Is Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) pushing displaced Myanmar Muslim militants into the Kashmir Valley?
Security agencies are grappling with the identities of two JeM militants killed on Sunday at Harriparigam, a village in Awantipora, 30 km south of Srinagar. One of them was identified as Chota Burmi. Now, it is emerging that his real name is Abdul Rehman-al-Arkani, a possible member of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Arakan, a militant group operating in Myanmar.
After the encounter on Sunday, the security agencies identified them as foreign militants Adil Pathan and Chota Burmi, active in south Kashmir for over two years to revive the JeM. However, a diary found at the site — the contents of which were exclusively accessed by The Hindu — leaves their identities inconclusive.
Sources said investigations revealed that Pathan was from Rawlakot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Burmi from Multan in Pakistan. “We are still investigating if Burmi was from Multan,” an investigator said.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Maulana Masood Azhar’s JeM enjoy close ties in Pakistan. Islami was founded by Maulana Abdul Quddus, a Myanmar Muslim who fled to Pakistan in the 1980s, operating from Korangi in Karachi. The group used to work closely with Ilyas Kashmiri, head of al-Qaeda’s 313 Brigade, the sources said.
The police said the slain militants had recruited two locals from south Kashmir. But the police zeroed in on them and stopped them from joining the militant ranks. “The duo was involved in the abduction of two persons from Peernard village in 2014. They were involved in many unlawful activities directed by commanders based in Pakistan,” a police spokesman said. “They were also coordinating with the Hizbul Mujahideen and the JeM. They tried to create impediments to last year’s elections and planned attacks in minority areas,” he said.
However, sources said, the killing of Pathan was reported in a gunfight with the security forces at Aaripal, a village in Tral, in July 2014. The police had identified him as the Pakistan-born Adil Pathan alias Madni of the JeM. Even then Madni operated in coordination with Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Tral. The mystery over Pathan continues as the same militant cannot be shown as killed twice in police records. Sources said Pathan, in his thirties, was first active in north Kashmir between 2004 and 2005. He returned to PoK and then shifted base to south Kashmir in 2013 so as to create sleeper cells for the JeM, taking instructions from handlers across the border.
The two militants were buried in Tral on Monday, with hundreds of locals and many masked youths taking part in the funeral.
