Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 16 April 2018 | Page 39

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militancy in 2015. Most of the wounded
civilians got pellets in their eyes. A farmer
from Kulgam, Abdul Majid Wani, claims
his son Muneeb, 15, battling for life in an
ICU in a Srinagar hospital, was hit when
the army allegedly fired at boys playing
cricket hours after the Kachdoora enc­
ounter. “My son was shot in the abdomen
around noon,” says Abdul. “He was oper­
ated upon twice. I don’t know whether he
will survive.” Scenes at Srinagar’s SMHS
hospital were a throwback to 2016.
There was another operation on Sunday
night at Dialgam in Anantnag district,
where one of the holed-up militants sur­
rendered while the other, Rouf Khanday,
19, refused to come out. Rouf had gone
missing in early February and a photo
of him holding a gun appeared on social
media platforms in March—a declaration
that he had joined Hizbul.
LAST STAND The funeral of slain Hizbul commander Zubair Ahmad Turay
Recounting the details of the operation,
police sources say it began immediately
after receiving information on the pres­
ence of militants. The security forces laid
a cordon around Dragad and Kachdoora
in the wee hours, and zeroed in on the
house where the militants were hiding.
According to villagers in Dragad, firing
started at around 2.45 am. “We initially
thought soldiers of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles
were firing in the air at the Chillipora
army camp nearby,” says an elderly man,
whose son was admitted in a Srinagar
hospital with pellets in his eyes. Over 100
youths were wounded in the protests that
broke out early Monday morning.
At Dragad on the fateful night, there
were 11 militants inside the house of
Rafiq Ahmad Mengnu, whose wife is
Zubair’s relative. One of Zubair’s cousins
is an Indian Police Service officer posted
outside the state. Police sources say four
militants managed to break out of the
cordon. All seven left behind were killed
in the gunfight. A civilian, Mushtaq
Ahmad Thakur, 36, was also killed and
his family alleges the army had taken
him along as a human shield. They say the
army asked him to lead them towards the
house where the militants were hiding.
As the militants saw the army approach­
ing, they came out of the house and the
gunfight started. Mushtaq was killed in
the crossfire. The police deny that he was
used as a human shield.
The slain militants were involved in
several attacks, including the killing of Lt
Umer Fayaz, who was killed last May in
Shopian. Most of the militants had joined
Hizbul last year, including Zubair, who
had uploaded a video alleging that police
harassment and repeated incarceration
under the preventive detention Public
Security Act for alleged stone-pelting had
forced him to pick up arms.
The other encounter took place at
Kachdoora, around 20 km from Dragad,
close to Shopian’s inter-district border
with Kulgam. Three militants were killed
first and the house where they had found
shelter was brought down with a blast.
Then four soldiers were hit in retaliatory
fire from the surviving militants. Two
soldiers died on the spot and one more
succumbed later in the afternoon. Bodies
of two more militants were recovered
from the encounter site. Three civilians
were also killed while allegedly helping
the militants to escape. A senior police
official says people in large numbers
attacked the security forces in the village.
One of thoe killed at Kachdoora was
Ashfaq Ahmad Thakur, who had joined
“We didn’t want the
young man to die, but he
was adamant,” says SSP
Altaf Khan, who tried to
persuade a holed-up
militant to surrender.
S
SP Altaf Khan says he spoke with
Rouf for 30 minutes before he was
killed. Rouf justified jehad, while
Khan quoted verses from the Quran
to convince him that he was violating
Islamic tenets. “He was adamant,” says
Khan. “But we didn’t want the young man
to die.” Then Rouf’s parents were allowed
to meet him, but they came out in despair.
Rouf lay dead soon after, and his parents
took his body home for burial.
Post operations, the Valley was shut
down for three days on the separatists’
call, while the government closed schools
and colleges to prevent protests. J&K Pol­
ice chief S.P. Vaid says the entire security
grid exhibited textbook coordination,
while 15 Corps commander Lt. Gen Anil
Bhatt says he was particularly happy with
the killing of two militants who were all­
egedly behind Lt. Umer Fayaz’s murder.
“He has been avenged,” says Bhatt.
CM Mehbooba Mufti said, “Every
day it breaks my heart to see a wailing
mother beckoning her son to return.
Can we leave aside our accusations and
counter-accusations, and put our heads
together to save these young ones?”
Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah took a
dig at CM Mehbooba Mufti, saying she
has accepted her irrelevance to Kashmir
politics as she wasn’t back from her Delhi
visit even 24 hours after the Sunday ope­
rations. In Pakistan, at a special federal
cabinet meeting, PM Shahid Khaqan
Abbasi expressed shock at the civilian
killings and described the use of pellet
guns on protestors as “despicable”. O
16 April 2018 OUTLOOK 39