A daughter waits for her father

Kashmir: As always, this World Human Rights Day too saw various protests in Srinagar.

Away from all the token hunger strikes, at Bilkees Manzoor's home in a Srinagar suburb, the 20-year-old spends her time looking at newspaper cuttings on her father's disappearance and her struggle to find him.

Bilkees, whose father Ahmed Dar was picked up from their house by the Rashtriya Rifles personnels on January 18, 2002 has not returned back.

Every night Bilkees sees him in her dreams and that's reason enough for her to continue the fight. "We Kashmiris believe in dreams. In one of my dreams I saw my father. He told me that the police had broken his legs."

A few came forward to help her. A Brigadier treated her like his daughter and even gave her money to survive. But a newspaper report claimed the money was meant to buy her silence.

Bilkees now lives with her mother and grandmother. Bilkees still believes she will see her father alive one day.

Coming Tuesday, a hearing is scheduled in this case. But it has been a long time since some one from the army even turned up for the hearings.