In confession video, J&K man reveals giving militant info to army

I was working for the LET and somebody informed army about that. They had (army) made my life hell. They tortured me and forced me to work for them.

KIFAYAT BASHIR MIR, Valley resident

SRINAGAR:A video of a semi-naked shot-at Kashmiri youth “confessing” about giving the army information about militants, went viral on Monday, just a night after he was allegedly abducted and shot at by militants in restive Kashmir’s Shopian.

Police said the video seems to have been recorded in militant custody after the 24-year-old Kifayat Bashir Mir, a resident of Moolu Chitragam, was abducted and fired upon from close range, injuring him severely on Sunday.

A police spokesman said initial investigation revealed the hand of Lashkar-e-taiba (LET).

Superintendent of police, Shopian, Shriram Ambarkar Dinkar said Mir was hospitalised and is stable.

“He was shot in the ankle,” Dinkar said.

In the video, Mir is being questioned by a person suspected to be a militant from behind the camera.

“You gave information (to security forces about presence of militants) at Pahnoo in Shopian?” he is asked, to which he answers in the affirmative, adding, “Two militants and four civilians were martyred there.”

Four civilians and two militants were killed in security forces’ action after army claimed to have been attacked by militants at a check point in Pahnoo, Shopian on March 4.

Mir says he was forced to give information by the army. “I was working for the LET and somebody informed army about that. They had (army) made my life hell. They tortured me and forced me to work for them,” he alleged.

Mir then folds his hands and apologises for “his mistakes”. “I accept that I gave information. I apologise to militant brothers, people and their families. It won’t be repeated again,” he says.

The district SP, Dinkar said they were investigating the contents of the video. “Obviously it is made under duress,” he said.

In December last year, a similar type of video of a young man made during his time allegedly in custody of militants in Pulwama and “confessing” about giving information about the location of militants, had gone viral on social media in Kashmir.

The youth was let off owing to the militant background of his brother.