Top militant leader killed in Kashmir

Indian forces yesterday killed a Kashmir militant leader who became a folk hero in the region after giving up geology research at an Indian university to become a militant, officials said.

Manan Wani, 26, and an associate were killed in a fierce gunfight that lasted more than 10 hours after security forces were tipped off that he was hiding in a residential area, officials said on condition of anonymity.

“Wani’s family have identified the body and now legal formalities are underway,” a police officer said. Another police officer said Wani and his associate escaped a first siege but became trapped in a village in the northern area of Handwara, where they were killed.

Wani quit a PhD programme at Aligarh University in January to join Hizbul Mujahideen, the biggest militant group in Kashmir.

He rose to prominence after circulating two open letters in the Indian media explaining why he took up arms. “We are soldiers we don’t fight to die, but to win, we don’t feel dignity in death but we do feel dignity in fighting (Indian) – occupation, its military might, its oppression, its tyranny, its collaborators and most of all its ego,” Manan Wani wrote in his first letter in July.

The scholar-turned-rebel died not far from his home in the densely militarised frontier area of Kupwara. The killing of another popular rebel leader Burhan Wani by security forces in July 2016 sparked fierce protests in Kashmir that left more than 100 dead.

Top separatist leaders called for a general strike today over Wani’s killing.

“Deeply pained that we lost a budding intellectual and writer like him, fighting for the of cause of self-determination,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq one of the three top separatist leaders of the Joint Resistance Leadership said in a tweet The JRL called for a complete shutdown “to pay homage” to Wani, he added.

This year at least 180 militants, 60 civilians and 74 security forces have been killed in dozens of clashes.