SRINAGAR, FEBRUARY 20, 2010
It is 11:40 am. For last six hours hundreds of Indian Army troops and police counter-insurgent units have sealed off part of a village and nobody is allowed in or out. One of the region's most wanted militant who carries a reward of two million rupees is believed to be hiding in a house in this Warpora village of Sopore in northern Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
The militant believed to be caught in the cordon is Abdullah Ooni – a top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander in northern Kashmir - who has planned and carried out many attacks on the Indian forces in this region including the recent attack on a police patrol in which four Indian policemen were shot dead
Heavily armed troops belonging to Indian Army’s counter-insurgent unit - Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and local police’s counter-insurgent group Special Operations Group (SOG), carrying automatic rifles including heavy machine guns and Kalashnikov rifles, have sealed off all the escape routes.
Acting on an intelligence input, most possibly a tip off from an informer or through surveillance of the communication lines, the army assisted by police had cordoned the village in the early morning. Concertina wires were laid at all the entry and exit points to prevent the escape of the militants.
Troops had already zeroed in on a house where they believed the militants were hiding. The first contact was established at around 6 am, when militants fired half a dozen bullets at the soldiers. In the ensuing confusion and panic created by the gunfire, two local militants managed to escape from the cordon, the policemen on the spot said.
But police and the army believed Ooni was still trapped – and his death would mean that Lashkar has lost one of its best man in the Valley.
Attack carried out by ten LeT militants on Mumbai in November 2008 led to the disruption of the peace process between India and Pakistan. Both the countries have fought three wars over Kashmir, which was divided between them soon after the two nations achieved independence in 1947.
However, many in the Muslim majority Valley of Kashmir see the militants of LeT and other armed groups as freedom fighters and their funerals attract huge crowds of slogan shouting young men who pour in from the adjoining areas.
LeT is one among the many armed groups who say they are fighting for the ‘liberation’ of Kashmir. The other major group is Hizb-ul-Mujahideen – which comprise of mostly local militants as compared to LeT whose cadre is mostly from Pakistan.
Meanwhile, hours of search at the site where the Lashkar commander is believed to be hiding is leading the troops no where and they are clueless about his whereabouts. It is now almost seven hours and their finger has continuously been on the trigger of their Kalashnikovs.
A policeman from the SOG, who identified himself only by his first name Gulzar, said that it is unlikely that Ooni will still be there. “We are looking for him last six hours and there is still no contact with him. Perhaps he has escaped,” said Gulzar, his face covered with a black cloth.
Like most of the SOG personnel involved in this operation, Gulzar too is a local. “We have to hide our identity. Most of the people in this area are hostile to us,” he said, as others in the group nodded in agreement.
As the troops and police search for Ooni, young boys start to gather at the other end of the road. Sensing that the boys might start throwing stones, the SOG personnel act preemptive and charge on them forcing the boys to run away from the cordoned off area.
Most of the boys who were shooed away by the Kalashnikov carrying masked cops belong to a new generation of Kashmiris who were born in the last twenty years - when the insurgency erupted in the state.
Warpora, like most of the Sopore region, has traditionally been a separatist stronghold and, even after twenty years of conflict – and with ‘seventeen martyrs’ from this village alone – the anti-India feeling is widespread.
In last one year alone, there have been eight encounters between Indian army and militants in this village, a boy who refused to give his name said that is because people here are sympathetic to militants. “We all are sympathetic to militants. People are willing to provide them shelter and food. That is why they come here, but there are also many informers around” he said.
Five kilometers from Warpora village is Upper Seer – a village in Sopore and home to a Fidayeen (member of a suicide squad) who on January 6, this year, attacked an Indian police camp and later barricaded himself along with another militant at a Srinagar hotel. Both the Fidayeen were killed after a fight that lasted nearly 23 hours.
Manzoor Ahmad Bhat – a young man who joined the militant ranks after the 2008 land transfer agitation was a Fidayeen – a militant who raids a military installation – with the sole aim to kill and die. It has been rare that Fidayeen have come back alive from these raids and Manzoor was no exception.
