It was past 6.30 a.m. on Sunday, April 1. Repeated ringing of a mobile phone in the house of Ghulam Nabi Lone, a farmer, at Hillow village in the Valley’s idyllic apple bowl Shopian broke the morning silence. The low-pitched voice of Mr. Lone’s trapped militant-son, Sameer Lone, woke up his siblings and parents to bid goodbye one last time.
The three coordinated operations in south Kashmir, which left 13 local militants dead in one day, are over, but have left in their wake rare audio conversations between the trapped militants and their family members.
The four calls made from twin encounter sites in Shopian and Anantnag have taken cyberspace by storm in the Valley, posing a new challenge to the security apparatus. The police’s counter-insurgency cell described the last phone calls of four Hizbul Mujahideen militants, of the 13 trapped and killed on April 1, “as a dangerous trend with far-reaching ramifications”.
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‘Most circulated files’
These audio clips, the police said, remained the “most circulated” and “downloaded media files” in the past six days on all social media platforms, including YouTube and Facebook, with over 10,000 views.
“He told me, ‘We are fighting since 2.30 a.m. We are trapped. Please forgive me for any wrong I may have committed. Do I owe money to anyone? Please repay the one whom I owe,’” Sameer’s father recalled the last conversation.
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Sameer was among five local militants, all from different parts of Shopian, who died in the encounter, which also left three soldiers dead, at Kachdoora.
The father of Sameer’s militant companion Aetimad Fayaz, a resident of Amshipora, is asking people to greet him with congratulatory message than condolences. Fayaz Ahmad Malik, a rich apple farmer, says his son fulfilled the advice made in the last conversation: “He took the bullet on the chest.”
The conversation Aetimad, 26, an M.Phil. in Urdu from Hyderabad Central University, had with his father is the widely shared audio clip, as the father tells his trapped son “surrender is not an option now”.
“When he joined militancy in November last year, I asked him to rethink about the path he chose. However, my son said he would return if I promised him he would never face the reality of death. I could not convince him,” said Mr. Malik., who recalls him as a voracious reader of Islamic literature and books on Pakistan.
The father sought only a pledge from his dying son: “Do help me hereafter. To which he replied, ‘I will be next to him in the heavens.’”
According to the police, militants making phone calls picked up as a trend with the growing penetration of smart phones.
“However, the conversations recorded on Sunday is a dangerous pointer. It shows how dying is being glorified by the parents themselves and the family support lent to trapped militants,” said a senior police officer.
The conversations have also taken thinkers, writers and the civil society members in the valley by surprise too, who are trying to grasp the situation. “When I hear the audio of the last moment conversation between a father and the son, I wonder whether we are becoming incredibly brave? Are we adding new meaning to the word ‘courage’ or it reflects our deep sense of despondency? Whatever the answer be, I fear we are at the brink of losing one more generation though not physically but yes emotionally and psychologically,” said Dr. Mairaj. M. Akram, an associate professor at Islamia College Of Science and Commerce, Srinagar. “We must have to act and act quickly, and responsibly. As I sense, the time is not on our side, definitely not,” Dr. Akram added.