A Lashkar commander who was killed in Sopore on Oct 21 was a forward-looking, selfless youth with a modern outlook. Some had advised him to try modeling. But it all changed with one incident when security forces knocked at his door. Bilal Handoo reports.
When a house in Sopore was surrounded by security forces on Oct 21, the trapped Lashkar commander, Muzammil Amin Dar, knew his end was near. With bullets lodged in his leg, he made a phone call to his parents and asked his father to repay the debt. ‘Don’t cry. This life is short. We will all meet in heaven, Inshaallah!’ The calm in his voice was followed by the dirge and wails of women present at his house that day. This was the last when Dar, alias Urfi, spoke to his parents. Minutes later, he was killed.
Once praised for a stylish outlook, many had advised Muzamil to try a career in modeling. But he told them he wanted to improve the financial state of his impoverished family. He loved books too. “Few years ago, he was like any other boy of the locality. He used to wear stylish clothes and follow trends like a model does. We insisted him to try a career in a modeling,” one of his relatives told Kashmir Life.
Today, there is an eerie silence at his house broken by the loud cries of his mother and relatives. It would be difficult to find out exactly how a fashion-conscious boy with a modern outlook turned inwards and found solace in an isolated life, “In 2010, two militants gave a bag to our mother. They promised to return to collect it. Unfortunately, the area was cordoned by army and police. My mother dropped the bag into a well but she was spotted by Army and police. They took Muzamil and locked him up for four days,” his brother, Mudasir Dar, a medical representative, told Kashmir Life. “After that, Muzamil was called to present himself at police station on a number of occasions. He was kept in extreme cold from morning to evening,” he said.
The family claims they were victimized by security forces after this incident. Muzamil’s father, Muhammad Amin, and other two brothers were allegedly picked by police for 13 days. While they were released without charges, Muzamil was detained under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA). He was accused of helping militants in lobbing hand grenade on 92 Bn, CRPF camp at Kapra Theater, Sopore and dubbed as a stone pelter. “His life changed drastically and there was a tremendous change in his outlook. He used to tell people to understand the message of Islam. He was a shy and peace loving boy who always believed that violence was not a solution to any problem. He believed that ‘free will’ was the right of every human,” Mudasir says.
After he was released from prison, Muzamil joined SMHS hospital in Srinagar as an assistant. For six months, he used to come to hospital daily. On Feb 28, 2012, all of a sudden, he disappeared. On the same day, three search operations were carried out by police at his residence. The then union home minister, P Chidambaram described him as the mastermind of a Delhi bomb blast during a press conference same day.
Since that day, his family didn’t hear anything from Muzamil, till he called from the encounter site. “He figured in various investigations of militancy related crimes and during one of such investigations, a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from his home in 2010,” a police statement reads. ”The claim of the family that foreign militants had by chance handed over arms cache to his mother while they had been chased by police or Army is far from truth.”
Police investigations suggest Muzamil had been working for Lashkar-e-Toiba since 2009 and has been providing all kinds of logistic support to Pakistani militant commander Abdullah Uni, who was killed in September 2011 in Sopore.
“Two boys of Sopore were arrested by Delhi police who had reportedly plotted to trigger bomb blasts in Delhi and Srinagar. During interrogation, they revealed that Muzamil was the mastermind of whole affair,” a senior police official said. The police launched a massive manhunt in Srinagar and Sopore to trace him. However, he continued to remain evasive for them, and for his family. On the day he was killed, he was in regular touch with his elder brother through Facebook. “He had never thought of becoming a militant. But, like many youth, he had strong views on Kashmir,” his brother Mudasir says.
Like many youth, Muzamil had to pay with his life, although, in different circumstances.
If this story is to be believed, then i must say that it is a sordid tale. It gives a fair idea of how brutal an invasion could be.