'Half-widows' wait for lost husbands
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 21 2015: Half-widow is a term coined by human right defenders of Kashmir and it refers to women whose husbands have disappeared involuntarily after they were picked up by security forces.

These hapless women are referred as half-widows as no one is sure whether their husbands are still alive or dead.

There are thousands of half-widows in Kashmir and Manipur has a handful of them.

The woes, pangs and trauma suffered by Kashmiri half-widows in Kashmir have been published repeatedly in the media but very little has been published about the suffering of Manipuri half-widows.

A team of the Families of Involuntarily Disappeared Association, Manipur (FIDAM) visited three families whose dear and near ones have disappeared involuntarily like themselves.

Tayab Ali of Keirang, Imphal East disappeared without any trace after he was abducted by some persons clad in civilian fatigues on July 25, 1999 .

A grieving woman : The tears say it all

Tayab Ali was working as salesman of a shop located at Thangal Keithel.

At the time when Tayab Ali disappeared involuntarily, his wife Mina Kheratun two months pregnant.

Mina said that she received reports about her husband being taken to Kangla then occupied by 17 Assam Rifles.

Tayab Ali was on his way to Thangal Keithel riding a moped when he was abducted by the unknown persons from Sangakpham, Poumai Colony.

After the abduction, all efforts were put in to trace his whereabouts but all went in vain.

"For the past many years, I have been suffering silently.

The question whether my husband is still alive or dead has been tormenting my every night", Mina said.

In the absence of her husband, Mina, mother of three sons and three daughters, has been toiling hard to make both ends meet.

Nonetheless, Tayab Ali's last rites have not been performed till date as hope of his survival is still alive among his family members.

Mina Kheratun said that the only quest for her life is to know whether her husband is still alive or dead.

Chandam Chaoba of Pukhao was pulled up from his home by CRPF jawans posted at Mantripukhri on January 15, 1981.Six days later, security forces came with Chaoba to his home, conducted a search operation and then took him away.

In the the six days that he was kept in captivity, Chaoba had changed completely.

He was physically very weak and had became mentally deranged due to extreme torture, said Chaoba's wife Nungshitombi, another half-widow.

Chaoba was a humble farmer and he was actively engaged in development programmes taken up at the village or grassroots level.

According to Nungshitombi, Chaoba was apprehended on the charge of giving shelter to insurgent cadres.

"Even if they suspected my husband, they (security forces) had no authority to detain him for such a long period", Nungshitombi decried.

Even as a case has been filed at Court, the lawyer conveyed that Chaoba had succumbed to injuries inflicted during interrogation.

But the family was denied any opportunity to pay their last respects to the mortal remains.

With all hopes of ever finding Chaoba alive lost, a symbolic cremation was conducted with a pangong plant serving as the corpse.

The FIDAM team then went to the house of Kh Budha who too disappeared involuntarily after he was picked up by army personnel based at Leimakhong on November 6, 1983 .

The fateful day was Ningol Chakkouba day.

Budha was serving as a teacher in a school at Chamu, Ukhrul district.

He stayed there with his wife and children.

Budha came home to join Ningol Chakkouba festival, said his younger brother Pishak to the visiting FIDAM team.

The army personnel first pulled up Pishak as he and Budha looked quite alike.

As the army personnel realized that they were detaining the wrong man, they asked Budha's whereabouts and took him along.

Pishak was released.

The matter was reported to Lamlai P/S the next morning.

Saying that they had no fuel to go searching for Budha, the OC asked Budha's family to bring petrol if they must search for Budha.

Four days later, it was told that Budha had been handed over to the chief of Chamu village but the village chief denied the same report.

Moreover, some army personnel thrashed the village chief black and blue asking him to say that Budha had been handed over to him.

Even as a case was filed at the Court with the primary objective of locating Budha, it could not be ascertained whether he was alive or dead.

Like in many similar cases of involuntary disappearance, a symbolic cremation of Budha was performed.

Pishak also raised strong suspicion that the human skulls and skeletal remains discovered from the erstwhile Tombisana High School campus could be of those people who had disappeared involuntarily.

It would be a huge relief to all those families whose near and dear ones disappeared involuntarily and who have been living with a heavy cloud of uncertainty hanging over their heads if the facts (whether they are alive or dead) of their lost ones are informed to them.

FIDAM members said that all preparations have been made to stage protest demonstrations in different parts of the State over the Government's failure to investigate the startling discovery promptly.