‘Ummer was sitting with the bride. They pulled him, many others were waiting outside’

Ummer Fayyaz was kidnapped and killed by suspected militants in Shopian district where he was attending a marriage ceremony of some relative.

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Inconsolable mother of the slain army officer Lt. Ummer Fayaz during his funeral at his native village Sudsona in Kulgam district on Wednesday. (Source: PTI Photo)

An occasional wail breaks the eerie silence. Women of the village sit in a circle, around a woman who is holding her head. She doesn’t speak, and screams each time she spots a family member or a neighbour. All that Jameela remembers is the sight of three men barging into a house in Shopian last night and taking away her 22-year-old son, Lieutenant Umar Fayaz. This morning, his body was found in another village. Jameela had gone to her brother’s home at Batpora Matribug village in the adjoining Shopian district to attend the wedding of her niece. Umar, who had taken leave, had travelled from Anantnag town to join the function.

Umar’s father sits in a room, surrounded by neighbours and family. Fayaz Ahmad Parray says he is unable to weep. “I can’t believe my son is not alive,’’ he says. “I have only one son,” he says, and almost immediately, corrects himself: “I had only one son. Now it is his mother and two sisters.”
Parray recalls that as soon as Umar cleared the Class XII examination in 2012, he wanted to take the NDA (National Defence Academy) entrance examination. “I am a farmer. I am illiterate. He told me he wants to become an officer and I said OK,’’ he said. “I didn’t know it would cost him his life.”

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Umar’s maternal uncle Mohammad Maqbool, whose daughter was getting married, sheds light on what happened last night. “Umar was staying at Anantnag where his cousins had a rented accommodation. He hadn’t come home. He came straight to our place from Anantnag. He reached our place in the afternoon. Everything was fine. He was sitting with the bride upstairs when three men wearing pherans came in. It was around 8 pm. They headed upstairs and asked for him. The moment he identified himself, they took him.” “We tried to stop them but they pulled him. There were many others waiting for them outside, on the road,’’ he said.

This morning, Umar’s body was found near the bus stand in Harmain village in Shopian. “When villagers found his body, they took it to a hospital nearby. There, a doctor who knew Umar, identified him,’’ says Mohammad Ashraf, Umar’s uncle. “We received a call. It was unbelievable.”
The family didn’t say anything about the identity of the people who killed the young officer. “We never thought anybody would harm him at home,’’ Ashraf said.

He said Sarsuna village has had only one militant — Mohammad Ayub Parray who was killed on the LoC in early 1990s. “He was my uncle. He was also the uncle of Umar’s father,’’ Ashraf said. Kulgam Senior Superintendent of Police Sridhar Patel told The Indian Express that the police had no information that Lt Fayaz had been kidnapped last night.

“We didn’t know at all. We got to know about this only after his body was recovered this morning,’’ Patel said. “His body was recovered close to where (the cavalcade of ) SP Headquarters, Shopian, was fired at by the militants last night. They must have killed him around that time.” Army personnel, led by the Commandant of the 62 Rashtriya Rifles, placed a Tricolour on the young officer’s body and fired in the air before it was lowered in the grave. His father stood with two relatives, watching the Army officers and men paying floral tributes to his son.

Muzamil Jaleel

Muzamil Jaleel is a Deputy Editor at The Indian Express and is widely recognized as one of India’s most authoritative voices on Jammu & Kashmir, national security, and internal affairs. With a career spanning over 30 years, he has provided definitive on-the-ground reportage from the heart of the Kashmir conflict, bearing witness to historic political transitions and constitutional shifts. Expertise and Investigative Depth Muzamil’s work is characterized by a rare combination of ground-level immersion and high-level constitutional analysis. His expertise includes: Conflict & Geopolitics: Decades of reporting on the evolution of the Kashmir conflict, the Indo-Pak peace process, and the socio-political dynamics of the Himalayan region. Constitutional Law: Deep-dive analysis of Article 370 and Article 35A, providing clarity on the legal and demographic implications of their abrogation in 2019. Human Rights & Accountability: A relentless investigator of state and non-state actors, uncovering systemic abuses including fake encounters and the custodial death of political workers. International War Reporting: Beyond South Asia, he provided on-the-spot coverage of the final, decisive phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. Landmark Exposés & Impact Muzamil’s reporting has repeatedly forced institutional accountability and shaped national discourse: The Kashmir Sex Scandal (2006): His investigative series exposed a high-profile exploitation nexus involving top politicians, bureaucrats, and police officers, leading to the sacking and arrest of several senior officials. Fake Encounters: His reports blew the lid off cases where innocent civilians were passed off as "foreign terrorists" by security forces for gallantry awards. SIMI Investigations: He conducted a massive deep-dive into the arrests of SIMI members, using public records to show how innocuous religious gatherings were often labeled as incriminating activities by investigative agencies. The Amarnath Land Row: Provided critical context to the 2008 agitation that polarized the region and altered its political trajectory. Over the years, Muzamil has also covered 2002 Gujarat riots, Bhuj earthquake, assembly elections in Bihar for Indian Express. He has also reported the peace process in Northern Ireland, war in Sri Lanka and national elections in Pakistan for the paper. Awards and Fellowships His "Journalism of Courage" has been honored with the industry's most prestigious accolades: Four Ramnath Goenka Awards: Recognized for J&K Reportage (2007), On-the-Spot Reporting (2009), and Reporting on Politics and Government (2012, 2017). Kurt Schork Award: From Columbia University for international journalism. Sanskriti Award: For excellence in Indian journalism and literature. IFJ Tolerance Prize: For his empathetic and nuanced reporting in South Asia. International Fellowships: Served as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and worked with The Guardian, The Observer, and The Times in London. He has also received Chevening fellowship and a fellowship at the Institute of Social Studies, Hague, Netherlands. Professional Presence Current Location: New Delhi (formerly Bureau Chief, Srinagar). Education: Master’s in Journalism from Kashmir University. Social Media: Follow him for field insights and rigorous analysis on X (Twitter) @MuzamilJALEEL. ... Read More

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