Abductions: The cowardly practice of Kashmiri militants

In 1995, a Kashmiri militant had kidnapped five tourists, demanding the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, who went on to create the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

In may 2017, Lt Ummer Fayaz was abducted by terrorists of Hizbul-Mujahedeen from Shopian, Kashmir. Lt Fayaz was on leave and was unarmed at the time as he had come to his uncle's home to attend a pre-marriage function when 3 armed men stormed the function and dragged Fayaz away while threatening to shoot if anyone tried to save him. He was then taken to a hidden spot in Shopian and tortured before being shot dead. After his body was found, there were heavy injury marks which suggested that he was probably beaten by the butt of a gun before being murdered in cold blood. After torturing him, the terrorist shot him in his jaw and chest which ultimately would have killed him.

Ummer Fayaz was born in Shopian, Jammu & Kashmir, India in 1994, and studied at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Anantnag and the National Defence Academy. He faced several difficulties while in training as people in his home were not supportive of his decision to join the Indian Army. However, Fayaz was determined to join, as he used to say "I will change my Kashmir, I will make it heaven on earth again".

Lt. Umer Fayaz was a brilliant student who could have gone for a management or engineering degree to build a fortune. He thus became an example for hundreds of other bright Indian youth to take up armed forces as a career.

The Youth of Kashmir, exclusively the ones that take part in criminal activities, blame their experience, run-ins and ordeals with security forces to be the reason behind their criminal activities or for taking up a path of militancy. The reason Ummer Fayaz was killed so mercilessly could be his past and how he paved his future at that point of time.

Ummer Fayaz as a young boy, before joining the army was himself once man-handled by an army soldier. Instead of picking up a rock to take revenge for his ordeal, he decided to Change his Kashmir and joined the national defence academy.

Lt Gen Abhay Krishna, the Colonel of Rajputana Rifles, grew emotional while paying tribute to the lieutenant. “We have lost a very good officer. Lt Fayaz was extraordinarily tough and highly motivated. He was always ready to take on challenges and believed in leading from the front. He did three years with the NDA, one year with IMA, and then joined one of the best regiments. Speaks of his commitment to the country and the Army… You felt good when he was around,” the general said.

Expressing horror, Lt Gen Krishna said, “They killed a young and promising boy who was on leave to attend the wedding of his cousin and was unarmed. How does killing a young local boy square with the alleged freedom struggle they claim to be waging? This only proves once again that they are just a bunch of criminals.” The killing, he said, must serve as a wake-up call.

"He was not scared of going home. He knew all the boys. They had grown up together. In fact his personality was so pleasing that several youngsters in his locality looked up to him. He told us about them. We even had a conversation about the unrest in south Kashmir but he was confident it would blow over," said Major Yuvavir Kadyan, his instructor and company commander.

But his popularity irked the terrorists and defeated the idea of an Islamic caliphate they were so desperately trying to propagate.

Another victim to this cowardly practice of 'abduction and murder' was 33-year-old BSF constable, Mohammed Rameez Parrey. Parray had joined BSF in 2011. He had served for nearly six years.  "Constable Rameez Parrey, a serving BSF personnel of 73 Bn BSF ,who was on  leave ,has been cowardly killed by terrorists today," said a statement by the BSF. Parrey was on 37 day leave since August 26.

On 27 September, 2017, three terrorist barged into Parrey's house. He and his family resisted their attempt to kidnap him. Parray fought with terrorists for few minutes before he was shot dead. According to family sources, the terrorists wanted to abduct Parrey and had dragged him out of the house. Parrey put up a good fight and when it became clear to the terrorists that they wont be able to take him away, they shot and killed him. “Prima facie, we know that Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Mohammed Bhai and his aides were behind the attack” North Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police Nitish Kumar told ANI.

Rifleman Aurangzeb was an army jawan posted in South Kashmir’s Shadimurg with elite counter-insurgency battalion,the 44 Rashtriya Rifles.

On April 30, 2018, Major Shukla, an Indian Army Officer of 44 Rashtriya Rifles killed the category A++ terrorist of Hizbul Mujahideen, Sameer Tiger in a joint operation by Jammu and Kashmir Police, Indian Army and Central Reserve Police Force. A day before his encounter, Tiger threatened Indian Army, specifically Major Shukla in a viral video which showed him telling a captured Indian Army informant to tell shukla "When the lion stops hunting, dogs believe that the jungle belongs to them. I challenge Shukla to come face-to-face.” Shukla took the challenge.

The morning of the day after the threat was issued by Tiger began with security forces, acting on a tip-off that militants were holed up inside a house, cordoning the area.

Around noon, security personnel, who were fighting stone pelting from the civilians, fired heavily at the house, causing an explosion, officials said.

About an hour later, the first militant, identified as Aaquib Mushtaq, was killed. He was a local resident belonging to Rajpora area of Pulwama.

Shortly after, Bhat, who is alleged to have carried out several political and civilian killings in Pulwama area, was gunned down, the officials added.

He hit the national limelight in November 2017 as the long-haired youth with piercing eyes looking directly into the camera posing with an American M4 carbine in an orchard somewhere in south Kashmir, triggering a debate on how the US-made weapon came to be in the Valley. The photograph was circulated widely on social media.

The man who terrorized the entire Kashmir Valley started out as a chronic stone pelter, officials said. The Class 8 dropout emerged as another poster boy for the Hizbul Mujahideen after the death of Burhan Wani in July 2016.

Snippet from the interrogation and torture video that showed Rifleman Aurangzeb being tortured and interrogated by Hizbul terrorists before being shot and killed.

In relation, Aurangzeb could have been singled out due to being close to Shukla. Aurangzeb was a rifleman posted at the 44 Rashtriya Rifles camp at Shadimarg in Shopian. On Thursday morning, some army personnel from the unit had stopped a car asking the driver to drop Aurangzeb in Shopian. Slain rifleman Aurangzeb, who had planned to celebrate Eid with the family in June last year at home in Poonch, had been travelling in the car of a civilian to Pulwama bus stand to catch the bus . The terrorists intercepted the car a few km before, abducted Aurangzeb and killed him. The rifleman’s body was recovered about 10 km from the site of abduction, at Kalampora, in Pulwama district, the next day with bullets in his neck and head.

In a video released on social networking site, Twitter, Aurangzeb during his abduction is seen being interrogated about his closeness to Major Rohit Shukla, who had killed Sameer Tiger. Aurangzeb confirms that he is Shukla’s ‘buddy’. A buddy is like an officer’s own “shadow”, moves with him, knows every detail about him, goes to operations with him and even proceeds on leave with him.

'MILITANTS SENDING A SIGNAL'

"The terrorists clearly appear to be sending out a signal. They are trying to intimidate people. They don't want locals to either join the Army or the police. But they will not succeed. Locals are very angry with terrorists killing the son of the soil," said Maj Avdesh Chowdhary, Lt Ummer's instructor at the Regimental Centre.

In contrast to these efforts from the militants, Barely 24 hours after Lt Fayaz was killed to intimidate people against joining the security forces, thousands of youth lined up to join the Jammu and Kashmir Police - sending out a clear message to Pakistan and its proxies - they remain undeterred in their quest for employment and a better life.