Fresh Video From Poster Boy of 'New Militancy' in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Under fire for killing a ‘pious' Muslim cop in south Kashmir's Anantnag town last week, Burhan Wani, the poster boy of 'new militancy' in the Valley, has defended the attack in a fresh video which appeared on social media yesterday.

The video shows Burhan, a teenage student who dropped out of school in 2010 after alleged harassment by forces and joined the Pakistan based militant outfit, Hizbul Mujahideen, making a fervent appeal to the J&K Police to stay away from carrying out operations against militants.

"India wants to pit one Kashmiri against another. This has been the strategy of occupational forces and they are equally happy if your (police's) men perish. But we are all brothers. I urge you to join hands with us to get rid of Indian forces from Kashmir," Burhan, who is the divisional commander of Hizb, says in the video.

A senior Jammu and Kashmir police officer said the cyber cell of the force has been alerted and they are investigating the video, "We are trying to track down the IP address from which the video has been uploaded. We are hopeful of a breakthrough," the officer said.

The 6 minute, 17 second video, which is second of its kind, starts with Burhan expressing gratitude to the people of Kashmir, especially youth, for their support to ‘Kashmir's freedom struggle’.

More than 70 youths, mostly from south Kashmir areas, who have joined militancy over the last two years depend on local support for survival, according to police sources.

“I had warned police to stay away from anti-freedom movement activities, but they didn’t heed our warning. They are forcing us to attack them. Now we will not warn them anymore. I ask them not to harass youth, not to set up barricades and stay inside their camps,” Burhan says in an emphatic voice.

KK Sharma, Director General, BSF, said last week there are intelligence reports that militants have plans to attack the forthcoming Amarnath Yatra, "but we have made adequate arrangements to ensure an incident free Yatra this year also,” he said.

Rejecting the claims of the BSF chief, the Hizb commander says militants have no plan to attack Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir. “We have no intention of attacking the pilgrims since they come here to fulfil their religious obligations," he says in the video.

Burhan, however, said his group will target Sainik Colonies and Pandit townships if the government allows such settlements to come up in the state. “If Sainik Colony or separate colonies on Israel pattern are created in Kashmir, we will target them. Pandits can come here and live in their respective places,” Burhan says.

Hitting out at the media for portraying his group members as 'terrorists', Burhan says that the armed forces, which have 'unleashed a reign of terror' in Kashmir, are 'real terrorists.

“Last week, they killed five of our brothers in Kupwara and then banned the mobile internet so that the news doesn't go out. We are not terrorists but it is the Army men who are real terrorists,” he says.