In a fresh video message widely circulated through social media, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant Zakir Rashir Bhat aka Zakir Musa has asked the Kashmiri youth to snatch weapons from ‘security’ forces if they want to be a part of the militant outfit. Zakir, who is seen fiddling with a grenade in his hand in the video, tells youth that they are “welcome to come and join their ranks.”
“Many youth have taken to Jihad, have snatched the weapons and joined our ranks; those who want to join us should do the same; we will always welcome them,” says Zakir clad in military camouflage with some weapons on both his side at some unknown location. Making a surprising mention of Sikhs, Zakir says them many of them are “requesting” to join Hizb since they want to “take revenge from India of what it did in Punjab”.
“About for our oppressed Sikh brothers, over 12000 of whom were killed by General KPS Gill in operation Blue Star in Punjab, they too want to take revenge from India. We have received many requests from our Sikh brothers to let them join us. We are with them on every front. God willing, we will try and make an exclusive group for Sikhs,” says Zakir in the video. He also alleges in it that “India wanted to repeat the same (Punjab) in Kashmir”.
“As everybody knows, our Pandit brothers were forced to migrate from here so that the Muslims here would be easily killed. But by the grace of Allah, that did not happen,” he says.
In the video, Zakir is also seen requesting migrated Kashmiri Pandits to return to their homes. “Our Kashmiri Pandit brothers should return to their homes, we take responsibility of their safety, they should look at those Pandits who never left Kashmir and have not faced any problems here at all,” he says. The video message comes at a time when there have been multiple weapon snatching incidents being reported in the last many weeks in several areas of the valley; one occurring on Monday itself in which unknown persons snatched five weapons from cops in Anantnag’s Dooru village.
Reports suggest that the weapon snatchers managed their entry into the room of the tower station where weapons were kept. They took five and fled. The snatched weapons include 3 SLRs, one INSAS and a carbine.
Despite repeated attempts, IGP Kashmir SJM Gillani and DIG Anantnag Nitish Kumar could not be contacted on their personal phone numbers for comments. An official on duty at Kumar’s office said that he was traveling outside Kashmir.