Briefly In Jail

A group of 13 women who planned the first protest against August 5 decisions spent almost 30 hours in jail and were set free after they signed a bond that they will not breach peace again,

- Tahir Bhat

These days history is literally in complete reversal. In 1947, probably the first IAF aircraft carrying the soldiers to Srinagar to push back Pakistani intruders flew two Kashmiri women to Delhi. Wearing white shuttlecock Burkha, the two women were said to be Begum Akbar Jehan, the wife of Kashmir’s towering leader, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, and their daughter Khalida Shah. They were f lown to Delhi to protect them from any harm in the explosive situation that existed in Kashmir at the time of the accession.

In 2019, when the entire constitutional arrangement that was the outcome of the 1947 process was binned by a new law that the bicameral Parliament passed in the first week of August, the first ever symbolic protest came 73 days after, when a group of 13 women came with placards and wanted to have a “peaceful sit-in” on the Moulana Azad Road. Within minutes, they became the first female detainees of the ongoing crisis. Among others, these included Sheikh Abdullah’s daughter, Dr Suraya Matoo and his granddaughter, Safiya Khan.

Suraya is Dr Farooq’s sister, and Safiya his daughter. He along with his son Omar are already in jail and are being held separately. Unlike Omar, Dr Farooq is formally detained under Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act.

Wearing a black band, Safiya Khan held a placard saying: ‘Why downgrade J&K state’. The other placards displayed included ‘Kashmiri bride not on sale’, ‘Resist to exist’, ‘Restore rights’ and ‘Don’t deceive Indians.’ Suraya’s placard read: ‘Release all detainees’.