Monday, February 9, 2015

Remembering AFZAL

He put his right foot before his left
And his left foot before his right
Slowly he moved towards the gallows
after years, it was a miserable plight

They say as he met the hangman
all he did was smile
Maybe thanking God Almighty
for here ended the longest mile

The journey had been hard
as you have no friends in jail
There was torture and coercion
it was just a mockery, it was not a trail

To satisfy the “collective conscience”
tyrants did what they can
And were sending  to the gallows
an Innocent MAN!

Or. Maybe. He was thinking
of his village in the vale
of the gushing water streams
of his old mother, cold and pale

of his child he had not
seen now for many years,
of his family living among
constant threats and fears

of the many other Afzals
he had met in Tihar
of his motherland Kashmir
filled with tyranny and war

Or. Maybe. He was just too tired, of their games
of being tortured and framed
of having lived in a paradise turned hell
and happy to have his final Shahada proclaimed

I will never know why he smiled or did he even smile that day
Let’s just say he met his freedom (Aazadi) at the gallows
so that Kashmir will have Aazadi one day!

Pic by Mukhtar Khan