Srinagar: The metal bolt clanked, the wooden door groaned open and a frail, middle-aged woman with sunken eyes stepped out of the house in Bemina, one of the most crowded quarters in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.“I don’t want to talk about it. We have gone though enough already,” said Farida Shabnum, wife of Abdul Rashid Wani, a timber trader in the city, who was allegedly subjected to enforced disappearance in 1997 by the army’s Gorkha Rifles.Earlier this month, Shabnum and her two sons – Junaid Rashid and Arsalan Rashid – won a significant victory in the case after a court in Srinagar ordered the authorities to provide them a death certificate of Wani.The court of special mobile magistrate Massarat Jabeen observed in an order on April 4 that a police investigation in the case which has dragged on for nearly 29 years remained inconclusive and none of Wani’s relatives, friends or any acquaintance have heard from him.“In terms of section 108 of Indian Evidence Act (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023), once it is shown that a person has not been heard of for seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him, a presumption of death arises. Hence, the issue is decided in favour of the plaintiffs,” the court said, while observing that the government has “failed” to prove that Wani was alive.“The cumulative effect of the evidence establishes that Abdul Rashid Wani was taken into custody by Gorkha Riffles 8/20 on 07/07/1997 & thereafter disappeared. His whereabouts remain unknown despite judicial inquiry and police investigation… Thus, the legal presumption of death squarely applies,” the court ruled.Srinagar-based political commentator and senior academic Sheikh Showkat welcomed the order, saying that it would provide relief to the families in Jammu and Kashmir who are involved in similar legal battles.According to human rights groups, more than 8,000 people have been subjected to enforced disappearance in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989, when an armed insurgency backed by Pakistan erupted against Delhi’s rule.A handful of these families have been provided with death certificates by the authorities. Wani is one of them.Showkat said that the disappearance of married Muslim men has been a significant issue as the Hanafi school of thought – the dominant Islamic legal tradition in the subcontinent – forbids their wives from remarrying for 90 years. The women whose husbands disappeared are termed “half-widows” in Kashmir.He said that under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, a wife can seek divorce if her husband’s whereabouts are unknown for four years.“Formal death certificates makes life easy for widows and children. Few such problems existed in Kashmir but the systematic disappearances of those involved in the post 1990 situation increased it in a big way. It invoked attention but it was difficult for relationships to get a death certificate due to the absence of proof of death,” said Showkat, a former dean at the School of Legal Studies, Central University of Kashmir.In a Habeas Corpus petition (139/1997) in J&K high court, Shabnum alleged that her husband was taken into custody by the army personnel of 2/8 Gorkha Rifles along with one Farooq Ahmad Bhat near Rawalpora on July 7, 1997.While Bhat was released later, Wani disappeared without trace, marking the beginning of a long and arduous journey for Shabnum to find her missing husband. The army has denied involvement in the case.On Mar 6, 2024, the family approached the court with a petition seeking a “decree of declaration” terming Wani as a deceased person and an injunction to the authorities to issue his death certificate.The legal fiction surrounding the fate of ‘missing persons’ in Kashmir exacts a heavy cost from the families of the victims. Without a death certificate, the disappeared remain legally alive, making it impossible for the family to access their bank accounts, seek some form of compensation or insurance claims in some cases. Even the property registered in their name can’t be transferred.The refusal to acknowledge his death, let alone responsibility for it, opened a second front of suffering for Wani’s family. A young woman and mother of two pre-teen sons at that time, Shabnum knocked on every door that held even the faintest possibility of a happy ending to what was destined to be a hopeless struggle.Court documents show that Shabnum visited police stations, government offices, human rights groups and media houses over these years with the hope of getting some clues on the fate of her missing husband before approaching the high court, following which an FIR was lodged five years later in 2002 (180/2002) under section 364 (kidnapping for murder) of Ranbir Penal Code at Parimpora police station in Srinagar.An inquiry conducted by a sessions court in Srinagar later said that the family of the victim blamed one army major identified as V.P. Yadav in the court documents for the abduction and murder of Wani. After examining the witnesses, the court held that Wani disappeared in the army’s custody.A J&K police report also concluded that the victim was “killed in custody” but with the army protected from prosecution by civilian authorities under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the case has been nearly shelved.Srinagar-based advocate Toufiq Ahmad Hazar said that an ex-gratia relief of Rs 4 lakh was provided by the government in 2012 to the family. He said that they have applied for a compassionate appointment under SRO-43 which has been denied so far.“The sudden focus on the case has made them emotional and triggered their pain. They have already gone though a lot,” Hazar said.Junaid Rashid, Wani’s son, who runs a travel business, agreed to speak about his father but then withdrew.“I have been told not to talk about it,” he said in a text message over WhatsApp. He offered no explanation but the silence was understood.