Manzoor’s father, Ghulam Rasool Bhat said that they never saw their son after he joined the militant ranks. “He joined the protestors in 2008 who were marching to the Line of Control and when he returned in the evening he was a changed man, something had happened to him that day,” said the father, as tear trickle down his bearded face.
“He then left home saying he is going to Srinagar to work. We gave him the permission. After some days police raided our house and then came the army and the SOG”.
Bhat said that they came to know about Manzoor being a militant when an army officer told him the news. On the first day of the Islamic month of fasting, Manzoor had left his home for ever and joined Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
Eighteen months after he left the home, Manzoor would die fifty kilometers away from his father and home.
“He never came back home to see us. After that I only saw him when his dead body arrived,” said Manzoor father. Manzoor is among the few Kashmiri militants who have participated in the Fidayeen attacks – which are otherwise mostly carried by the Pakistani militants.
Manzoor’s mother takes out the picture of him from underneath a pile of clothes from a wooden rack. The photo was given to the family a year after Manzoor became a militant and shows a bearded boy in his early twenties. It is now the only souvenir for Manzoor’s family.
In the meantime, it was a lucky day for militants hiding at Warpora. All of them, including Ooni escaped an imminent death. “Operation has been officially called off as there has been no success in locating any militant,” said Station House Officer of Sopore police station, Shakeel Ahmad.
The average life of a militant operating in Kashmir is not long and some day Ooni might be running out of luck. The rules of this game of hide and seek between Indian soldiers and the militants have remained unchanged for the last twenty years, and as of now it is unlikely that the things are going to change.
PS: Soon after the Warpora encounter, militants fought an intense battle with Indian forces in Chinkipora after which Indian forces laid a siege of that village and later shelled the residentail houses. Ooni survived that fight and went on engaging in dozens of battles with Indian forces in Sopore. Today is April 25, 2011. Abdullah Ooni continues to be among the most wanted militants in Kashmir.
It is 11:40 am. For last six hours hundreds of Indian Army troops and police counter-insurgent units have sealed off part of a village and nobody is allowed in or out. One of the region's most wanted militant who carries a reward of two million rupees is believed to be hiding in a house in this Warpora village of Sopore in northern Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
The militant believed to be caught in the cordon is Abdullah Ooni – a top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander in northern Kashmir - who has planned and carried out many attacks on the Indian forces in this region including the recent attack on a police patrol in which four Indian policemen were shot dead
Heavily armed troops belonging to Indian Army’s counter-insurgent unit - Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and local police’s counter-insurgent group Special Operations Group (SOG), carrying automatic rifles including heavy machine guns and Kalashnikov rifles, have sealed off all the escape routes.
Acting on an intelligence input, most possibly a tip off from an informer or through surveillance of the communication lines, the army assisted by police had cordoned the village in the early morning. Concertina wires were laid at all the entry and exit points to prevent the escape of the militants.
Troops had already zeroed in on a house where they believed the militants were hiding. The first contact was established at around 6 am, when militants fired half a dozen bullets at the soldiers. In the ensuing confusion and panic created by the gunfire, two local militants managed to escape from the cordon, the policemen on the spot said.
But police and the army believed Ooni was still trapped – and his death would mean that Lashkar has lost one of its best man in the Valley.
Attack carried out by ten LeT militants on Mumbai in November 2008 led to the disruption of the peace process between India and Pakistan. Both the countries have fought three wars over Kashmir, which was divided between them soon after the two nations achieved independence in 1947.
However, many in the Muslim majority Valley of Kashmir see the militants of LeT and other armed groups as freedom fighters and their funerals attract huge crowds of slogan shouting young men who pour in from the adjoining areas.
LeT is one among the many armed groups who say they are fighting for the ‘liberation’ of Kashmir. The other major group is Hizb-ul-Mujahideen – which comprise of mostly local militants as compared to LeT whose cadre is mostly from Pakistan.
