'They label you a terrorist and every one stays silent'

A defiant Nikhat Parween, the 22-year-old wife of missing Indian engineer Fasih Mehmood, is hoping to finally get some answers from the Indian government today on where her husband is and whether he has been detained for allegedly being involved in terror attacks. On 30 May, the Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response on the whereabouts of Mehmood, who was picked up – says Parween - by government officials from his home in Saudi Arabia on 13 May. “This fight is not just my own. So many innocent people are picked up by the police, no questions asked. If we don’t raise our voice, the government will continue to do this. They label you a terrorist and out of fear the family keeps silent. The public must raise its voice,” says Parween, a Business Administration graduate, who is from the Darbhanga district of Bihar. [caption id=“attachment_333969” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Fasih Mehmood with his wife Nikhat Parween, shortly after their marriage in Septmember 2011. Image courtesy Nikhat Parween.”]  [/caption] She married Fasih Mehmood, a mechanical engineer employed with Eram Enginnering Corporation since 2008, last year and moved to Saudi Arabia in March. Angry and frustrated at being stonewalled by every government department she went to, Parween finally sought the Supreme Court’s intervention. “If I wasn’t there to witness what happened to my husband, we would be in the dark. We wouldn’t have known what happened to my husband. But I am an eyewitness. And I demand an answer from the government,” she said. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the matter today. Home Minister P Chidambaram dismissed media reports of Mehmood’s custody by Indian authorities in connection with the 2010 Bangalore Chinnaswamy stadium blast as “baseless and wrong” . On 4 June, India sought the deportation of Mehmood from Saudi Arabia against whom Interpol has issued Red Corner notice for his alleged involvement in blasts in Delhi and Bangalore in 2010. Reacting to Home Minister Chidambaram’s denial of Mehmood’s whereabouts, Parween said, “It is matter of shame that the Home Minister doesn’t know where my husband is. I have been running from pillar to post for 22 days now." “Anna Hazare has raised his voice against corruption. Isn’t what the government doing in this case also a form of corruption?” asks Parween.