Danishwar Hameed
Akash Muzafar, who went missing on June 12, this year has been identified as one of the Militants two Militants killed in Waghama area in Islamabad (Anantnag) on Tuesday morning, during a gunfight with Government Forces.
Akash, a 19-year old boy, from Kulgam District is the son of a Policeman, Muzaffar Ahmed Sheikh, a resident of Bugam area in Kulgam had gone missing from his house in the first week of June, after which the family had filed a missing report in the nearby Police station.
Hundreds of people have gathered here, to express solidarity with the family, where the mother of the slain is mourning, “Oh My beloved, Why have you gone so far from me?” No matter, he was a Militant or a policeman, a Kashmiri mother has lost her son, another woman among the mourners, mourned loudly.
Kashmir since 2016 is witnessing a heightened recruitment of local youths into Armed Militant outfits, and despite the Army’s Massive “operation All out”- youth have been taking up Arms, despite warnings and a ever- decreasing life expectancy of a Local Militant.
Many say, the decreasing space for political dissent is one of the main reasons for locals picking up Arms, however the Indian Political discourse has been constantly ringing the involvement of Pakistan in trying to mislead the youth of Kashmir for their own Political motives.
Locals here told The Kashmiriyat that Akash was petted by everyone in the locality, “he was a great football lover and one would often find him in the sports stadium playing football, he was the best player of the Kulgam district, i do not hesitate to say,” Tahir Ahmed, a resident said.
In a State of Disbelief
The Locals gathered here in disbelief, of the death just eighteen days after he went missing from his home, has sent shock-waves across the entire region, however locals are normalized to such tragedies now, Tahir feels. “Our days start with encounters and they end with Encounters, in the morning a father lifts the coffin of his son, and in the night it is another father.”
A Few metres away from here in Sonigam, that witnessed a similar death on Monday. Nadeem Ahmed Dar a 22 Year old boy who had recently joined a Militant outfit was killed during an encounter in Anantnag District of Kashmir.
His inconsolable family, which comprises of ailing parents, both with dysfunctional kidney, and a brother, mentally unsound, People have gathered here in large numbers offering any sort of help they could to this poor family living in a one story mud house.
Nadeem had went missing in the last week of May. His story is like many of the boys who joined the ‘New Age Militancy’ after being allegedly harassed by the Government Force personnel. Abdul Aziz, a local resident in an agitated tone speaking to The Kashmiriyat said, “Do not blame our sons for taking a violent path, you (Forces) force them to pick up the guns and then kill them.”
Rather angered by the rise of the Bhartiya Janta Party in Kashmir, he said, “since the BJP has come, we have seen atrocities more than ever, more than anytime, our very “nationality” of being a Kashmiris is being criminalized, Being a Kashmiri is not a crime, we will die, but we will die as Kashmiris.”
A Case of Constant Harassment
The 22-year-old, Nadeem Ahmed Dar, who was a Driver for a school vehicle till he arrested last year, for a period of more than six months. “he was constantly harassed and summoned to the Local Police Stations, eventually he had no choice left but to pick up the gun,” Tahir told The Kashmiriyat.
After the Abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir by the Modi-led Government, the Government Forces allegedly raided his house constantly looking for him. “he was evading arrest for months,” Tahir said, while remembering his friend, Nadeem.
Here in this one story mud house, Farooq Ahmed Dar, his father, is being consoled by dozens of other men, who have been visiting him since Nadeem was buried.
“We tried to file a missing report in the Police Station that our son (Nadeem) was missing from his home, they told us that Nadeem had joined Militants, he was our only bread-earner, our hope for our old age,” Farooq laments, adding, “We are devastated, any father would be, to be burdened with the coffin of his son, but i am not angry with him, i have seen it all, the harassment he faced, he was left with no choices.”
At least a hundred local Boys who had joined Militants have been killed during various encounters in the first sic months of 2020. “We do not know, if we ever will achieve peace, but we do not want a Kashmiri to be used as a fodder to enhance the vote bank,” Tahir says.