Police or other security forces release the list of terrorists known to them to keep a lookout for. But what is the militant organization itself releases a list of their members?
After releasing the photos of the new recruits of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the militant organization has decided to release a compiled list of its members via social media.
This was done on Burhan Wani’s death anniversary to create an impression that a large number of Kashmiris were turning to militancy.
In an attempt to entice more people into their ranks, the Hizbul Mujahideen released the information. The Jammu Kashmir police are aware of the identities of the recruits. It’s not that they joined the outfit in the recent past. In fact, one of the police constables from Budgam included in the list was known to have enrolled into Hizbul nearly 4-5 months back.
Hizbul is obviously using the social media to show like everybody in Kashmir is alienated and joining militancy,” J&K police chief told the media on Monday. According to assessment by the central agencies, Hizbul Mujahideen is aiming to glamourize militancy by posting pictures of gun-wielding Kashmiri recruits, many of them with a good educational and family background, on the social media. “The pull of the social media among the Kashmiri youth is tremendous and Hizbul is using it to add appeal to militancy and boost manpower,” said an officer.
For Pakistan and ISI that have a vital role in shaping Hizbul’s strategy and moves in Kashmir, putting out faces of locals joining the outfit helps project the fight for Kashmir as an “indigenous struggle”. “By getting Hizbul to expose the identity of its Kashmiri recruits, Pakistan and ISI are only making them vulnerable to action by J&K police. Social media is used to motivate and recruit Kashmiri youth who are then projected as ‘trophies’ on social media, bringing them to notice of the police. Most of the new recruits, who are given nil or little training and also no weapons, are pushed to sure death as police go after them,” an officer pointed out.
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Politics then play out at their funerals, with Hizbul leadership evoking emotions to get more recruits for the outfit. “While the identity of local Kashmiri terror recruits is exposed on social media, putting their lives in peril, the foreign terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed who are adequately trained in and equipped by Pakistan, are secretly deployed and trusted with the real terror action in J&K,” said a home ministry official. The official cited the example of Burhan Wani, who had been part of Hizbul for some time before the outfit started projecting him as a social media hero in a bid to push up recruitment. “He was subsequently killed in an encounter. But even his death was milked by Hizbul to whip up passions and trigger a violent backlash in Kashmir,” said the officer.
Meanwhile, it is not just Kashmir police officials who have joined the ranks of Hizbul Mujahideen, but those in Assam as well.
Assamese policemen and their families could not believe that the brother of an IPS Officer posted in their midst had joined the terror group Hizbul Mujahideen.
Shamsul’s elder brother Inam Ul Mengnoo is a 2012 batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer now posted as a Commandant in the Assam police Commando Battalion at Mandakata, North Guwahati.
According to the information accompanying the photograph, Shamsul Haq Mengnoo joined the Hizbul Mujahideen on May 22, the day he went missing. He has been given the code name “Burhan Sani”.
Shamsul was pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Unani Medicine and Surgery from a government college at Zakura on the outskirts of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir when he went missing. He hails from Draggud village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
While police sources in Srinagar confirmed the information about Shamsul joining Hizbul as true, the administration hasn’t issued any official statement so far.
“Normally what happens here, people who join militancy make that announcement by circulating their photos brandishing guns on the social media, he has also done the same,” a police official told the media
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