A 14-year-old boy who recently joined militant ranks was killed along with 11 other freedom fighters in separate gunfights in Indian-administered Kashmir during the last 72 hours, regional police said on Sunday.
Faisal Bashir, the teenage freedom fighter, was said to be associated with the Al-Badr militant group. He was killed along with two other freedom fighters in an overnight gunfight in south Kashmir’s Hadipora village.
Police in a statement said they made “sincere efforts” to make him surrender, and his family was also called on the encounter site to persuade him, but “his associates did not allow him to come out.”
According to sources, Bashir was his parents’ only son along with four daughters. He studied in class 10, and went missing three days ago.
Meanwhile, two freedom fighters were killed in the early hours of the day in Bijbehara area of south Kashmir.
On April 9, seven freedom fighters including Imtiyaz Ahmad Shah, a top commander of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind were killed in south Kashmir’s Shopain and Pulwama districts.
At least 36 freedom fighters have been killed in the restive region in 2021 so far, according to the police.
The president of Pakistan-administered Kashmir has condemned the police “encounters,” saying the “cold-blooded” killing of “youths” is the worst example of terrorism.
In a statement, Sardar Masood Khan urged the international community, particularly the UN, five permanent members of UN Security Council, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to call upon India to immediately stop the killing of defenseless Kashmiris.
Relations between India and Pakistan plummeted to a new low following the former’s scrapping of the longstanding special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
The two neighbors, however, last month agreed to honor the 2003 cease-fire along the Line of Control – a de facto border that divides the picturesque Himalayan valley between the two countries, followed by an exchange of letters between the two premiers and unconfirmed reports of “backdoor” contacts to stem the escalating tensions.
Islamabad, nonetheless, has reiterated that normalization of ties with New Delhi is linked to review of the Aug. 5 decision, and ultimate resolution of the Kashmir dispute.