New group photo of young men with rifles goes viral
SRINAGAR: Two months after one of the last active militants was killed, who posed in an iconic picture led by Hizbul Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani, another group photo of young men posing with rifles has gone viral on social media.
While 11 men in ‘Burhan’s boys’ picture had camouflage green uniforms, 14 youngsters in the new picture are wearing blue, posing against green background, probably in an orchard or a forest area.
The men in new picture are not known faces and all are suspected to be newly inducted, a senior police officer dealing with antimilitancy operations said. One of the faces matches with that of Shams ul Haq Mengnoo, who was given the code name ‘Burhan - The second’ by Hizbul.
Mengnoo, who was doing bachelors in unani medicine in Srinagar, has been missing from his home since May 22. Mengnoo’s brother is an Indian police service officer posted in North East. Police officials have confirmed his movement with militants.
MILITANCY COMEBACK?
“We have come across the picture. There are 14 faces and we are identifying them. Many times militants use old pictures,” the officer said. “Even if the group is new, no way it can be seen as a comeback of militancy. It is a leaderless troupe. The militants have suffered heavily and the terror initiated violence has come down. They have so far made isolated attacks on lone security personnel or indulged in grenade attacks,” he added.
The new photo came a week after Hizbul flooded the social media with individual pictures of around 18 young men holding guns on the second death anniversary of Burhan Wani on July 8.
OLD AND NEW RECRUITS
Besides Mengnoo, the pictures included a 22-year-old Special Police Officer (SPO) from Pulwama who went missing along with his service rifle on June 26 Irfan Rashid Dar, two youth from Awantipora an MSC in mathematics Tawseef Ahmad Thokar and another Adfar Fayaz.
A Kupwara resident Zahoor Ah Mir, who had surrendered as militant but was recycled into militancy one and a half month ago while two names from Hand- wara — Furkan Rashid Lone and Abdul Gani Khwaja — were also confirmed to have joined militants by police.
Officials said the number of persons who have joined militancy this year is around 75-80 while militants killed in encounters have touched 102, 68 of which have been killed in south Kashmir. In comparison, of the 213 militants killed last year, 78 were killed in south Kashmir.
Inspector general of police, SP Pani said they were trying to reduce the new recruitments. “Our operational grid is intact, we are taking care of the environmental conditions so that the recruitment is adroitly blunted,” he said.
The photo was similar to a photograph through which Wani and his 10 associates had announced their entry into armed insurgency three years ago. The photograph which went viral in June 2015, marked a new age of militancy in the region.