After prison break, man joins militants

A 23-year-old man from Shopian, who had escaped from police custody earlier this month, has released a video, in which he declared that he has joined militant ranks as a consequence of security force’s alleged excesses.

The video, which surfaced on social media, showed Zubair Ahmad Turray wearing a military uniform and brandishing weapons. In the clip Turray said that he is a “victimised” Kashmiri who escaped from jail a few days earlier. He went on to claim that “slavery” and the “imperialist forces” had led him to become a militant. “My journey has been very painful… I had no other way,” he said.

District police authorities confirmed that Turray had escaped from Shopain’s Keegam police station on May 1.

“We had information that he (Zubair) has joined militants after escaping from prison. It got confirmed by his video,” director general of police, SP Vaid, said.

According to Turray, he was in jail for the last four years and was charged under the controversial Jammu Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) four times, which allows the detention of a person without trial for at least six months.

Sources close to Turray’s family said he was a stone-pelter years ago and had attained a cult status in the district because of his continued detention.

Turray claimed that even though his last PSA case was quashed by the high court, he was placed under illegal detention for three months, following which he escaped.

Describing his last detention, Turray’s counsel in three cases in Shopian court Habeel Iqbal said, “Senior Shopian police officials promised to let him free in a few days and the days kept on increasing. We did not file for a bail application because there was the fear that the state might issue a fresh PSA order on him. Since February, Zubair was not produced before any magistrate and hence the custody was illegal.”

Iqbal added, “This is a common practice of the state in Kashmir to keep charging people whom they consider a threat under a cycle of PSAs – one after the earlier one is quashed. Hence Zubair was scared that he might be a victim of the same and end up being jailed forever.” Vaid, however, said “If somebody is a chronic stone-pelter, what can we do? We had to arrest him”.

Separatist leader Yasin Malik said in a statement that Turray’s case was “a classic example” of how the state pushes Kashmiri youth to the wall leading them to join armed resistance.

IN THE VIDEO, TURRAY CLAIMS THAT ILLEGAL DETENTION DROVE HIM TOWARDS TOWARDS JOINING THE MILITANTS