Srinagar, May 18 -- He slowed down at a certain point on the riverbank. "This is where," he said, "the bodies were pulled from."

Then the car stopped, and the driver announced the arrival.

On my right was the spot where the dead were returned by the river and on my immediate left, Sakeena's home.

Her front door faces the very river that took her nine-year-old son and her husband, Showkat.

Already a year has passed since nine people were devoured by the river. It returned eight of them dead, but refuses to give back Showkat.

His old mother keeps a record of missing bodies fished out of water. None of them so far has been her son.

In Showkat's mysterious absence, his better-half has become a battered-half.

"I was pregnant with our fi...