Trauma situation because of huge presence of Indian paramilitary troops

Acute PTSD grips Asiya’s classmate
Srinagar, July 23: The brutal molestation and murder of Asiya Jan  and her housewife sister-in-law in Shopian village on May 29, 2009 has shattered closest friend of Asiya Jan and classmate, Samreen (name changed), the 11th class student of Greenland Higher Secondary School inasmuch as she has developed acute post-traumatic stress disorder. She and 17-year old Asiya had been childhood friends and in the same school for the past 14 years.

“When I try to sleep, I feel Asiya is screaming and crying for help. The over-riding fear haunts me,” she told media men, adding, “The agony and pain through which I have been going for over one and a half months past is unbearable. Whenever I open a book, Asiya comes to my mind and I start crying.” Her moist eyes and melancholic face convey the ordeal through which she has been going ever since she lost her friend.

“Asiya was my best friend and, since our childhood, we used to share our joys and sorrows. But tyrants snatched my friend from me. Last time we met was on the fateful May 29 after we left the school. She told me that we would meet tomorrow morning at the coaching center both of us were enrolled with, but alas ..,” Samreen said at Dr Mushtaq Margoob’s clinic at Nigeen in Srinagar, where she had been brought by her brother for psychiatric check-up.

Recalling the morning of May 30, Samreen said, “As I was on my way to the coaching center, someone told me that Asiya’s body has been recovered from Rambiarah Nallah. I couldn’t believe my ears. Panic had gripped the whole town and I went home, shocked. Soon after learning the gory details of Asiya’s tragic end, I fell unconscious.”

At the first sight, Samreen seems to be at peace with her surroundings. But, a closer look at her face reveals she is definitely not the girl she once was. She has lost her appetite and finds it hard to sleep. Abruptly cut short by nightmares, she often wakes up with a scream in the dead of the night.

Some derogatory observations contained in the Justice (retd) Jan Commission report have caused a deep sense of hurt and anguish to Samreen. “Asiya was a simple and a decent girl. The brazen allegations against her and Neelofar in the Jan Commission report have hurt me more. What animosity the authority had with my friend that even after her tragic death, her image is being tarnished? It is sheer injustice,” she laments. Demanding stringent punishment to those responsible for the heinous crime, she said, “It would give some sense of security to the women in Kashmir.”
Commenting on Samreen’s condition, noted psychiatrist, Dr Mushtaq Margoob, said, “This is a known phenomenon as she knew the girl very closely.

All of a sudden, she was subjected to such horrible experiences where her closest friend died in such a brutal way. It was so horrifying for her, which changed the whole perception of the world for her,” he told media men in Srinagar.

Dr Margoob said, “She is suffering from acute stress reaction and now she has persisted with symptom and it’s is acute PTSD. Her perception about the reality of life has changed,” he said, revealing that over the past few weeks many patients from Shopian had started coming to him for treatment.

“Sexual abuse cases exist in every society, but in Kashmir people have to live and breathe in a perpetually traumatizing or mass trauma situation because of huge presence of Indian police men and paramilitary troops. So every time such a nasty incident happens, the number of acute PTSD cases increases,” he added.