Kashmir IPS Officer's Brother Missing Since May 26, Feared to Have Joined Militancy

Srinagar: Missing since May 26, the brother of an IPS officer in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, is suspected to have joined militant ranks.

Sources said Shamsul Haq Mengnoo, a resident of Draggud village in Srinagar, was pursuing Bachelors of Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS) from a government college in Zakura campus on the outskirts of Srinagar. He is the brother of an IPS officer, who belongs outside JK cadre.

Sources said Shamsul’s family had not reported his disappearance with the local police.

A police officer told News18 on condition of anonymity that preliminary investigation was being conducted into the case and they are waiting for Shamsul’s family to give a written report to formally begin a probe.

2018 may end up as the worst year in terms of number of youths joining various militant groups. In 2017, a total of 126 youths had picked up guns. It was the highest number since 2010, according to a recent data presented in the state assembly and Parliament.

There has been a steady rise in the number of youth taking up arms in the Valley since 2014 onwards as compared to 2010-2013 when figures stood at 54, 23, 21 and 6 in the respective years. In 2014, the number shot up to 53 and in 2015, it reached 66 before touching the highest mark of 88 in 2016, the data showed.

This year's recruitment of youth joining militancy includes Junaid Ashraf Sehrai, 26, an MBA degree holder from Kashmir University, and son of Mohammed Ashraf Sehrai, who took over as chairman of Tehrek-e-Hurriyat from Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Teherik-e-Hurriyat is a pro-Pakistan amalgam of separatists groups.

The list also includes a 26-year-old PhD scholar Mannan Bashir Wani hailing from Kupwara, officials said. Wani was studying in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

According to a report prepared by the Jammu and Kashmir CID, which has been shared with the Union Home Ministry, the past three years have witnessed a consistent rise in the number of active local militants even in the face of successful anti-militancy operations undertaken by the security forces.

"It therefore become imperative for the state to deconstruct why, while militants are being killed, militancy continues to rise," the report had said.

The report said the situation is such that terrorists encounters "have turned into a spectacle in the recent years with attacks on encounter sites by protesters followed by glamourised funerals."

"The entire phenomenon has had a tendency to create an emotionally charged environment which is ideal for recruiting fresh cadres," it said.

The report, while drawing a correlation between the militants killed in encounters and the new recruitment, said, "It has been found that encounters of local militants are part of a vicious circle that acts as a catalyst to push further recruitment."

"Large glorified funerals of militants have also been witnessing presence of active militants who give gun salutes to their killed associate.

"The presence of militants in these funerals not only eulogises the deaths of militants but at the same time brings the active militants into open interaction with civilians," the report said, warning that such an interaction was one of the important steps in facilitating recruitment.

(With PTI inputs)