Anantnag: A 27-year-old woman, whose husband is in jail for alleged militant links for more than six months now, committed suicide by hanging herself Sunday morning here in Qazigund area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
Afreen Jan, who has been working as a domestic help to meet ends, was found hanging at her residence in Churath village of Qazigund.
“She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead,” a senior police official told Kashmir Reader.
Afreen’s husband Rayees Ahmad Dar and one Subzar Ahmad Sheikh of Ashmuji village in Kulgam district were traveling to Srinagar from Jammu on December 25, 2020, when they were intercepted by Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) on Narwal by-pass on the outskirts of Jammu.
The police, back then, maintained that Dar’s bag contained an AK-47 rifle with two magazines and 60 rounds, and a pistol with two magazines and 15 rounds. “A TRF module has been busted with the arrests. Dar has a history of militancy-related activities and has 4 cases registered against him,” the police had said after the arrest.
Since then, Dar has been jailed in Jammu. “Probably at Kot Balwal jail,” the police official said, “I am not sure though.”
It could not be independently verified where Dar is lodged now. Some sources said he was in a Jammu jail while some maintained that he was lodged at district jail in Kehribal area of Anantnag.
“I am not sure about it. I will have to check and get back,” Jail Superintendent in Anantnag, Syroz Ahmad, told Kashmir Reader.
Afreen and Dar had been married just months before Dar was arrested in Jammu. “His father had died in early 2020, following which he had married. Afreen started living with Dar, his mother and an unmarried sister,” local sources told Kashmir Reader.
With Dar’s arrest, all the responsibilities fell on Afreen’s shoulders and she started working as a domestic help to meet ends. “She was the one who was taking care of Dar’s mother and sister in his absence,” the sources said.
This is the second such incident in Kulgam district in less than two months. On May 29, a 23-year-old man, Shoaib Bashir, committed suicide in Avil-Noorabad village of DH Pora.
Shoaib’s father was a former militant and now a government teacher. His salary had been withheld for a couple of years. Unable to cope with the economic duress in the family, Shoaib took the drastic step by consuming poison.
Suicides, otherwise as well, have been unusually rampant in Kashmir valley in the past few months with several videos of people in their last moments doing rounds on social media.

Suhail A Shah