'People Attending Militants' Funerals Worrisome'

Over 35,000 people attended the funeral prayers of slain Lashkar-e-Toiba Kashmir head Abu Qasim in Bugam village of South Kashmir.

SRINAGAR: The participation of people in the funerals of slain militants and indulging of youth in stone pelting on security forces during encounters in the Valley has become a cause of concern for security agencies as they see it as a “disturbing” and “worrisome” trend. Of late, Kashmir has been seeing a massive turnout of people in the funeral of militants killed in encounters by security forces. Thousands even attend the funerals of foreign militants.

Over 35,000 people attended the funeral prayers of slain Lashkar-e-Toiba Kashmir head Abu Qasim in Bugam village of South Kashmir’s district after his killing in encounter last year.

In contrast, only few thousand people attended the funeral prayers of former CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at his hometown in Bijbehara in South Kashmir on January 7 this year.

“This trend is not confined to a particular area. In fact, we have seen this trend across the Valley. Whenever a militant (local or foreigner) in killed in a gunfight, the local population immediately approaches the police to claim the body and later large number of them attend their funeral prayers,” a security official said.

He said after analysing the situation, the security officials had decided not to hand over bodies of foreign militants killed in encounters to the local population. “There are apprehensions that large turnout of people in militant funerals may lure some youth to militancy,” a police officer said. Over 70 Kashmiri youth joined militant ranks last year, most of them hailing from South Kashmir. The security official said youth indulging in stone pelting on securitymen during encounters was also worrying them. “It is a new trend and now whenever an encounter takes place, local youth try to engage security personnel, who are engaged in gunfight with militants, in clashes by pelting stones at them. In a way, they are trying to divert attention of the security men from encounter to clashes,” he claimed.

In fact, when the encounter was going on in Pampore, the local population was chanting ‘anti-India’ slogans.

tension along border as pla enters territory

New Delhi: Indian and Chinese forces were locked in an “eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation when Chinese PLA troops entered almost 6 km into the Indian side near the scenic Pangong lake area earlier this week.Sources claimed that on March 8, a platoon of at least 11 PLA men led by a Colonel-rank officer crossed over the imaginary Line of Actual Control (LAC) at ‘Finger VIII’ Sirjap-I area close to the Pangong lake. The Chinese soldiers entered in four vehicles -- two light, one medium and one heavy-- from across the Thakung border post of India and reached 5.5 km deep into Indian territory.

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