'I prefer to die than give up looking for my son'

Amra Jamal has left behind her family and village in Bihar to trace her son, Fasih Mehmood, who went missing after being allegedly arrested in Saudi Arabia and deported to India on terror charges. M I Khan reports 

Amra Jamal is not an ordinary woman. She has left her native village in Bihar's Darbhanga district with a mission to trace her engineer son, Fasih Mehmood. Mehmood went missing after being allegedly arrested in Saudi Arabia and deported to India.

"I will not return to my native village till I trace my son. There is no question of me going back without my son," says Amra Jamal, who is in her late 50s and is the principal of a government school in Darbhanga.

Jamal, a resident of Badhsamela village, said that while she set out from her village to find her son, she told her family members and villagers that she will return with Fasih Mehmood. "I prefer to die tracing my son but will not return empty handed, says a tearful Amra Jamal.

"Only a mother can feel the pain of an untraceable son, no one else. It is my pain. I am passing through a difficult and troubled phase in my life," she says.

"How can I sit silent and wait for authorities to play their heartless game. After all I am an Indian citizen, a 
respectable woman and so is my son, who was 
working in Saudi Arabia and sending money back to the country. He was contributing in the growth of the country's economy. But the government agencies are behaving as if is he is not an Indian," adds Amra Jamal. 

She is ready to stage a dharna from Patna to New Delhi and go on a hunger strike to put pressure on the government. "I will try to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and 
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to sought their intervention to trace my son," she says.

However, Amra Jamal is worried for her daughter-in-law, Nikhat, who is in her early 20s. She is pregnant but has been running from pillar to post in New Delhi for over a 
month. "My daughter-in-law is helpless and restless, but she's knocking at the doors of anyone who can help trace her husband," she says.

Amra Jamal does not hide her fear when she says that she has been having sleepless nights since she learnt that suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui was murdered at the Yerawada jail in 
Pune.

Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui was also a resident of Badhsamela village.

She is angry and unhappy the way Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that Fasih Mehmood was not in the custody of Indian authorities. 

"It is an irresponsible statement on his part," she says.

"I am hundred per cent sure that my son is in the custody of the Indian authorities, but Chidambaram denies it, his response was shocking. My son was taken into custody by Indian intelligence officials in Saudi Arabia," she said.

She said that if her son is involved in terror activities, the authorities should at least inform her about his whereabouts and frame charges against him for a trial in court. "My family was informed that there were no charges against my son in Saudi Arabia," says Amra.

She says she is fully confident that her son is innocent. "After my son went missing a mother's life is badly 
affected. I can neither eat or sleep nor think of anything else," she says.

She said she had full faith in the Supreme Court before which a plea was filed by her family on the issue. The apex court earlier this month issued notices to the home and external affairs ministries over the disappearance of Mehmood. "The court will hear the case on July 2," she said.

The 35-year-old engineer was reportedly arrested in Saudi Arabia May 14 for alleged terror links in India.