ZT Team Report
Srinagar: With the mysterious disappearance of Hilal Ahmad Dar, a PhD student from Srinagar’s Bemina locality, from Naranag area last week, amateur and professional trekkers in Kashmir are left deeply worried.
Hilal went missing near Naranag in Ganderbal district on June 13 during an amateur trekking trip in the hills there with his friends.
Family members and the relatives of Hilal staged a peaceful protest on third consecutive day on Monday here at the Press Enclave and appealed to all the security agencies and Lieutenant Governor administration and police to take concrete steps to trace their son.
Professional trekkers who are part of trekking groups in Kashmir told Ziraat Times that they are baffled with the disappearance.
“The Naranag area is a peaceful one. There are almost daily trekking trips in the area, except for a few months in winter. Trekkers also know the area does not have a wild animal presence that could endanger safety of the trekkers there. Under these circumstances it is very baffling how Hilal has disappeared”, said Furqan Salem, a trekker who makes regular trips to Naranag-Gangabal area.
“Trekkers these days are nervous in taking up any trekking trips. After the ease in the Covid-19 lockdown, many people want to take up to hills to unwind from stress, as there is hardly any entertainment available in Kashmir right now. Trekking in hills is a safe pursuit in current conditions”, said Nazir Ahmed another trekker from Ganderbal, adding that the security agencies “have the means to track his location as he was carrying his cell phone and constantly using it.”
Meanwhile, amid slogans of “we want justice”, “no connection with militancy” at their Press Enclave sit-in, the family members of Hilal Ahmed Dar insist that their son is innocent.
“He has no militant connection or any other link. We make a fervent appeal to the heads of all security agencies in Kashmir to help trace our son,” Nisar Ahmed, Hilal’s uncle, told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
“Check his phone records of 20 years. He has nothing offensive against him. He was working in a private company in Gurgawon and had come home after the coronavirus lockdown.”
The family is also traumatized for the fake news being circulated about Hilal’s wellbeing.
Hilal’s brother, Yasir, who was also part of the protest at Srinagar, said that he has been trying to get the whereabouts of his brother since past many days.
“We have been camping in Naranag. Yesterday, we got news that my brother was killed in an encounter, but that was fake news. The fact is that my brother was part of a six member group who went for trekking on June 13. Five youth returned and my brother didn’t,” he said.
Yasir said that if any security agency has picked his brother, they should release him for the “sake of humanity.”
With inputs from KNO