He had joined Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, where his code name was Khubaib.
“Like every Kashmiri youth, my son was pro-freedom,” Ali said. “But I never thought Asif could join the militancy himself.”
“Asif was a pampered child. Despite fighting poverty, Asif’s parents always fulfilled his every demand. They wanted to see him highly educated,” said Uzma Akhtar, Asif’s aunt. “But since 2016, when the situation turned worse in Kashmir, Asif’s mindset also changed. Every killing in Kashmir caused him great pain. He chose his path.”
The family says it was his own decision to join the militancy. “Asif’s decision to join militancy utterly appalled us,” said Ali, controlling his tears. “We tried everything to bring him back. He was our lone son and last hope.”
“He even didn’t come to meet me once,” said Meema. “He knew that he would not bear my emotion.”