Meanwhile, hours of search at the site where the Lashkar commander is believed to be hiding is leading the troops no where and they are clueless about his whereabouts. It is now almost seven hours and their finger has continuously been on the trigger of their Kalashnikovs.
A policeman from the SOG, who identified himself only by his first name Gulzar, said that it is unlikely that Ooni will still be there. “We are looking for him last six hours and there is still no contact with him. Perhaps he has escaped,” said Gulzar, his face covered with a black cloth.
Like most of the SOG personnel involved in this operation, Gulzar too is a local. “We have to hide our identity. Most of the people in this area are hostile to us,” he said, as others in the group nodded in agreement.
As the troops and police search for Ooni, young boys start to gather at the other end of the road. Sensing that the boys might start throwing stones, the SOG personnel act preemptive and charge on them forcing the boys to run away from the cordoned off area.
Most of the boys who were shooed away by the Kalashnikov carrying masked cops belong to a new generation of Kashmiris who were born in the last twenty years - when the insurgency erupted in the state.
Warpora, like most of the Sopore region, has traditionally been a separatist stronghold and, even after twenty years of conflict – and with ‘seventeen martyrs’ from this village alone – the anti-India feeling is widespread.
In last one year alone, there have been eight encounters between Indian army and militants in this village, a boy who refused to give his name said that is because people here are sympathetic to militants. “We all are sympathetic to militants. People are willing to provide them shelter and food. That is why they come here, but there are also many informers around” he said.
Five kilometers from Warpora village is Upper Seer – a village in Sopore and home to a Fidayeen (member of a suicide squad) who on January 6, this year, attacked an Indian police camp and later barricaded himself along with another militant at a Srinagar hotel. Both the Fidayeen were killed after a fight that lasted nearly 23 hours.
Manzoor Ahmad Bhat – a young man who joined the militant ranks after the 2008 land transfer agitation was a Fidayeen – a militant who raids a military installation – with the sole aim to kill and die. It has been rare that Fidayeen have come back alive from these raids and Manzoor was no exception.
Manzoor’s father, Ghulam Rasool Bhat said that they never saw their son after he joined the militant ranks. “He joined the protestors in 2008 who were marching to the Line of Control and when he returned in the evening he was a changed man, something had happened to him that day,” said the father, as tear trickle down his bearded face.
“He then left home saying he is going to Srinagar to work. We gave him the permission. After some days police raided our house and then came the army and the SOG”.
Bhat said that they came to know about Manzoor being a militant when an army officer told him the news. On the first day of the Islamic month of fasting, Manzoor had left his home for ever and joined Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
Eighteen months after he left the home, Manzoor would die fifty kilometers away from his father and home.
“He never came back home to see us. After that I only saw him when his dead body arrived,” said Manzoor father. Manzoor is among the few Kashmiri militants who have participated in the Fidayeen attacks – which are otherwise mostly carried by the Pakistani militants.
Manzoor’s mother takes out the picture of him from underneath a pile of clothes from a wooden rack. The photo was given to the family a year after Manzoor became a militant and shows a bearded boy in his early twenties. It is now the only souvenir for Manzoor’s family.
In the meantime, it was a lucky day for militants hiding at Warpora. All of them, including Ooni escaped an imminent death. “Operation has been officially called off as there has been no success in locating any militant,” said Station House Officer of Sopore police station, Shakeel Ahmad.
The average life of a militant operating in Kashmir is not long and some day Ooni might be running out of luck. The rules of this game of hide and seek between Indian soldiers and the militants have remained unchanged for the last twenty years, and as of now it is unlikely that the things are going to change.
PS: Soon after the Warpora encounter, militants fought an intense battle with Indian forces in Chinkipora after which Indian forces laid a siege of that village and later shelled the residentail houses. Ooni survived that fight and went on engaging in dozens of battles with Indian forces in Sopore. Today is April 25, 2011. Abdullah Ooni continues to be among the most wanted militants in Kashmir.
