Heartwarming story of how PoK girl braved unrest to marry Kashmiri cop

Even as the prevalent unrest in Kashmir largely overshadowed the wedding season, this ceremony was a bit different. Here the bride from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) travelled to the restive Valley, on the Caravane Aman bus, to tie the knot with a young police officer otherwise busy countering street protests.

While India and Pakistan continue to differ on the Kashmir issue, this wedding is about the reunion of divided families living on the two sides of the line of control (LoC), which has been witness to years of hostilities between the two countries.

Syed Owais Gilani, a sub-inspector with the Jammu and Kashmir Police, entered into wedlock with his cousin, Sayeda Faiza Gilani, a postgraduate in literature from a university in Islamabad. This has come after three generations and the family, divided in 1947, could strengthen their relationship. The two families give the credit for this happy reunion to the groom's father, Syed Shabir Gilani, a retired police official. A native of frontier Karnah, Shabir had a bitter childhood experience of how the "bloody LoC" severed his father Syed Hassan Shah's ties with the rest of the family.

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Those days, the family owned a huge estate spanning over tehsil Karnah - a part of Muzaffarbad district - of the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The family was headed by Shabir's grandfather, Pir Syed Sikander Shah, a revered saint of his times.

At the time of the division, the saint remained in Muzaffarabad while his son and Shabir's father, Syed Hassan Shah Gilani, stayed back on the Indian side. "That time our ancestors presumed that separation was transitory and that free movement would be restored within days... But in reality, the situation worsened to a level that my father couldn't even attend the funeral of his father," recalls Shabir. "After the LoC divide, my father could never embrace his father. The only chance he got was to embrace his grave. My father died with this pain in his heart."

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Brought up hearing stories of the painful divide, Shabir pledged that one day he would visit PoK to offer fatiha, or traditional prayers at the mausoleum of his grandfather, whose legendary spiritual powers are still remembered across the region.

But immediately after postgraduation, Shabir was appointed as a police officer, and never tried visiting the Pakistan-occupied territory during his service career. The eruption of militancy in 1990s, when PoK emerged as a hub of training camps for armed insurgents, only dashed any remaining hope of a family reunion. After a decade of bloodshed, the situation started to improve. A ray of hope emerged in 2003, when the two countries started a dialogue on reopening of traditional routes along the LoC for reunion of divided families.

The then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had begun talks with the then Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, remembered for his iconic vision of "Kashmiriyat, Jamhuriyat and Isnaniyat" for a solution to the Kashmir issue.

Vajpayee's successor Manmohan Singh carried forward the agenda of reopening trans-LoC routes. Within days, life-size hoardings came up in Srinagar with one common milestone: Muzaffarabad 170-kilometers. On April 7, 2005, Manmohan finally flagged off the weekly bus service. Though intermittently suspended for security reasons, the bus has been operational since.

Shabir had been keenly tracking the developments. After his retirement from government services as senior superintendent of police in 2014, he decided to nurture his childhood dream of visiting Muzaffarabad. The booming social media helped him discover some contacts with the divided family. On reaching the other side of the border, he was taken by surprise. "I couldn't believe my eyes that over 40 vehicles were waiting for my arrival. They were all my relatives whom I had never met or seen before."

During his stay at his cousin's place in Muzaffarabad, Shabir planned to marry his son with the host's daughter. But before floating the idea, he contacted Owais to seek his consent. The response was positive. A few months later, nikah was solemnised via Skype and the wedding was fixed for 2016.

But in the wake of the killing of militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani and his two associates on July 8, Kashmir erupted to witness its worst-ever humanitarian crisis. Amid soaring street protests, which till now have left at least 72 dead and over 10,000 wounded, the trans-LoC bus service was suspended.

On July 25, the bus service was suddenly restored. In a jiffy, Shabir asked his younger son, Syed Saddam, to go to PoK with traditional mehandi and get home his "bhabi" Syeda Faiza. The bride arrived here with her dozen-odd family members. The celebrations are on at the Srinagar residence of the groom. But it's a low key affair as protests continue across the trouble-torn region, with the youth chanting pro-Azadi slogans even in the neighbourhood of the wedding venue.

The bridegroom and others in the family from the two sides enjoy the get-together while some close relatives and friends keep pouring in. Among the guests, are some senior officials including the additional director general of police SM Sahai, who is known for treating his subordinates like his family. The newly-wed is busy entertaining the guests and seeking their blessings. But then why didn't the groom visit Muzaffarabad to bring home his bride? While Owais is "shy" of responding to media queries, his family said he was following his father's footsteps.

"Ours is a disciplined family, when his father didn't try so during his tenure in police, the son upholds the same to avoid any undue controversies." So how does the bride from Muzaffarbad, Syeda Faiza, feel? "Since childhood I heard that Kashmir is paradise on earth. What greater joy can there be than to have a home in paradise," she responds with a smile on her face. In a split second, amid sloganeering in the neighbourhood street, some teargas shells explode. Faiza plugs her ears with her hands to conclude the conversation saying: "But the paradise shouldn't bleed!"