Accused of being informer, Gulzar Ahmad Bhat killed by militants, becomes latest victim of rumours in Kashmir

Muran, Kashmir: On Sunday, Gulzar Ahmad Bhat left his home in Muran village, a small brick-walled hamlet amidst dense apple orchards on the edge of Pulwama district, to catch up with his friends after spending a week at his cousin’s drug store in the Bijbehara area, where he worked as a pharmacist. After having tea, Gulzar, 23, told his father at around 4.30 pm that he was going to meet friends at a nearby ground, a popular hangout point for village boys who play cricket there. “I told him to return early in the evening,” said Abdul Gani Bhat, 75, who would make rounds of the orchards a few years ago and collect apples that were unfit for export. He then sold them in the local market. The pharmacy kept Gulzar busy and he would hardly come home, but this week, on the insistence of his mother, he had returned to spend two days with the family. Muran and its adjoining villages have seen a massive spurt in new age militancy which remains extremely popular among local youths. While the security forces pay their sources for information that leads to militants, the militants don’t do that. Their ‘eyes and ears’ are present in every village of the Valley’s troubled south. As Gulzar embarked on what would be the last walk of his life, suspected militants appeared few hundred meters from his house and forcibly took him to a nearby apple orchard, a police officer in Pulwama said. [caption id=“attachment_4955111” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Gulzar Ahmad Bhat’s funeral procession. Firstpost/Sameer Yasir[/caption] “At 9.30 pm, bullets rang out, but no one dared to open their doors to check what had happened. On Sunday, morning Gulzar’s bullet-riddled body was found at the edge of a road, just outside an orchard,” the officer said. In whispers, villagers say there is a rumour that Gulzar was working for the forces as an informer, but security officials said that he had nothing to do with them and they hardly visited his village. “We searched for him in the evening but no had any clue till someone came running and said Gulzar’s body had been found,” his father said. In Kashmir, the abduction and brutal murder of civilians at the hands of suspected militants has witnessed a steep rise in recent months. Gulzar was among the two dozen civilians killed this year. In many cases, the abductors appear in the house, kidnap the person, make a video and then his body is discovered the next day. That is not all. Seven security forces personnel, including the most recent — policeman Mohammad Saleem Shah — have been killed after being abducted and forced to make a confessional video. In many cases, the militants shoot videos of the abducted men who are asked to confess their role in getting militants killed at the hands of security forces. In some rare cases, the abducted men were also returned to their families unharmed. On Tuesday last week, Arif Ahmad Sofi was abducted by militants along along with another youth Mehraj Ahmed Dar of Hawoora village in Kulgam district, the epicentre of the new insurgency. Both were released after being heavily tortured. They were was rushed to the hospital where Arif succumbed. Ironically, he was apparently killed by the same militants with whom he worked as an over-ground worker in 2015. Police sources said he worked for Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Abu Qasim before he was killed in a gun battle at Bugam village in Kulgam district in October 2015. “If they had have fired at his legs and disabled him for life, I would not have minded. But what purpose does killing a man serve when there is a large family for him to support?” Imtiyaz Ahmad Sofi, Arif’s cousin said. These acts of extreme brutality, including beheadings, have been occurring with some regularity in Kashmir now. According to a Union home ministry report, civilian deaths in Jammu and Kashmir rose by 167 percent this year as compared to 2015. While security forces have been blamed for most of these killings, militants have also taken revenge on people who are accused of working as informers for the state. These incident also terrorise locals. Shah, the policeman’s killing, shook the village but no one turned to mourn his killing at his house, fearing militants. Police in Pulwama said the initial investigation point out towards the involvement of Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Gulzar’s killing. “They have been identified and a manhunt has been launched to nab them,” the police officer said.

But no militant outfit has so far claimed responsibility for Gulzar’s killing.

In July, unidentified gunmen abducted Tariq Ahmad from his house in Heff village of Shopian and his body bearing torture marks was discovered in Awneera village of Kulgam the next day. Shockingly, five days after his body was found, a group of militants appeared at his grave and said he was a “martyr”. Locals sources said the militants ordered his body be exhumed and buried next to the grave of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Saddam Paddar in the martyrs’ graveyard. No one asked a question. Militants gave orders and people followed. Sources said Tariq, a carpenter, was killed by militants on suspicion of being an informer. The allegation however turned out be false, but only after he was killed. His grave, next to Saddam’s, stands testimony to how even a rumour can get people killed in Kashmir. And once he was killed, how easy it is to change labels and declare ‘traitors’ as ‘martyrs’. “He is gone forever and we will never get to see him again. Would shifting his resting place from a normal graveyard to the martyrs’ graveyard change anything? How will it fill the hole in our hearts,” his sister Zainab said.