‘We are all mujahideen,’ say villagers in South Kashmir a day after encounter leaves four dead

In the dead of night on Friday, a knock on Khurshid Ahmad Ganai’s door announced the arrival of two separatist gunmen seeking food and shelter. “I told them we had only girls in the home and it would be good if they could go somewhere else,” Ganai said. “But we let them in eventually. I couldn’t have said no after seeing the guns.”

A few hours later, before dawn, security forces closed in on the house, located in the midst of an orchard in Dialgam area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The ensuing encounter left the two militants and two civilians dead, Ganai’s home destroyed and a village seething with anger.

The men who demanding shelter in Ganai’s home were a Pakistani gunman and a Kashmiri militant, Bashir Ahmad Wani alias Lashkari, who had led an attack last month on a police patrol, killing six policemen. Their bodies were then mutilated.

But the circumstances of the encounter have left a trail of anger in the area. On Saturday night, militants arrived in the village to offer a gun salute to the “A++ category” militant who also carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh. On Sunday morning, thousands turned out for Wanit’s funeral of Wani in Soaf-Shali in Kokernag, waving Pakistan’s flag.

The encounter

Being left with no option but to let the militants into his home, Ganai said that he offered them food. The men intended to fast on Saturday. “We gave them Lipton tea and bread for sehri”, the pre-dawn meals during fasts, Ganai said. “They were supposed to leave but then there were soldiers everywhere.”

According to Dialgam residents, a cordon was laid in the wee hours of July 1. At around 5 am, announcements were made over the loudspeakers in the mosque informing villagers of an impending encounter, and urging them to come out in support of the militants.

Meanwhile at Ganai’s house, matter grew complicated. Ganai said that soldiers knocked at his door after dawn, demanding to be let in so that they could search the premises. “We told them to get the sarpanch or a mokhdam”, the traditional village heads, he said. “They came back with a neighbour and again demanded to enter the house. Then they left.”

Villagers said that there had been abrupt noises, much like firecrackers, after which the Ganai family, who had begun to exit the house rushed back inside and soldiers opened fire briefly. Ganai alleges that fire was exchanged between militants and security forces even as he and 16 other family members huddled inside a room in the house.

The army “did not let us out or let any civilian official approach the house”, Ganai said, adding that he had made repeated phone calls to a police officer asking him to evacuate the family from their home. “But he expressed his helplessness.”

However, the Jammu and Kashmir Police in a press statement on the encounter said that the militants took the civilians as hostages. “The hostages were rescued without any harm after meticulous efforts of the forces,” the statement said. “After the rescue, the operation to neutralise the terrorists was started. When the encounter was going on an unruly mob on the behest of terrorists and overground workers started stone pelting on the operating parties to disrupt the operation and help the terrorists escape.”

A witness from the village said that the protesters “were about six feet away from the house when the army opened fire. Soldiers were also very close.” As tensions rose, Ganai said, the soldiers yelled at them. “They told us we had five minutes to exit the building,” he said. Soon after that, eyewitnesses said, a loud explosion was heard. “It made the back part of the house collapse. After that they [the security forces] took only 10-20 minutes to end the encounter,” an eyewitness said.

Besides two separatists militants, the standoff left two civilians dead.

‘Target fire’

One of the dead civilians was 41-year-old Tahira Begum. When they heard about the encounter, residents of the nearest neighbourhood, a few hundred meters away, marched towards Ganai’s home. Tahira Begum’s brother-in-law Manzoor Ahmad Chopan, a resident of the neighbourhood, said that “about 100 men and boys, and 10-20 women were moving towards the site”.

Tahira Begum decided to join the crowd, Chopan said. As they reached the encounter site, he said, a confrontation broke out between protesters and soldiers. The soldiers “resorted to firing and she was hit by a bullet in her stomach and chest” he said.

The statement by the police said that Begum succumbed to injuries inflicted in a crossfire when “some terrorists outside a house opened fire on the joint search party which was retaliated”. The army, on the other hand, said that two civilians were killed in mob control and not crossfire.

Begum is survived by a husband and three children. Villagers estimate that Begum was killed at around 6 am and refute the police’s claim. “It was target fire,” Ganai alleged. He claimed that “the other boy, who was also killed, was targeted and fired at”.

Five others were injured in the action. Tariq Ahmad Chopan, a resident of Dehruna village, who was hit in the neck succumbed to his injuries at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Soura area of Srinagar, more than 65 kms away.

‘We are all Mujahideen’

On Sunday, the Kashmir valley witnessed a shutdown to protest the deaths of the two civilians. In Dialgam in the afternoon, dozens of people visited the encounter spot. Bricks were strewn on the grass around the destroyed home and villagers sat under the shade of walnut trees.

Inside the damaged structure, two women wailed over the destruction of their single-storeyed house: the six-rooms home had been reduced to collapsed rubble after the encounter. Villagers sought donations for the Ganai family to help them rebuild their home. The anger was palpable.

“Our kids pick up guns only because there is such oppression,” a man with greying beard said. “Had the people injured been shot in the legs, we would understand. But someone hit in the neck or the head or stomach is not aerial firing. That is targeting.”

A young man from the crowd rose to question the mainstream media’s apparent biases, especially the widespread use of the word “terrorists” instead of “militants”. The man, who did not want to be identified, said “We are all mujahideen here, we support them and Islam.” The crowd responded, “Zaroor.” Definitely.

Meanwhile security forces continue to hunt for militants. A cordon and search operation was conducted in Malangpora in Pulwama on Sunday night.