Kashmir research scholar ‘joins Hizbul’, family says lost contact after new year

[Maarkhoor]

Wani’s brother said his brother left home for Aligarh a month ago. “All this time, we thought he was in Aligarh. He would talk to us regularly. We don’t have any idea where he is,” he said.
Written by Bashaarat Masood | Srinagar |Published: January 8, 2018 4:05 am

According to Wani’s family, he was pursuing his PhD in applied geology at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

A RESEARCH scholar from Kupwara in J&K has appeared in a photograph posted on social media holding an under barrel grenade launcher, with a message claiming that he has joined the militancy. Mannan Wani, son of Bashir Ahmad Wani, joined the Hizbul Mujahideen on January 5, states the message along with the photograph that appeared on Facebook and WhatsApp.

According to Wani’s family, he was pursuing his PhD in applied geology at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
Speaking to The Indian Express, Wani’s brother, Mubashir Ahmad, a junior engineer, said: “We have also seen the picture on social networking sites. But we have no idea (whether he has joined militants or not). We lost contact with him on January 4 as his phone was switched off. We thought he had switched it off for some reason or lost it. As we couldn’t contact him, we lodged a missing report with police on Saturday.”
Officials at AMU could not be contacted for comment but the university’s official website states that Wani, 26, was pursuing a PhD on ‘Structural and Geo-Morphological Study of Lolab Valley, Kashmir’. According to the website, he received an award for the best paper presented at an international conference on ‘Water, Environment, Ecology and Society’ in 2016. It states that he enrolled in AMU after doing his Bachelor’s in Geology and Earth Sciences from the University of Kashmir. He completed his Master’s and MPhil in Geology from AMU, it says.

Wani’s brother said his brother left home for Aligarh a month ago. “All this time, we thought he was in Aligarh. He would talk to us regularly. We don’t have any idea where he is,” he said. SSP Kupwara Shamsheer Khan did not respond to requests from The Indian Express seeking comment. But sources said Wani was active during the recent student elections at the university.

He had also apparently penned several articles on student politics on an online portal, thecompanion.com. Wani’s biographical sketch on the portal describes him as a research scholar at AMU who is a “student activist having interest in geopolitics and Islamic revivalist movements”.

http://indianexpress.com/article/in...ily-says-lost-contact-after-new-year-5015565/

 

[Maarkhoor]

@django @war&peace @Burhan Wani

 

[jetray]

Islamic revivalist movements”.

good riddance , that phd seat will go to a deserving student.

 

[Burhan Wani]

@django @war&peace @Burhan Wani

This is not the first case, we have another PHD student turned mujahid name Sabzar Bashir. Wani Mannan joined freedom ranks because he was mistreated by Indian security forces during his visit to Kupwara.

 

[Sankpal]

Feeling sad for him, terrorist leader kids are enjoying their life in US and other countries. Small family kids are dieing due to few paid dogs and salary employees from the cross border in our kashimir Wally. They do the brain wash and reason for innocent killing. We have to catch and kill them.

He has to understand and come back else he will be killed by security forces. I hope, he can realise about his family

 

[nair]

Do not worry about lost contact....RR will establish contact soon....

 

[manlion]

Why the December 31 Militant Attack in Kashmir Should Have Security Forces Worried

The use of locals to carry out attacks represents a changed tactic for militant groups including Jaish-e-Mohammad in the Valley.

For the security establishment, argued a senior police official, the December 31 attack was “disturbing” and a “cause for concern” on two accounts. First, there were prior inputs about a possible attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad to avenge the killing of its militant commander, Noor Muhammad Tantray alias Noor Trali, in a gunfight in Pampore area last week. Less than four feet tall, 45-year-old Tantray had jumped parole last year to become a militant.

But, more importantly, in a departure from its strategy, for the first time the outfit chose two local militant as fidayeens. Fardeen had even recorded a video message for Kashmiri youth to explain the “need for jihad”. This was also the first time that any militant organisation in Kashmir released a video of a recruit about to carry out a suicide attack.

