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5 militants killed in Valley

How militants chopped off a student's head at Shopian

 

>From Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

 

SRINAGAR, July 20: Swelling herds of the long-haired Pakistani

militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba have recaptured a vast fruit belt in

Shopian-Kulgam area of south Kashmir and inspite of scores of Police,

military and paramilitary camps all around they have been enjoying a

field day---lifting civilians, slaughtering them in public view and

roaming about, all in broad daylight.

 

This is how a 17-year-old poor student was picked up and slaughtered

like a lamb on July 17th: Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh S/o Ghulam Hassan

Sheikh was playing cricket with friends and neighbours at a playfield

in his village of Chak Kachhdora. A group of four to five gun-totting

militants appeared at the playfield at 1330 hours and kidnapped

Sheikh. In broad daylight, he was taken to Vehil Nowgam, about 2 km

from his village. On the premises of the village mosque, Sheikh was

positioned like a sacrificial goat and brutally slaughtered with a

sharp butcher's knife in full view of men, women and children. His

severed head was dropped yards away in front of a house at which

security forces had killed a couple of Lashkar militants three months

ago in a fierce gunbattle.

 

Residents--- none of them willing to reveal identification---believe

that Sheikh was done to death for the militants suspected him to be

the man who had tipped off Army about the presence of militants. They

maintain that they knew nothing about Sheikh who belonged to a

different village. "Some women beseeched the militants to grant

clemency to the youth but they did not listen to anybody. It was a

horrible site as everybody ran away in panic", described a resident.

Those living in Chak Kachhdora are equally terrorised. They revealed

that Sheikh belonged to a poor family. "We believe he never became an

informer (of security forces). Yes, once he was arrested by Police in

a theft case".

 

SP Pulwama Nitish Kumar insists that Sheikh had never worked as an

informer with Police or security forces. "He was a school drop out who

had resumed his studies and was in Class 11th at Government Boys

Higher Secondary School Kapran. The operation at Vehil Nowgam was

jointly conducted by Army and STF and Sheikh was not the source", says

the district Police chief. His head of operations Imtiyaz Hussain Mir

sounds confident that Sheikh's killers would be got identified and

taken to justice "very soon". According to him, Sheeraz Ahmed Chopan,

killed in an encounter at Braripora on Wednesday alongwith another

militant, had been identified by the local people as one of Sheikh's

killers.

 

Mir revealed that a butcher's knife, recovered from Bashir Ahmed Bhat

of Vehil Nowgam---a Lashkar militant killed in another encounter at

Chak Amshipora, was believed to be the weapon used to slaughter

Sheikh. "It had stains of fresh blood. We are sending it as also the

student's clothes to Forensic Science Laboratory for certain forensic

tests".

 

Even as Police insists, on the basis of eyewitness accounts, that the

throat-cutters sporting unkempt long hairs and Islamic beards were the

Pakistani cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba, none of the militant

organisations has claimed responsibility of the student's broad

daylight slaying in public. Reports from south Kashmir said that the

brutal slaughtering of the 17-year-old student has spread shockwaves

in a vast orchard belt of Kulgam-Shopian. It has reportedly evoked

massive condemnation but none has mustered courage to register it on

the streets.

 

Meanwhile, killing of two Jammu & Kashmir Police constables in point

blank range at Hazratbal and Soura on Wednesday has also evoked

remarkable condemnation in Srinagar outskirts. Shopkeepers in Soura

observed a total shutdown today to register their condemnation of the

killing of a Constable at Sabzi Mandi. The junior Policeman was a

resident of Tangmarg area.

 

Jaish-e-Mohammad spokesman Abu Qudama today told the Srinagar-based

news agencies that the militants of his organisation had shot dead the

two Police personnel at Hazratbal and Soura on Wednesday last and left

yet another wounded in a shootout near Biscoe School at Lalchowk. He

claimed that the victims of the Jaish strike were associated with

Special Operations Group of J&K Police. Officials as well as the

bereaved family members maintained that the ill-fated personnel had

never associated themselves with any counter-insurgent organisation.

They asserted that the militants had made a "totally false claim" to

justify their strikes on the innocent Policemen.

 

Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman Junaidul Islam has, meanwhile, claimed

that it were the militants of his organisation who had shot dead a

shopkeeper, namely Abdur Rasheed Sheikh of Trikanjan Uri, at Palhalan,

Pattan, the other day. He claimed that Sheikh was actually an informer

of Army who had been planted by a Major in the disguise of a

shopkeeper at Palhalan. He claimed that Sheikh had been responsible

for getting three of Hizbul Mujahideen militants killed and an

identity card, signed by a Major, had been recovered from his

possession.

 

The Hizb spokesman claimed that the posters found pasted at different

places in Nattipora area of Srinagar were the handiwork of "some

anti-movement elements". Text of these posters has described Hizbul

Mujahideen's Yunis Group as "looters and extortionists". The spokesman

claimed that Yunis was a "clean member" of his organisation. He warned

"anti-movement elements" to desist from "defaming" the militants.

 

5 militants killed

 

Official sources, meanwhile, said that Army killed an important

militant of Hizbul Mujahideen in an encounter at Kanjikullah in Kulgam

area last night. He has been identified as Mohammad Saleem Bhat alias

Junaid of Hardu Handew, Shopian. Officials claimed that in the last

two years, Bhat had masterminded and executed a number of civilian

killings through youngsters and fresh recruits of his organisation.

They said that he was a "battalion commander". Residents, on the other

hand, insisted that Bhat had been captured alive by Police, subjected

to physical torture and interrogation for three days and finally got

eliminated in a "fake counter".

 

In the militant-infested Kulgam belt again, troops of Rashtriya Rifles

62 Bn swooped on the house of a fruit merchant, namely Ghulam Nabi

Laway, at Sursunoo village late this evening. Official sources said

that troops of Hattipora camp of RR 62 Bn launched the operation

immediately after receiving specific information regarding the

presence of three to five militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba. During the

operation, a fierce gunbattle took place in which troops destroyed the

target house. Sources said that at least four militants were believed

dead and buried under the debris but no dead body had been recovered

when reports last came in tonight.

 

Here in the capital city, a joint naka of Srinagar District Police and

CRPF apprehended two youth carrying a couple of rifle grenades near

Shumshan Ghat in Karan Nagar area this evening. During questioning,

they admitted that both of them were militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba

outfit. They identified themselves as Mohammad Farooq Mir S/o Mohammad

Subhan Mir R/o Maidanpora Chhattabal and Abid Ahmed Chiloo S/o Ghulam

Qadir Chiloo R/o Zaldagar Nawab Bazar. Official sources said that they

would be subjected to sustained interrogation to check whether they

were involved in any incident of grenade throwing or other subversive

acts.

 

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/06july21/news.htm#1

 

 

 

 

Let my every word be a prayer to Thee,

Every movement of my hands a ritual gesture to Thee,

Every step I take a circumambulation of Thy image,

Every morsel I eat a rite of sacrifice to Thee,

Every time I lay down a prostration at Thy feet;

Every act of personal pleasure and all else that I do,

Let it all be a form of worshiping Thee."

 

>From Verse 27 of Shri Aadi Shankara's Saundaryalahari

 

 

 

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