SRINAGAR: The arrest of a Kashmiri couple in New Delhi during the wee hours of Sunday morning has shocked their family members in Srinagar. Until the news about the arrest of Jahanzaib Sami and his wife, Hina Beigh, was broken to their family in Kashmir, they were living a content and peaceful life with no inkling of the coming disaster. Jahanzaib and Hina had been married just five months ago. “It seems that our old life is gone now, after my brother and sister-in-law were arrested,” Sehrish, the sister of Jahanzaib, told Kashmir Reader. Jahanzaib’s father and fatherin- law have both rushed to Delhi to meet their children. They were not told of the arrest by Delhi Police’s special cell. The rest of the family members in Srinagar are waiting anxiously at their residence, along with relatives and friends, for two days now for some news of Jahanzaib and Hina. They say that they have never experienced such grief and anxiety before. Jahanzaib, an engineer working with a London-based company in New Delhi, and his wife had both done their schooling from elite schools of the Valley. They had gone outside Kashmir for higher studies, and were working in Pune for many years before shifting to Delhi. According to reports, the Delhi Police (special cell) has filed an FIR against them under Sections 120 (B), 124A, and 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. But the duo’s family have no idea about why they have been arrested because nothing has been communicated to them by the Delhi Police so far. “My brother told me just a few days ago that he will return to Kashmir and will work from here because the internet had been restored. I was waiting for that,” Sehrish said. She told Kashmir Reader that her brother had moved from Kashmir to Delhi in October after there seemed to be no certainty about restoration of internet in Kashmir. If internet had not been suspended, she said, her brother would have still been in Kashmir. “I still hope that my brother and sister-in-law will return soon,” Sehrish said.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz