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BFF-18
INDIA-KASHMIR-PAKISTAN-QAEDA-UNREST
Top militant linked to Al-Qaeda killed in Indian Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India, May 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Government forces in Indian-
administered Kashmir killed a top militant who pledged allegiance to Al-
Qaeda, officials said, describing his death as a major blow to militancy in
the disputed territory.
As the news of Zakir Musa’s death spread Thursday night hundreds of
protestors spilled out on the streets and clashed with government forces in
many areas, including in the main city of Srinagar.
Authorities cut cellular internet services across the Kashmir valley and
imposed a curfew in large parts of the territory to stop the protests
spreading.
Musa, 25, was trapped alone late Thursday evening by soldiers and
counterinsurgency police inside a hideout near the southern town of Tral and
asked to surrender, a top police official told AFP.
“In return he fired a grenade followed by bullets and was later killed
during the ensuing gun battle,” the officer said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
Musa announced in 2017 the creation of his group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and
declared his allegiance to Al-Qaeda, saying in a statement that he was
fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Kashmir.
Musa dropped out of his engineering course in 2013 to join Kashmir’s
largest militant group Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) fighting Indian rule and later
became a part of a group led by charismatic militant Burhan Wani.
Wani’s group deftly used social media to recruit young men into militancy
by revealing their faces and openly challenged Indian rule.
The death of the popular militant leader in 2016 sparked wide-scale
protests across the territory that lasted months and left more than 100
civilians dead and thousands injured.
Musa later took Wani’s place, but in 2017 broke away from the group to form
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, which officials say was an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in
Kashmir.
It threatened separatist leaders opposed to Indian rule if they came in his
way of fighting for a caliphate.
HM, whose top leaders are based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, later
dissociated with Musa, most of whose associates have since been killed by
government forces.
“Musa was left with just one or two associates,” the police officer said.
Rebel groups including HM have been fighting for decades some 500,000
Indian soldiers deployed in the territory New Delhi controls, seeking
independence or a merger with Pakistan that administers a part of the divided
former kingdom.
Kashmir has been divided between the nuclear-armed rivals since the end of
British colonial rule in 1947.
New Delhi regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting anti-India rebels
fighting in Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies saying it only provides moral
and diplomatic support to a Kashmiri struggle for the right to self-
determination.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1221 hrs