Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo said in a video released on Sunday that he will make policemen and mainstream politicians ‘migrate’ if the ransacking of militant’s houses and harassment of their families continues.The threat comes at a time when militants have already been targeting houses of main stream politicians andpolicemen in several parts of south Kashmir.
Naikoo can be heard delivering the threat in a video while holding a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) worker at gunpoint inside his house in Renzipora village of Awantipora.“Tell the people you are in contact with and the ones who order vandalising of our homes that Riyaz Naikoo had come (to your house).
Stop harassing our families or we will make you migrate in seven days,” Naikoo can be heard saying in the video which was widely circulated on social media.Though police said they were trying to ascertain the veracity of the video, guns are visible in the video pointed at the chest of PDP worker Hameed Bhat.
Naikoo can be heard saying further that this is the last warning for all mainstream political workers of PDP, NC and BJP, as well as policemen, bethey constables or SPs.“What have our families done? We have picked up the gun and the gun needs to be fought likewise, not by targeting families,” Naikoo says to Bhat.
In another video from Wachi Shopian,another PDP worker is held at gunpoint, with militants telling him that they would have killed him but are leaving him alive because of his daughter.“We can also harass your sisters and your daughters but we will not, for now.
Stop the vandalism in our homes or we will come again and it will be for the worse,” the militants can be heard telling the PDP worker, Fayaz Ahmad.
On October 17, late-night raids were carried out at houses of several militants in Turkwangam and Malik Gund villages of Shopian district. The families of the militants said that the government forces ransacked their house, beat them up, and arrested some family members.
Following this, a Hizb militant’s house in Seer village of Tral was vandalised allegedly by government forces.Since then, in an all-out retaliation, militants have also ransacked housesof mainstream politicians and policemen and have hurled grenades at houses of three political leaders in Tral and Wachi.
A senior police official from south Kashmir acknowledged that the ransacking is being done to avenge raids on militants’ houses.“I have not seen the videos but it is evident from the pattern of the attacks.
The attacks have come soon after their houses were targeted,” the official said, on condition of anonymity.
Director General of Police SP Vaid told Kashmir Reader that police have taken “cognisance” of the attacks by militants.“How can we know what they are thinking while the attacks are being carried out,” Vaid said. “We have taken due cognisance of the attacks, though.”
Sent from my iPhone