Srinagar
Videos have gone viral on social networking sites showing Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen militants warning PDP workers of dire consequences if forces “don’t stop ransacking our houses and harassing our families.”
In the video, militants are heard telling a PDP worker, “You tell Mehbooba (Mufti) to stop ransacking our houses and we will stop ransacking yours.”
Meanwhile the worker at the gunpoint says, “The PDP is getting the homes of the militants ransacked to crush the freedom movement.”
“Why do you harass our sisters? We can also harass your sister but we will not. We are sparing your life because of your daughter. Stop ransacking our homes or we will come again and shoot you dead,” the militants are heard telling the PDP worker.
In another video, Hizb commander Riyaz Naikoo is heard threatening a PDP worker at his house in Awantipora area of Pulwama district in southern part of Kashmir.
“This is your first and last warning. Tell your bosses who order the ransacking of our homes that Riyaz Naikoo was here. Tell them, we can also ransack your houses,” Naikoo is heard telling the PDP worker at gunpoint in the video.
He also warns workers of PDP, NC and BJP, as well as policemen, “from SPOs to SPs” that he will force them to “migrate” if the ransacking of militants’ houses will continue.
“Your war is against us. We have picked up gun against gun. What have our families done? You have children. What have your children done?” Naikoo is heard saying.
“We are neither afraid of the Indian law nor the Indian power. Our hands are tied because of Islam. So if the ransacking happens again, we will make you migrate within seven days,” he says.
Militants have hurled grenades and vandalized the houses of PDP leaders and workers in southern Kashmir in apparent retaliation after the houses of some militants were allegedly ransacked and their families beaten and harassed by forces during raids in last week. A National Conference leader whose house was attacked in Tral area on Sunday said the militants were “reacting” to the ransacking of a local militant’s house in the area some days ago. Unidentified gunmen also shot dead a woman and non-local vendor in south Kashmir on Sunday.
Reports said parts of Tral area on Monday observed a complete shutdown against the alleged thrashing of a Hizb militant’s family by army last night in Wagad hamlet of Aripal.
