Bas_tum_Pak
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Tears flowed freely as Muhammad Maqbool Shah was welcomed home by his family members in Srinagar on Saturday.
After all, he had been away for 14 years -- all of which he spent in New Delhi's Tihar jail on suspicion of being involved in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar blast.
It took 14 years for the trial court to declare him innocent, a period which transformed the once effervescent
On Thursday, the Delhi district and sessions judge convicted six accused, including a woman, in the blast case. Maqbool and three others were exonerated.
All the accused are from Kashmir.
The verdict will be announced on Tuesday.
Sources claimed Maqbool was the only person to have been released from prison so far.
Life has undergone a sea change for Maqbool, who was just 15 years old when the Delhi Police arrested him.
" I had passed my matriculation examination and gone to Delhi to spend the winter vacation with my brother, who was a dealer in Kashmiri art," he said.
His family finds a lot of change in Maqbool who is himself trying to reconcile the image he had of his locality then with the present one.
" He was just a kid when he left for Delhi. Today, he looks so aged, older than me," his elder brother Peer Hassan Shah observed.
Following his arrest, Maqbool was kept in the juvenile prison in
Tihar for 18 months before being shifted to the main jail.
As a kid, he had wanted to become a doctor. But today he feels " it is more than enough that I have returned home". During the years, he lost his father and sister. On his return to Srinagar, he didn't go home but went straight to the cemetery and wept at the graves of the two.
He had last seen his sister some six years ago, when she had come to meet him at Tihar.
She fell ill soon after returning.
" She was only 24. She couldn't bear the suffering of her brother.
She was lonely and passed away after a brief illness," Hassan said.
Their father, Syed Muhammad Shah, died of brain haemorrhage.
Hassan said the long trial strained the family's finances, their business suffered and they
had to ultimately shut shop.
Four years ago, the Delhi High Court had directed the lower court to conclude the trial within four months. But it took another four years to pass the verdict.
" When I was arrested, I had told the police I was innocent. It took the court 14 years to prove my innocence," Maqbool said.
" Who will compensate me for the 14 years I have lost in jail?" he asked.
While Maqbool's family is breathing a sigh of relief, the Mirza house in Khankahi Mohalla
is in shock.
One of their sons -- Mirza Iftikhar -- has been acquitted in the blast case, but the other -- Nisar Hussain -- has been convicted.
" My brothers are innocent and have been framed," their sister, Nighat, said.
The hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani
, has called for a complete shutdown on Tuesday against the conviction of Kashmiris in the Lajpat Nagar blast case.
After all, he had been away for 14 years -- all of which he spent in New Delhi's Tihar jail on suspicion of being involved in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar blast.
It took 14 years for the trial court to declare him innocent, a period which transformed the once effervescent
On Thursday, the Delhi district and sessions judge convicted six accused, including a woman, in the blast case. Maqbool and three others were exonerated.
All the accused are from Kashmir.
The verdict will be announced on Tuesday.
Sources claimed Maqbool was the only person to have been released from prison so far.
Life has undergone a sea change for Maqbool, who was just 15 years old when the Delhi Police arrested him.
" I had passed my matriculation examination and gone to Delhi to spend the winter vacation with my brother, who was a dealer in Kashmiri art," he said.
His family finds a lot of change in Maqbool who is himself trying to reconcile the image he had of his locality then with the present one.
" He was just a kid when he left for Delhi. Today, he looks so aged, older than me," his elder brother Peer Hassan Shah observed.
Following his arrest, Maqbool was kept in the juvenile prison in
Tihar for 18 months before being shifted to the main jail.
As a kid, he had wanted to become a doctor. But today he feels " it is more than enough that I have returned home". During the years, he lost his father and sister. On his return to Srinagar, he didn't go home but went straight to the cemetery and wept at the graves of the two.
He had last seen his sister some six years ago, when she had come to meet him at Tihar.
She fell ill soon after returning.
" She was only 24. She couldn't bear the suffering of her brother.
She was lonely and passed away after a brief illness," Hassan said.
Their father, Syed Muhammad Shah, died of brain haemorrhage.
Hassan said the long trial strained the family's finances, their business suffered and they
had to ultimately shut shop.
Four years ago, the Delhi High Court had directed the lower court to conclude the trial within four months. But it took another four years to pass the verdict.
" When I was arrested, I had told the police I was innocent. It took the court 14 years to prove my innocence," Maqbool said.
" Who will compensate me for the 14 years I have lost in jail?" he asked.
While Maqbool's family is breathing a sigh of relief, the Mirza house in Khankahi Mohalla
is in shock.
One of their sons -- Mirza Iftikhar -- has been acquitted in the blast case, but the other -- Nisar Hussain -- has been convicted.
" My brothers are innocent and have been framed," their sister, Nighat, said.
The hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani
, has called for a complete shutdown on Tuesday against the conviction of Kashmiris in the Lajpat Nagar blast case.
