VALLEY OF HOPE

Terrorism has claimed over 12,000 civilian lives in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990. Yet, not even a dozen of them have got justice. With the lieutenant governor easing regulations for families of terror victims, Kashmir's bravehearts are now stepping forward, seeking relief, rehabilitation and justice

- BY NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA/SRINAGAR, PAHALGAM, TRAL & BARAMULLA PHOTOS BY SANJAY AHLAWAT

A mid-July drizzle brings with it a slight nip in the air. Gul Hassan Shah, 96, wraps a blanket tightly around himself and, with trembling hands, grips his walking stick. Slowly, he traces his way into the courtyard, which opens into a web of narrow lanes leading to misty forests that disappear into the mountains.

Nearly two decades ago, he had crisscrossed the same forests in search of his son. But there was no trace of him. The family was plunged into grief, yet Gul Hassan refused to give up. Every day, he went out searching, pleading with locals and policemen to help find what had happened to his son.

Gul Hassan lives in Inderwali, a hamlet in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, with his wife Zulekha Banoo, their children and grandchildren. It was here that his life got torn apart in 2003. His 23-year-old elder son, Syed Aashiq Hussain, had just returned from his daily-wage job when gunmen dragged him into the nearby jungle. A year later, villagers stumbled upon a chilling sight: a skeleton and pieces of torn, blood-soaked clothing that belonged to Syed. But the discovery brought no closure.

Gul Hassan went from pillar to post, urging the police to register an FIR. "There was a flicker of hope when the police sent the skeletal remains to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Srinagar," he recalls. Officials assured him that the forensic analysis would reveal the cause of death and the sequence of events. "Each time they told me to come back later. I just want to know why he was killed, and who killed him," he says. As the years passed, Gul Hassan grew weary and tired, and also lost his eyesight. "I cried myself to blindness," he says. "I cried for 20 years." What he has not lost, however, is the will to fight.