On Monday, a 100-year-old woman attended a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in Baniyari village of Hajin in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district to, she said, get her son released from jail.
Fazi Begum was accompanied by her two neighbours, who helped her to walk and reach the venue. She told a local news agency, Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that she was attending the rally after “Jan Sahab of BJP” promised her that her son, who is in jail for the past ten years, “would be released if she attends the BJP rally”.
The rally was addressed by the BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain and other senior leaders of the party including Sofi Yousuf.
Fazi said that her son and seven other persons are in jail for the last 10 years “for no offence”. “I am helpless and I have nobody to take care of me. He was my only hope but he is in jail for the last 10 years on baseless charges,” she said.
As per the agency, Fazi’s son Ghulam Hassan Dar was arrested in 2010 with seven others under section 302 after a fight over some issue broke out in their village. In the fight, a person was killed that landed Ghulam Hassan and seven others in jail.
Fazi while claiming her son was innocent, said that since then she has been running from pillar to post to get her son released and today she attended the BJP rally with the hope that the leaders would help her in getting her son released. She added that the leaders, who addressed the rally, gave her a “patient hearing and assured” her that her son would be released soon. (KNO)
