And their tears don’t stop for Tasleem

Sara Afreen prays every night And just about every night as the namaz winds down Sara begins to mutter ldquoAllah send my Abbu back to merdquo Her muttering segues into a gush of tears Her father has not returned to her ever since he was lodged two years ago in Delhirsquos Mandoli Jail At times she complains to her mother Fehmida ldquoAllah just does not listen to merdquoSara is seven years oldShe reminisces every morning without fail how Abbu would gently lift her up from bed cradle her in his arms and dress her up for school She turns morose as she sees other fathers drop their children at school She occasionally dreams of Abbu bringing her gifts On such occasions she asks ldquoWhy doesnrsquot Allah listen to merdquoStoic is 13yearold Zaki Ahmed Sararsquos brother Yet on three or four nights every month Fehmida finds Zaki tossing and turning in bed She asks what he is thinking of ldquoAbout Abburdquo he admitsTears and sleeplessness are the statersquos gifts to the childrenTheir father is Tasleem Ahmed who went to Jaffrabad one evening in January 2020 to witness at the invitation of his friends the sitin the women had organised against the Citizenship Amendment ActThe energy there was irresistible And so every evening after shuttering the coaching centre for students he ran at Sangam Vihar a labyrinthine colony in South Delhi he would ride to Jaffrabad 35 km awayFrom being just a participant Tasleem graduated to delivering speeches But he made it a point to return to his family in Sangam Vihar every night the reason he was not at Jaffrabad as mobs disrupted protestsmdashand rioting broke outHis absence did not matter for a police posse in civvies arrived at their house on April 8 at 530 pm Fehmida was still on the prayer mat having just completed her namaz Some of them barged into her room Kicking the mat their boss said with certainty that she was Gulfisha the leader of the Jaffrabad protestNo she said fishing out her ID to prove she was Fehmida Khatoon wife of Tasleem mother of his two children who were then mercifully playing on the terrace The cop said the photograph did not match her face She said IDs fade with timemdasha mismatch between the face and its photo is inevitable Putting a revolver to her head he said ldquoYou speak too muchrdquo He sent men to the terrace to verify her claimThey tossed around household stuff in search of weapons they believed had been concealed They said they were arresting Tasleem Why she shot back he was not at Jaffrabad during the rioting ldquoStop arguing or we will take you away toordquo the boss said adding ldquoYou will now see his face ten years afterrdquo The children meanwhile had come down from the terrace They started crying as she too did And they cried through the night sensing as does every citizen caught in the statersquos crosshairs that sorrow and tears would now be their fateFleetingly hope seduced them as Tasleem was released on April 29 They rented another accommodation But this symbolic new beginning was aborted as Tasleem was arrested on June 26 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for fomenting the 2020 Delhi riots in order to bring India into disrepute Such an ignoble deed blamed on such pathetically powerless people for whom the faith in the divine is the only resource they can depend on during their troubled daysEarly October she and the children met Tasleem in jail with a glass wall separating them All four began crying It was a lament for the death of freedom for the ripping apart of the familial knots tying them together Consider also this during one of Tasleemrsquos court appearances Sara ran to Tasleem who swooped her into his arms ldquoThis is not allowedrdquo the constable admonishedUAPA seeks to kill love even the love of a sevenyearold for her fatherInitially in Tasleemrsquos absence Fehmida says tears would just keep flowing her head would spin making her fear a fainting spell She steadied herself after meeting the relatives of those who like Tasleem had been booked under UAPA She realised there were many trapped in this Kafkaesque world Their pep talk bolstered her spirit to endureYet living on meagre means has been tough for Fehmida For instance she and the children could meet Tasleem in jail more frequently than just once in two months as they do but she cannot afford the Rs 600 required to travel there They make do with a 10minute video call every week Whether then or in jail Tasleem tries to distract Sara from her woes He asks her to recite multiplication tables which she does in a voice muffled by tears she struggles to hold backThen too she asks ldquoWhy does not Allah listen to merdquo Fehmida says ldquoBe patientrdquoA road in Delhi has been named as Kartavya Marg Fehmida waits as does Zaki and Sara cries There ainrsquot no road in the Capital called Adhikaar MargThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper