J&K MBA graduate joins Hizbul Mujahideen, family urges him to return

Earlier, Abid Hussain Bhat, a labourer from Sazan village in the district, had joined Lashkar-e-Toiba. Bhat, however, was killed in an encounter with the security forces in Anantnag along with another militant soon after.

“There is no apparent militancy in Chenab Valley at the moment…Our concern is that the present cycle of militancy in adjoining Kashmir can also have impact here,” DIG for Kishtwar-Doda-Ramban range Rafiq-ul-Hassan said. “Though three to four militants, who had been in Kishtwar, have moved towards Kashmir side, we are keeping a watch on the situation as the area had been witness to active militancy in the past.”

A number of youths in the area were reported missing recently. While the DIG clarified that not every missing youth can be said to have joined militant ranks, Kishtwar Police had in July this year arrested a militant along with an overground worker and claimed to have foiled a plan by Hizbul commander Jahangir Saroori — the longest surviving militant in the state — to recruit a local youth. In the same month, the police had arrested two militant recruits from Kishtwar along with an overground worker when they were planning to carry out an attack in Srinagar district.

Pir Panchal area, comprising border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, has also seen a spurt in incidents of pro-Azadi sloganeering and attempts to engineer communal tension in the recent past.

According to his family, Haroon was set to return home for his elder brother Jabbar Abbas’ wedding when they got the news that their son had joined militancy ranks.

“We were preparing to receive Jabbar’s in-laws and other relatives, who were visiting from Bhaderwah. In the meantime, I received a call from someone that Haroon’s photographs holding an AK rifle were circulating on social media,” Haroon’s uncle Farooq Ahmed said.

Haroon’s father Mohammad Abbas Wani, who is a junior engineer in Rural Development Department at Doda, and his mother have appealed Haroon to return home. “Your first jihad is to serve your parents…it was no jihad when your own parents are in despair at home,” his mother Shamma Begum said.