In the past 28 years of insurgency, Kashmiri militants have rarely been a part of suicide squads which stormed security establishments within or outside the summer capital. The last such attack was on defence establishments in the Uri border town in September 2016, in which 17 army personnel were killed.

While Jaish-e-Mohammad has been the architect of such attacks in Kashmir, the group has always recruited foreigners for such strikes.

The Lethpora attack could, however, mark the beginning of a shift in strategy of militant outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad to recruit Kashmiri militants as fidayeens.

Adding to the worries of the Jammu and Kashmir police and other security agencies is the video which surfaced hours after the gunfight, in which slain Fardeen asks Kashmiri youth to “join the fight against Indian aggression”.

In the video, a calm-looking Fardeen, who was from Tral, hometown of slain Hizbul militant commander Burhan Wani, speaks in chaste Urdu, emphasising that youth joining militancy has nothing to do with “propaganda of unemployment being run by the security agencies”.

“Our land has been occupied by infidels…so jihad becomes our duty. Youth, please realise your duties and join this fight for azadi,” he says in the nearly eight minute video while listing major strikes carried by the militant outfit in the past, including one on Pathankot airbase and Nagrota camp.

“By the time this video reaches you I would be a guest in heaven, God willing,” he says, indicating that the Lethpora attack had been planned before the video was shot.

“My friends and I have listened to the call for jihad and taken a plunge into the battlefield…even after repeated claims that Jaish-e-Mohammad is finished in Kashmir, I want to tell everyone it is impossible to stop Jaish-e-Mohammad now. Youth are sacrificing their lives for the nation as azadi can’t be achieved without sacrifices.” Fardeen speaks fluently, sitting with three Kalashnikovs and other ammunition around him.

The other slain militant, 22-year-old Manzoor Baba from the Drabgam area of Pulwama, was a fruit grower before joining militancy in October last year. His name was in the headlines in the local media recently, when his family in November made a fervent appeal to him to return home following the surrender of footballer-turned-militant Majid Khan from Anantnag.

Return of Jaish to the Valley

Led by Maulana Masood Azhar, Jaish-e-Mohammad was largely based in north Kashmir before it was almost wiped off from the Valley. But after Burhan Wani became the poster boy for militancy in Kashmir, a few of the outfit’s militants worked in close coordination with him in the south till 2013.

During the last 10-12 months, however, the group plotted some large-scale attacks to announce its revival. The first one was on the police lines in Pulwama, in which eight police and paramilitary forces and three militants were killed. Another was at the BSF camp near Srinagar airport, killing an assistant sub-inspector.

Indian army soldiers take their positions near the site of a gun battle between Indian security forces and militants on the outskirts of Srinagar February 21, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Danish Ismail/Files

Behind the return of the outfit is believed to be 47-year-old slain militant Tantray. While he worked in south Kashmir and used his network to recruit “some youth” from the Pulwama-Shopian belt, said another police official, infiltration of around 80 militants last year from across the LoC, some of them belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad, also added numbers to the group.

Tantray had been convicted in a militancy-related case in 2003 and was in prison. In July last year, he jumped a parole to join the militant outfit and went on to act as coordinator for several militant groups operating in south Kashmir, said the police official.

While militant outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba are operating in coordination, particularly in south Kashmir, the Lethpora attack and, more importantly, the involvement of Kashmiri militants as fidayeens, many believe, should be a cause for deep worry for the security establishment.

“If we only go by statistics of security agencies, there are around 300 militants still operating in the Valley. It shows that militancy is far from over and maybe getting deadlier if this (Lethpora) attack is any indication,” said political analyst Noor M. Baba.

Mudasir Ahmad is a Srinagar-based reporter.

https://thewire.in/210594/kashmir-militancy-jaish-e-mohammad-attack/