Militants abduct family members of Jammu and Kashmir policemen: Forces had little time to react to meticulous plan

Frisal, Kulgam: Aisha Begum was in her kitchen on Thursday evening when masked gunmen entered her single-storied house situated on the edge of the Kharpora locality in Frisal village of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. They caught hold of her son, Faizan-ul-Bashir Makroo, a BCA student, who was working on a laptop in another room. They ordered him to lead them to the house of his uncle, a Jammu and Kashmir Police constable. The mother-son duo had no choice but to comply. Faizan was abducted by militants and only let go 48 hours later. [caption id=“attachment_5095521” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Aisha Begum with her husband Mushtaq Ahamd Bhat. Militants had abducted the couple’s son earlier this week. Image: Sameer Yasir[/caption] Subsequently, Faizan’s father Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, said, “I am leaving this house along with my son and wife. I am thankful to the militants for having let my son go. I can’t stop my brother from doing his duty, but I don’t want them to knock on my door and abduct my son again.” Around the same time that Faizan was abducted, another group of militants barged into the house of Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, whose two sons work with the police, and took away his other son — Zubair Bhat, a Phd student who also teaches in a local government school. When the militants arrived in the courtyard of the Bhat family, they had their faces covered with handkerchiefs. Zubair’s younger brother Muhammad Tufail said, “One of the militants said that Zubair had been abducted…They asked us to make a video saying that our brothers are in the police, and upload it on social media. But we won’t do it.” In a video shot by militants, Zubair is seen making an appeal to the Director General of Police, and saying that the police should deal with militants, but not ransack their houses, or harass their families. He says in the video, “Today, they have let us go and pardoned us, but they might not do so tomorrow. We appeal to you (police) to stop harassing the families of militants.” A militant is seen asking him if he was beaten, in response to which he replies in the negative. In another incident, when armed militants appeared at the house of a policemen, his daughter informed them that he was away on duty. The cop hid behind the door of his bedroom, thinking that the militants came to abduct him. However, they took away his brother instead. At the house of Bashir Ahmad Bhat, an assistant sub-inspector in Wathoo village of Shopian district, dozens of relatives gathered to lend emotional support to his family. His son, Yasir, was among the people abducted by militants. When a relative came visiting, his mother suddenly got up on hearing the sound of the door opening, and screamed, “Have they let him go?” There was no answer to her question at that time. However, late on Friday evening, Yasir appeared at the front door of the house. His mother hugged him as if she were doing so for the first time. On Friday afternoon, security forces carried out searches in several villages in south Kashmir to trace the abducted persons. Army officials stopped vehicles and checked them minutely. But till the evening, there was no sign of the abducted people. [caption id=“attachment_5095531” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Muhammad Tufail (in pheran) whose brother Zubair Ahmad was abducted by militants earlier this week. Image: Sameer Yasir[/caption] “It is not difficult to keep a dozen people in hiding when a large proportion of the population seems to be on the side of the militants,” a senior police official said on Friday. In the 29 years of insurgency in Kashmir, never before have militants carried out such large-scale abductions in a single day. According to the police, the plan was meticulously executed. The security agencies did not even get time to react. Militants had abducted most relatives of policemen in three districts in south Kashmir, and in the span of one hour on Thursday evening. Families of people who had been abducted received several visitors who expressed solidarity. Although the family members were released on Friday evening, the incident has exposed the vulnerability of thousands of families of police personnel in Kashmir. Further, as authorities could not prevent the abductions from taking place, militants have been emboldened to repeat such actions. The manner in which militants carried out the abductions has terrified local people. Militants had never abducted family members of policemen earlier. “Our relatives are being abducted as if they were sheep or goats,” a police officer remarked.