Outrage spreads in Kashmir as fourth bullet-riddled body found in Baramulla

Srinagar: There is outrage in Kashmir Valley, following the discovery of the corpses of three young men that were found lying in an apple orchard on Monday-their bodies bore bullet and burn marks and nails plucked out.

While several areas in north-western Baramulla district are on the boil with people in hordes out on the streets holding protests against the gruesome murders and clashes between irate youth and police have, amid a spontaneous strike, continued for the second day on Tuesday, another dead body –that of a local resident Manzoor Ahmed Reshi- was spotted in the district’s Tangmarg area. This only added to the existing tensions, although police is still clueless about who killed him and why.

Police has identified the youth whose corpses were found in an orchard in Pattan area of Baramulla on Monday as those of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants Ashiq Ahmed Wani, Aamir Qadir Reshi and Naveed Khan- all in their twenties- and said the killings may have been caused by “factional conflict” within Kashmir’s front-line indigenous militant outfit. “Investigations are underway and it would be too early to talk about who killed them and why but from all indications it appears to be a case of internal feud reported in the Hizb,” SSP Baramulla, Suhail Mir, said. 

As the gruesome killings have evoked anger and widespread condemnation in the Valley and beyond, separatist Hurriyat Conference alliance faction headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called for a one-day ‘State-wide’ shutdown against what it said is “brutal and barbaric murder” of the youth. Mr. Geelani said in a statement here, “Even though nothing is clearly known about these killings but on seeing the circumstances and the way these youth have been done to death we can’t rule out the hands of the government forces into the incident. Police’s trying to link this gory incident with the rivalries within the mujahideen is but presumption based on guess”.

Police officials here ridiculed the charge that the security forces could have killed the youth. They said that Mr. Geelani has been forced to call for strike on Wednesday because of the outrage the killings have evoked in public. The parents of, at least, one youth Aamir Reshi, have publicly said that he had nothing to do with militancy and had gone missing on July 7. 

While several likeminded separatist outfits have endorsed Mr. Geelani’s call for the strike, pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) too has issued a call for Kashmir bandh on Wednesday separately. Its chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik was on Tuesday taken into ‘preventive custody’ by police while going to Pattan and Sopore to sympathise with the families of the slain youth identified by police as residents of these areas. He too termed the killings as “cold-blooded murder”.

A few months ago, an obscure militant outfit surfaced in Kashmir in the name of ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ and police blamed it for a series of attacks on cellular phone franchises, towers and other stakeholders, which left half a dozen people dead, mainly in Baramulla district. The outfit was also accused of being involved in the murder of a couple of political activists including one belonging to Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference faction. The Hizb had blamed the violence on “Indian security forces and their agents”.

Soon, however, Lashkar-e-Islam came in the open claiming it was a group of “legitimate mujahideen sincerely involved in a candid struggle.” Police said it was actually a splinter group of the Hizb headed by a rebel Abdul Qayoom Najar. He was accused of being the mastermind of the blood-spattered attacks on telecom showrooms and towers and the killing of separatist political activists. In June, police announced a cash reward of Rs one million for information leading to his arrest.

In July, the Hizb formally expelled  41-year-old Najar  who is known as the longest surviving militant and was a top commander of the Hizb till he openly revolted against its ‘Supreme Commander’ Syed Salahuddin. The Hizb said an inquiry held earlier “found him involved in the killing of innocent people in Sopore area of the State besides in attacks on Cellular towers and stakeholders.” 

Meanwhile, the Pakistan-based chief of the Hizb, Syed Salahuddin, has said in a statement that all the three slain youth found dead in a Pattan orchard were the outfit’s cadres. “They were associated with our organization which they joined recently. However, the agencies and the notorious (Police) Task Force killed them in custody. Our enemy demonstrated their cowardice with these killings,” he alleged.