November 29
“On a cold January Morning in 2015, we received a letter that our 19 year old son had picked up Arms, the decision was unexpected, the situation in 2015 was unlike it is now,” a cousin of Adnan Ahmed Lone who was killed in the Pampore Encounter on Thursday morning told The Kashmiriyat.
A Police official said that a cordon-and-search operation was launched by a joint team of army’s 50 Rashtriya Rifles, police and CRPF in
Shar e Saali area of Pampore in Pulwama District of South Kashmir.
As the joint party approached the suspected spot, the militants hiding in the area opened fire triggering off an encounter, he told The Kashmiriyat adding that two militants were killed in the retaliatory action by the forces.
The Slain Militants were identified as Adil Hizbi and Adnan Ahmed Lone, both believed to be close associates of Hizb Divisional Commander, Riyaz Ahmed Naikoo.
Adnan according to his family had joined Militant ranks in January 2015. “He was pursuing engineering at a Jammu college and was on vacations at his home in Pulwama, On a cold morning in January, he left for Srinagar and never returned back,” one of his cousin told The Kashmiriyat.
As soon as the word about his killing spread in his native this morning people in droves began to trickle into Bandun, a small quaint village tucked away in the apple orchards in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
“He was the most intelligent in the family and was of a generous nature, he came from a well off family, one of his brother is a teacher, another one is a doctor, he himself had studied engineering,” one of his school mate told The Kashmiriyat.
Thousands of people on Thursday morning reached his native to attend the funeral prayers of Adnan amid high pitch pro Independence and Anti India Slogans, later sporadic clashes also erupted between Government Forces and unarmed protesters.
Kashmir has a grim history. There are 70,000+ deaths, 8000+ enforced disappearances, 6000+ unknown and unmarked mass graves, according to estimates of rights groups.
Of those cases, few families have seen justice or closure for their losses. Kashmir has virtually been in a continuous state of emergency for the last 25 years.
Despite growing encounters and repeated verbal attempts of the Army and Director General of Jammu Kashmir Police, Militancy is showing no signs of declination.
In fact the Army General of India has been constantly asking the local Kashmiri youth to give up arms and asking people to keep their wards away from militancy.
Though Militancy is growing swiftly as more local youth are picking up arms to strengthen the Militant ranks, Figures available to The Kashmiriyat suggest that at least 165 Local youth have picked up arms this year.
South Kashmir districts have witnessed a surge in youth joining the Militant ranks after the encounter of Burhan Wani on July 08, 2016.
Despite the Indian Army having launched ‘Operation All Out’ and intensifying the Anti Militancy operations, the local Militancy is on rise.
Militancy this year has seen a huge rise after the three encounter that were held on a single day on April 01 in South Kashmir ending with the death of 13 local Militants.
The Himalayan region has seen large number of youth picking up arms since an armed insurgency began against the Indian rule in 1988.
Since their partition both India and Pakistan have fought three wars claiming the region in its entirety.