SRINAGAR: Battling cancer for two years, wife of senior Hurriyat leader Ayaz Akbar, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, passed away on Friday at their residence in Maloora area in Srinagar outskirts. She was 52.
The mother of four, Rafeeqa Bano was diagnosed with terminal disease in 2019, two years after her husband was taken into custody by NIA. Akbar was arrested alongside several Hurriyat leaders from Srinagar in connection with a militant funding case.
“She (my mother) was not keeping well for last four months and was on 24×7 oxygen support. Her saturation level went down to 50 when she passed away,” her son Sarwar Ahmad told Kashmir Reader. “We applied for bail twice to seek father’s release after our mother was diagnosed with cancer but it was not granted.”
Coincidentally, Akbar called the family from jail on Friday (weekly call for 10 minutes), his son said and he was told about his wife’s death.
According to his son, his father told the family to be patient and understand the purpose of life through the struggle of their mother. “He wept and recalled that our mother stood by him throughout his life. He told us it is a lesson for us as well. He told us to take care,” Sarwar added.
The struggle of the family mounted as soon as Akbar was arrested. While the family was caught in the rigramole of legal battle of their father, Akbar’s elder daughter-in-law was first diagnosed with Thyroid cancer in 2018 followed by his wife in 2019. No sooner than this, another tragedy befell on the family as Akbar’s daughter got divorce.  “It drained family on financial, psychological and emotional fronts,” Sarwar said.
According to Akbar’s son, they ran out of money to run affairs of their family as there was no bread earner in the family. Sarwar said his father had bequeathed land from his father before his arrest and they sold some marlas of the land to pay for medical bills and travel to Delhi to meet their father.
“It is just struggle. Moving from one end of the world to another to just keep the life afloat,” he added.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz