By 1989 the insurgency had became a real threat to the governments of Jammu and Kashmir and of India as viewed through their political lens it was then that the Public Safety Act (PSA) came into force it allows the government to hold those it deems to be active insurgents indefinitely. Since then its believed that somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 people have disappeared those numbers are in dispute as the Indian government has never released the names of those it has detained.
On the evening of May 14, 1996, members of the counter-insurgent Ikhwan group, a pro-government militia made up of former insurgents, now working for the Indian army, knocked on his door and took off with this son, Imtiyaz Ahmed Wani.
Suspected of being an insurgent, a separatist fighting for freedom from the Indian state, Imtiyaz disappeared without trace.
After searching from pillar to post, visiting police stations and army officers, Wani went to the State Human Rights Commission to file a complaint about his missing son. Finding no joy there, he sold a property, took out a loan and paid a seemingly sympathetic counter-insurgent who promised information about his missing son. But the money, like his son, disappeared.
"My son was a gardener at the forest department, earning Rs 2,000 ($45) a month; he did no wrong," Wani finally offers.
In late March 2011, Amnesty International (AI) released a report claiming that the "state of Jammu and Kashmir was holding hundreds of people without charge or trial in order to keep them out of circulation". AI alleges that a contentious Public Safety Act (PSA) allows security forces to detain individuals when the state has insufficient evidence for a trial.
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