Kashmir Abduction-Murders: Families Search For Answers

Shopian: On Thursday, when Manzoor Ahmad Bhat came to know that four armed men were looking for his 17-year-old son, he said he was “happy” and assumed that they would teach him a “lesson”. “My son was a drug addict. I thought they were looking for him to give him a warning (for taking drugs), which might force him to stop,” the 50-year-old baker in Shopian district’s Safanagri village said.

Bhat was wrong. His son Nadeem Manzoor was abducted from their village and later killed. There has been a spate of abductions since Thursday evening in south Kashmir. Eight youths were abducted, of which two were killed and others released.

The Hizbul Mujahideen has released multiple videos, claiming that the two slain youth were working for the Army. At their two-storey house in Safanagri, the Bhat family is in mourning. They said Nadeem used to take drugs, but now they have more reasons to be ashamed — in one of the videos released by the Hizbul, he admitted to informing the Army about the presence of militants in his village on November 6. Two militants were killed in the resultant encounter.

Manzoor said if his son was an informer he “deserved a much bigger punishment”. “But if he was innocent, it is between god and those who killed my son,” he told The Indian Express.

In Kulgam’s Manzgam village, the family of 19-year-old Huzaif Ashraf is looking for answers as to why their son was abducted and killed on Friday. While the militants released a video after killing Nadeem, there was no video on why Huzaif was killed.

Huzaif’s uncle Mohammed Amin Ganai said he suspects Huzaif’s being on “friendly terms” with Army personnel who would come to their bakery shop might be a reason why he was killed. Huzaif’s father Mohammed Ashraf said, “We have only seen a video on the Internet about my son’s body… No one knows why he was killed… I am waiting for the answers. Whoever killed my son at least should tell us why he was killed.” (The Indian express)