New group photo of young men with rifles goes viral
group photo of young men posing with rifles has gone viral on social media, two months after the killing of Saddam Paddar, one of the last active militants, who posed in the picture led by Hizbul Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani.
While 11 men in ‘Burhan’s boys’ picture wore camouflage green uniforms, 14 youngsters in the new picture are wearing blue uniforms. The men in new picture are suspected to be newly inducted. One of the faces matches with that of Shams-ulHaq 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 the North East. Police officials have confirmed his movement with militants.
Not a comeback of militancy
“We have come across the picture. There are 14 faces and we are identifying them. Many times militants use old pictures,” a senior police officer dealing with anti-militancy operations 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 said.
The new group photo came just 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 picture has a 22-year-old Special Police Officer (SPO) from Pulwama,Irfan Rashid Dar, who went missing along with his service rifle on June 26. There are wo youngsters from Awantipora, Tawseef Ahmad Thokar and another Adfar Fayaz. A Kupwara resident, Zahoor Ah Mir, who had surrendered as militant but went back one and a half month ago while two are from Handwara — Furkan Rashid Lone and Abdul Gani Khwaja — police confirmed.
Officials said that 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 that 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. Today’s group photo was similar to a photo through which Wani and his 10 associates announced their entry into armed insurgency three years ago.
NEWDELHI:Decades-old