Kashmir is in turmoil and those who have been killed were Muslims and even militants belonged to the same community. Clashes erupted between security forces and protesters at over a dozen places in the Valley. At least 1,500 persons, mostly youth, had been injured in clashes following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. A majority of the injured had been hit by bullets and pellets above the abdomen, causing grievous injuries and probably lifelong disabilities.
Police driver Feroz Ahmad, SI Bashir Ahmad constable Riyaz Ahmad, Ghulam Muhammad, Nazir Ahmad and Mohammad Sadiq Shiekh sacrificed their lives fighting against militants. Surprisingly, no media revealed the names of these police officers and Army personnel. Some of them went gaga over social media taking side of Kasmiri Pandits by justifying these attacks on civilians. However, they conveniently ignored the fact that, leaving religion aside these officers fought terrorism and terrorists and sacrificed their lives for the country.
Bystanders said, the attackers came on a motorcycle and shot the policemen from point blank range before fleeing. The officers were shifted to a hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival. They were identified as ASI Nazeer Ahmad and constable Bashir Ahmad, both residents of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district. An hour later, about seven kilometres away in Tengpora, suspected militants attacked another policeman and managed to snatch his service rifle before fleeing the spot. The officer, Mohammad Sadiq, was on duty as the special police officer of a political leader, Mohammad Abdullah Chatwal, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate. Sadiq, too, was a resident of Kupwara who was brutally murdered. No one knows who killed these officers and who were those attackers but suspects were militants.
Militants carrying AK rifles targeted the police naka party at General Bus stand in Anantnag. This was the third attack on the J&K police in less than two weeks. On May 23, three policemen were killed when militants attacked policemen at two different places in Srinagar. More than 200 people, including 100 security personnel were injured. Of these, 70 were admitted in various hospitals with critical bullet or pellet injuries. Three policemen and their service weapons also got squandered in the disarray, though two of them were traced next day.
Mobs wreaked havoc as Wani’s funeral was underway at his hometown in Tral, setting fire to three police installations. Three civil administration offices, the house of an MLA from the ruling People’s Democratic Party, several vehicles and a BJP office were also targeted. The violence is the worst seen in the region for years. Disputed Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan and has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years.
Within the disputed Muslim-majority territory, some militant groups have taken up arms to fight for independence from Indian rule or a merger with Pakistan. A curfew is still in force across much of the region and mobile Internet and train services remained suspended. The last bout of serious violence in the region was in the summer of 2010, when more than 100 people died in anti-India protests, which broke out after police shot dead a teenager. This is not the first time that these kinds of incidences happened in the Valley. There is always an ongoing clash but this time it was the death of their ‘Hero’ and Kashmiris could not forgive the killers. Anyways, some more militants were killed.
Meanwhile, Hizbul Mujahideen nominated their new commander who will succeed Burhan Wani. The terrorist organisation has appointed Mehmood Ghaznavi as its new leader. Syed Salahuddin, founder of this militant group, made the announcement while addressing a council meeting. According to Intelligence Bureau officials, Ghaznavi is likely to be an alias, and his real identity is likely to be 21-year-old Zakir Rashid Bhat. However, others debate this, instead they are claiming that Sabzar Ahmed Bhat is the man behind the alias Ghaznavi. Both Zakir and Sabzar are thought to be close to Wani and joined Hizbul in 2015, after Wani’s brother Khalid was killed by security forces.
Similar to Wani, Ghaznavi too had a bounty declared on him last year by the police. Some officials believe that he is a resident of Rathsuna in South Kashmir. Meanwhile, Bhat was an engineering student in some Chandigarh college, and is likely to follow Wani’s footsteps. When he left home to join the Hizbul, he had left a note for his father, where he had written that he could not bear the atrocities the people of Kashmir were facing. “And hence it is time that I perform Jihad,” he had written.
Shall we wait for Ghaznavi’s killing? Then someone else would be declared as his successor and this will keep on continuing unless the Kashmir issue is not resolved.
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