Over 500 detained across Kashmir in ‘message to militants’ as police step up hunt for gunmen who killed retired soldier

“There have been massive detentions across the Kashmir Valley and the number is well above 500,” a senior police officer told The Indian Express. “I don’t remember detentions on this scale in the recent past following a militant attack,” he said.

The officer explained that the detentions were made to send a message to militants “operating from across the border that such attacks won’t be tolerated”, and that in the past, “sending such messages have had the desired results”.

Unidentified gunmen on Monday opened fire at retired soldier, Manzoor Ahmad Wagay, his wife and her niece in Behibagh village of south Kashmir’s Kulgam. While Wagay (45), who was hit in the abdomen, was killed in the attack, the two women were hit in the leg and are undergoing treatment.

“They (militants) have crossed the red line this time by targeting the family members of the soldier,” a police officer said.

While police have, over the last few years, targeted Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants by seizing their houses and properties in the Valley, this is for the first time that their family members and relatives are being detained simultaneously in such large numbers.