Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): At a time when all major militant outfits have suffered setbacks due to intensified operations by security forces, a lesser-known Al-Badr outfit appears to be trying to stage a comeback years after it became extinct.
Six youths from Shopian and Pulwama in South Kashmir have announced joining the outfit with their gun-wielding pictures that have gone viral on social media.
Security officials in Shopian and Pulwama, who are aware of the development, prefer not to speak on the issue. “No comments,” is what all the officials concerned told NVI when referred to the matter.
The militant outfit ‘Al Badr’ was formed in June 1998. It lost hundreds of its men over the years and since the past almost a decade, the outfit remained off the scene till 2016, while Hizb, Jaish and Lashkar took the control of militants. And when these three militant outfits lost most of their men in this year’s intensified operations, Al-Badr resurfaced with new joinings.
The six youth who joined militant organization include Aasif Ahmad lone son of Gulam Mohammad Lone resident of Turkawangam, Shopian, Zubair Ahmad Nengroo son of Gulzar Ahmad Nengroo resident of Aloora, Shopian, Mehraj Ahmad Lone son of Bashir Ahmad Lone resident of Arigam Pulwama, Rafi Ahmad Bhat son of Ab Gani Bhat resident of Wadipora Nangbal Shopian, Suhail Ahmad son of Abdur Rasheed, resident of Muradpora, Shopian and Shoaib Ahmad Bhat son of Mohammad Shafi Bhat, resident of Chursoo, Awantipora, Pulwama.
It is pertinent to mention here that after the killing of Muzzafar Ahmad Naikoo, alias Muz Molvi, resident of Sopore area of North Kashmir on 6 January 2017, police had claimed that Muz Molvi was only surviving militant of Al- Badr and with his killing there is no militant associated with the organisation active in Valley.
However, after passage of about one-and-half year, many youths from South Kashmir joined this outfit that include Zeenat ul Islam from Sugan, Nawaz Ahmad Wagay from Reban, Shopian, Aijaz Ah Paul from Losedanew, Shopian, Tawseef Ahmad Wani from Nowpora, Pulwama and Sameer Ahmad Seh from Sugan, Shopian, all of whom were killed in different encounters.
Details available with the NVI suggest that Sameer Ah Seh was the last among militants from the organization who was killed in July last year. Among the new recruited youths, Aasif from Turkawangam and Muzaffar from Arigam went missing in first week of July, Zubair from Aloora, Rafi from Wadipora, Suhail from Muradpora and Shoaib from Chersoo went missing in second week of July and all of them have announced that they have joined Al-Badr as evident with their gun-wielding pictures on the social media. Among them Shoaib from Chersoo is the lone son of Bhat family and his parents have repeatedly requested him to return back, however he has announced his joining a day before.
An official said that in 2017 it was Arjumand alias Burhan Musaib from Ratnipora, Pulwama who went to Pakistan to pursue B tech, but returned as a commander of Al-Badr and recruited many youths. However, there are no traces of him since the last two years and it is believed that he has returned back to Pakistan.
Police are investigating who is behind the new recruitment as in less than a month, six youth have joined Al-Badr. Al-Badr was banned by the Government of India under The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004. On 27 April, 2005 the State Department of the United States Government identified Al-Badr as a terrorist organisation in its list of 40 Foreign militant Organisations. Al-Badr is currently on the U.S. State Department list of Designated Foreign militant Organisations.
