The Unidentified Gunman is back. Every now and then in Kashmir, an unknown person wielding a weapon shoots someone and is never apprehended or even identified. In recent months, the Unidentified Gunman, as this entity has come to be known in news reports, has been held responsible for murdering a spate of civilians, officials, ex-militants, militant sympathisers and even militants lately.
The entity’s latest victims were three young men, whose bullet-riddled bodies were found in an orchard in North Kashmir’s Pattan area on Monday. They were identified as 19-year-old Mohammad Amir Reshi of Sopore, and Ashiq Hussain Wani, a law graduate from Pattan and Naveed Ahmad Khan, an engineering student also from Sopore. Reshi had been missing for last two months, Naveed for the past 10 months and Wani for the past year, said their families.
The police claimed that both Reshi and Wani had joined the Lashkar-e-Islam militant outfit but the Hizbul Mujahideen claims the men were actually members of their group. According to the officials, the Lashkar-e-Islam is a breakaway faction of the indigenous Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, led by Abdul Qayoom Najar.
Breakaway faction
Najar, whose whereabouts are unknown, was expelled from the Hizbul Mujahideen in August by its chief Syed Salahuddin for allegedly carrying out a bunch of civilian killings. All the records about Najar are reported to have vanished or may have been removed. Even his picture is unavailable.
The rivalry between the Hizbul Mujahideen and Najar seems to be behind killings like the three men in Pattan. In May, unidentified gunmen, believed to be linked to Najar, are thought to have been responsible for a spate of attacks on telecom services in May and June that left six civilians dead.
In Sopore, where anti-India sentiment runs high, unidentified gunmen have killed dozens of people in the recent past. In July, unidentified gunmen attacked Mohammad Yaqoob Malla, 40, a sarpanch, in Shopian. A month later, unidentified gunmen in Pulwama fired upon 30-year-old Javid Ahmad Khan. According to police, he was a former militant turned pro-India National Conference worker. The motives of such attacks are rarely established.
After the six civilian killings in Sopore in May, separatists and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahudin blamed the Indian agencies for starting a covert operation against Kashmir’s resistance movement. “The fresh style of killing in Kashmir is not exactly new, wrote columnist Abdul Majid Zargar.
He explained:
Government is blamed
With these new killings, the Hizb has accused the government agencies are placing undue emphasis on the Lashkar e Islam to give impression of widespread feud between militants groups. “The paid agents of India and counter-insurgent SOG [Special Operations Group] are responsible for the cold blooded murder of these militants,” said a Hizb spokesperson, Salim Hashmi, quoting Salahuddin.
He added: “The trio was active and they were tortured and subsequently killed in custody. It was a sheepish act of the enemy that depicts their frustration.”
The killings of the three youth have sparked protests in North Kashmir. The Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani called for shutdown on Wednesday.
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The entity’s latest victims were three young men, whose bullet-riddled bodies were found in an orchard in North Kashmir’s Pattan area on Monday. They were identified as 19-year-old Mohammad Amir Reshi of Sopore, and Ashiq Hussain Wani, a law graduate from Pattan and Naveed Ahmad Khan, an engineering student also from Sopore. Reshi had been missing for last two months, Naveed for the past 10 months and Wani for the past year, said their families.
The police claimed that both Reshi and Wani had joined the Lashkar-e-Islam militant outfit but the Hizbul Mujahideen claims the men were actually members of their group. According to the officials, the Lashkar-e-Islam is a breakaway faction of the indigenous Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, led by Abdul Qayoom Najar.
Breakaway faction
Najar, whose whereabouts are unknown, was expelled from the Hizbul Mujahideen in August by its chief Syed Salahuddin for allegedly carrying out a bunch of civilian killings. All the records about Najar are reported to have vanished or may have been removed. Even his picture is unavailable.
The rivalry between the Hizbul Mujahideen and Najar seems to be behind killings like the three men in Pattan. In May, unidentified gunmen, believed to be linked to Najar, are thought to have been responsible for a spate of attacks on telecom services in May and June that left six civilians dead.
In Sopore, where anti-India sentiment runs high, unidentified gunmen have killed dozens of people in the recent past. In July, unidentified gunmen attacked Mohammad Yaqoob Malla, 40, a sarpanch, in Shopian. A month later, unidentified gunmen in Pulwama fired upon 30-year-old Javid Ahmad Khan. According to police, he was a former militant turned pro-India National Conference worker. The motives of such attacks are rarely established.
After the six civilian killings in Sopore in May, separatists and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahudin blamed the Indian agencies for starting a covert operation against Kashmir’s resistance movement. “The fresh style of killing in Kashmir is not exactly new, wrote columnist Abdul Majid Zargar.
He explained:
“Killing through covert operations has remained an instrument of state policy for India in Kashmir. Translated into execution, it allows it to adopt the smoke screen of plausible deniability, wherein the action itself may be visible and verifiable but its links are concealed, so that it can easily deny any involvement. Unidentified gunmen have remained a principal character of these operations.”
Government is blamed
With these new killings, the Hizb has accused the government agencies are placing undue emphasis on the Lashkar e Islam to give impression of widespread feud between militants groups. “The paid agents of India and counter-insurgent SOG [Special Operations Group] are responsible for the cold blooded murder of these militants,” said a Hizb spokesperson, Salim Hashmi, quoting Salahuddin.
He added: “The trio was active and they were tortured and subsequently killed in custody. It was a sheepish act of the enemy that depicts their frustration.”
The killings of the three youth have sparked protests in North Kashmir. The Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani called for shutdown on Wednesday.
