PoK girl marries Kashmiri cop

At a time when militants and separatists are threatening tit-for-tat attacks and social boycott of policemen and their families, a girl from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir travelled all the way to the Valley to enter into wedlock with a young Kashmir police officer.

Sayeda Faiza Gilani, a postgraduate in literature from a university in Islamabad, travelled to violence-hit Valley in “Karavan-e-Aman” (the Peace Caravan) bus operating weekly between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, to tie the knot with her cousin Syed Owais Gilani, a police sub-inspector otherwise busy countering street protests.

The marriage united two families who were separated during the partition of 1947. Both families give the credit for this happy reunion to the groom’s father, Syed Shabir Gilani, a retired police officer.

Senior Gilani, a native of Karnah area near Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir, says he has had a bitter childhood experience of how the “unnatural divide” between two Kashmirs severed his father Syed Hassan Shah’s ties with the rest of the family.

“That time our ancestors presumed that separation was temporary and that free movement would be restored. But alas, the situation worsened to a level that my father could not even attend the funeral of his father,” recalls Shabir.

His wish to visit PoK one day to offer prayers at the mausoleum of his grandfather, was also dashed when Shabir got appointed as a police officer. “A ray of hope emerged in 2003, when India and Pakistan decided to reopen traditional routes along the LoC for reunion of divided families. After my retirement from government service as senior superintendent of police in 2014, I decided to nurture my childhood dream of visiting Muzaffarabad,” he told DH.