Is Hizbul Mujahedeen holding its command council meeting in Srinagar on November? This is what a press statement attributed to the largest militant outfit in Kashmir says.
“It is to inform all of you that on November 21st of 2018 Hizbul Mujahdeen Jammu and Kashmir would be holding its command council meeting in Srinagar. This year the meeting will be presided over by our senior member from Shopian,” reads the letter issued under the name of Muhammad Bin Qasim, field operational commander of HM.
“We by the grace of God are challenging India and its stooges to stop us. The command council will hold deliberations on various issues and future course of action. Some of the minutes of the meeting will be made public after the successful completion of meeting”.
The statement published on Hizbul Mujahedeen letter pad with the outfit’s familiar logo printed on the top has gone viral on social media.
Only earlier example of the outfit holding a command council meeting in Srinagar was in late nineties where it had announced a ceasefire. The pictures of the meeting were later released to the media.
However, this time around holding such a meeting would be difficult considering the endemic reach of the security agencies in the capital city.
Senior security officials, however, play down the announcement, saying the outfit is doing it to score a propaganda point. “It will be impossible to hold such a meeting. We believe it will be a meeting only on the paper,” a senior police official said. “Or else, the outfit may have already held a meeting and now would release the statement and pictures on November 21”.
