{"id":286159,"date":"2018-04-06T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/?p=286159"},"modified":"2018-04-06T09:23:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T03:53:00","slug":"in-a-first-major-separatists-son-becomes-militant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/in-a-first-major-separatists-son-becomes-militant\/","title":{"rendered":"In a first, major separatist\u2019s son becomes militant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"junaid-join-terrorist-organisation-\"<\/a>On March 25, Junaid Ashraf Khan left home at Srinagar\u2019s Baghat area to attend the Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. Soon after, he went missing. A day later a picture of him brandishing a Kalashankov went viral on social media. Khan had joined militancy.<\/p>\n

But that was not why his picture had circulated online. Militancy had little to do with it. The picture had gone viral as Khan is the son of Mohammed Ashraf Sehrai, a top separatist leader and the newly appointed chief of the Tehreek-i-Hurriyat, succeeding Syed Ali Shah Geelani.<\/p>\n

It is for the first time in 30 years of the secessionist struggle in the Valley that the son of a major separatist has taken up the gun. Khan is an MBA and was unemployed for some time. According to the family, he had shown no signs that he was interested in militancy and that his decision had shocked them.<\/p>\n

Sehrai has since refused to speak on the issue. Sources in his party have said he will not appeal to his son to shun militancy and return. Earlier, J&K DGP S P Vaid had urged Sehrai to persuade his son and the other militants \u201cto give up the path of the gun\u201d.<\/p>\n

The development also occasioned a meeting of the separatist trio Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. However, their statement to the media was meaningfully silent about Khan. Instead, they blamed the government for resorting to \u201ca pointless militaristic approach\u201d to resolve the turmoil. \u201cHarassment of the youth, ill-treatment meted out to political prisoners, and iron-fisted policies of the state and Central governments has become a substitute to a political process for the resolution of the Kashmir issue,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The incident has triggered a raging debate in the Valley, with comments being posted on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp forwards. \u201cMilitants have a short span so don\u2019t take it as politics. No politician has sacrificed his son till date. It is because of sincerity and dedication for the cause,\u201d posted a user on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo achievement. We know the life span of militants is very short and also know that nothing gained by guns in past 30 years then why we glorifying his move? His life is valuable for his parents. I wish he will return (to) his home soon,\u201d posted another.<\/p>\n

A top Hurriyat leader\u2019s son joining the militancy has many implications for the prevailing troubled situation in the Valley and the separatist politics too. For one, it is certain to substantially raise the political clout of Sehrai, who is already billed to succeed Geelani as the chairman of the influential Hurriyat conglomerate called Hurriyat (G), nullifying the case of the other possible contenders. Hurriyat (G) has leaders like Shabir Shah and Masarat Alam Bhat who can also boast of a long separatist pedigree like Sehrai.<\/p>\n

But apart from its possible succession dimension, the development has brought home the troubling new phenomenon of growing fascination with the gun among the local youth, a fact which also came up for discussion in the security review meeting chaired by home secretary Rajiv Gauba in Srinagar. \u201cWe will provide full support to all of you in engaging youth in various development activities so that they are kept away from militancy,\u201d an official quoted Gauba as having told the meeting.<\/p>\n

Despite the killing of 218 militants last year and around 35 more since January, the trend of local youth taking up arms has shown little signs of ebbing. What is more, as Khan\u2019s example has shown \u2014 and earlier that of a PhD scholar from Aligarh Muslim University \u2014 even the youth who are highly educated and belong to insulated families are also taking the plunge.<\/p>\n

letters@tehelka.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 25, Junaid Ashraf Khan left home at Srinagar\u2019s Baghat area to attend the Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. Soon after, he went missing. A day later a picture of him brandishing a Kalashankov went viral on social media. Khan had joined militancy. But that was not why his picture had circulated online. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":286162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}