happy ending story of another shopian woman....A poignant tale of mother of 5 daughters

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 23
While the rape and murder of two women in Shopian was still haunting people’s mind, a mentally-challenged Muslim woman from the same town was saved by a Kashmiri Pandit girl. This shopian woman has, fortunately, a happy ending to her tale.

Rukhsana, 23, a mother of five daughters, walked out of a hospital this afternoon with her husband Saleem Ahmed after treatment at a Jammu psychiatric hospital for over two weeks. Deepika Thussoo, a Kashmiri Pandit girl and project head of CRY, had rescued here and got her admitted to the hospital.

A news report in The Tribune last week helped her reunite with her husband and brother. The Tribune had written about such mentally-challenged persons wandering on Jammu roads and the experience of the NGO about harassment faced in getting them protection.

Saleem Ahmed Halwayi, her second husband, revealed that Rukhsana had been missing for the past 53 days. “Though I had lodged a missing report with the police the same day, I got a call two days ago informing that Rukhsana was admitted to a Jammu hospital by an NGO, Children Rights and You (CRY).” “She was Rukhsana,” said Ahmed with moist eyes. “She has a troubled past. She would disappear often, but return after four or five days. This time, it took too long.”

Deepika had spotted the girl sitting precariously over the railing of the Tawi bridge a fortnight ago. She saved her from falling over and got her admitted to the psychiatric hospital, where Dr Chander Mohan treated her.

Rukhsana’s life is a poignant tale of how life of a girl is disturbed if she is married off while she is still a minor. Rukhsana remembered her name after a few days of treatment. Later, she recalled how she got disturbed when a woman had taken away her newborn daughter.

Rukhsana said her first husband behaved very badly with her and often used to beat her. “He divorced me when I protested after giving birth to our fourth daughter. Later, Saleem married me.” Rukhsana’s brother Mohammad Wakeel said their family basically belonged to Uttar Pradesh, but had settled in Shopian. “My parents had set up a sweet shop here.” The shop was closed now and the family was earning a living by selling socks by the roadside in Srinagar.