Militants kill Valley’s Hired Gun Number 1

‘‘This was his den and he was the king. Now the militants have managed to kill him here. It will change everything,’’ said Parray’s uncle near his newly constructed mansion today, where hundreds of wailing women were gathered. ‘‘First they killed Javeed Shah (another counter-insurgent leader in north Kashmir) and now they have hit at the very heart. Militancy is back here and we have no doubt about it.’’

Parray had left his residence after lunch to attend the inaugural ceremony of a local cricket tournament along with five others — including his personal security guard — when his vehicle was ambushed just a few hundred metres from his house at around 3.30 pm.

‘‘We saw policemen standing in this lane. Nobody suspected anything,’’ says a villager living adjacent to the site of the ambush. ‘‘Then suddenly there was a grenade explosion and massive firing.’’ Eyewitnesses said the militants first fired at the tyre of the vehicle and then hurled a grenade. As the Gypsy slowed down, they jumped in front of it and fired straight at Parray sitting inside.

The surrendered militant had hardly a chance as can be seen from his vehicle, which is now covered in bullet holes and blood, while on the backseat lie pieces of a broken jaw.

‘‘When we reached Parray, he was already dead. They had fired hundreds of bullets at his chest. One of his men who had been injured told us they were trying to take his body along,’’ says Parray’s relative Manzoor Ahmad Dar.

A folk singer turned militant, Parray had surrendered in 1993, at the peak of militancy. However, what put him apart from other surrendered militants was that he did not go back to his old life but gathered a few dozen more surrendered militants to launch an outfit. A senior army officer posted in Ganderbal is believed to have helped him organise a private militia to halt the Hizbul Mujahideen.

As other agencies chipped in with weapons and finances, Parray named his outfit Ikhwan and launched a violent tirade against Hizbul men across north Kashmir.

Encouraged by the success of his group, Parray later jumped into politics and launched a political party—Awami League. He contested Assembly polls from his home constituency and won.

He is the second top counter-insurgent to have been gunned down recently. The first was his one-time colleague Javeed Shah.

It’s clear that the lull of recent months is over. The first targets are counter-insurgents and especially their leadership as the militants want to make sure the security agencies do not revive local resistance against them.

The revenge killings also put the doves within the separatist circles under additional pressure not to show any signs of reconciliation. Gun is back in the Valley, so is its politics.