Srinagar: Farooq Ahmad Bhat alias Farooq Nalli who was killed among five militants in a gun battle in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Thursday (December 19) was a top commander of the proscribed Hizbul Mujahideen outfit and one of Jammu and Kashmir’s longest-surviving militants.
Born in 1981 in Chak Dassan village in Yaripora tehsil of Kulgam district, Bhat is believed to have entered the fold of militancy in 2015 when Kashmir was beginning to come out of a vicious cycle of street rage in the aftermath of the execution of the 2001 parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
According to official sources, Bhat hailed from a reputable family in Kulgam district, known for their successful apple business, and had completed his early education at government-run schools in Yaripora, passing Class 12 in 2002. One of Bhat’s brothers is a doctor.
“His family is well-educated and one of the richest in Kulgam. They have been unable to come to terms with his decision to join militancy,” a family source said.
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A police official said that Bhat, who ran a pharmacy store in Kulgam, went missing in 2015 allegedly after months of association with Altaf Ahmad Kachroo, one of the top Hizbul Mujahideen commanders at that time. “He was an OGW (overground worker) of Kachroo before joining the [Hizbul Mujahideen] outfit,” the official said.
As the Hizbul Mujahideen started losing its top commanders – from Burhan Wani and Riyaz Naikoo to Peer Saifullah – in a series of encounters with security forces post 2016 civilian unrest in Kashmir, and a sweeping crackdown was launched on militancy in the years after Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded and bifurcated into two Union Territories in 2019, Bhat remained evasive for security agencies.
At a time when the age of militants in Kashmir was calculated in weeks and months, Bhat survived for nearly ten years, making him one of the longest surviving militants. With a strong network of informers, he is alleged to have executed a series of targeted attacks in Jammu and Kashmir with deadly precision over the last ten years.
The police official quoted above said that Bhat’s role in a major militant attack cropped up in 2017 when a police constable was gunned down by a group of militants in Kulgam.
The major attacks allegedly executed by Bhat includes the 2019 grenade blast in Jammu in which two civilians were killed. According to a police chargesheet accessed by The Wire, the grenade used in the attack was arranged by Bhat. The slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander has also been accused of involvement in the 2022 killing of a sarpanch in Kulgam’s Adoora village.
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“He was responsible for planning and executing several attacks on security forces and civilians,” the official said.
As more and more attacks in Kashmir came to be linked to Bhat, his ‘wanted’ poster popped up at several locations of south Kashmir, including security installations but he continued to evade the long arm of law enforcement agencies. On at least two occasions in the past, security forces in Kashmir unofficially claimed to have gunned down Bhat in encounters with militants, only to retract the claim later.
However, with militancy in Kashmir suffering multiple blows in recent years following the Union government’s Article 370 move, and several networks of suspected militant sympathisers being dismantled by security agencies, Bhat must have found himself increasingly isolated.
As his peers continued to vanish around him, Bhat is believed to have taken charge of the Hizbul Mujahideen’s operations in Jammu and Kashmir in 2022 but it was not confirmed by police.
On Wednesday morning, following specific inputs, a team of army soldiers and police personnel laid a cordon around an orchard in Behibagh area of Kulgam where Bhat was gunned down after a brief firefight along with his four associates. Two army soldiers were also injured in the exchange of gunfire.
In recent years, the former Hizbul Mujahideen commander emerged as one of the most wanted militants for both Jammu and Kashmir Police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and his death will be counted as one of the major successes by security forces in the fight against militancy. The end of Bhat is also believed to have inflicted a massive blow on Hizbul Mujahideen’s activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The cards recovered from the possession of the militants. Photo: Special Arrangement
The other slain militants killed in the encounter have been identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Itoo, Mohammad Irfan, Adil Hussain and Yasir Javid Bhat. They were all residents of Kulgam district and were affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen.
While Itoo had joined the banned outfit on March 16, 2020, Irfan and Hussain followed on June 28, 2022 and August 3, 2023 respectively, according to the identity cards recovered from their possession. It was not immediately known when Yasir Javid Bhat had joined militancy.
Deputy inspector general of police (south Kashmir), Javid Iqbal Matto said that the two injured army soldiers are stable and they have been shifted to the Army’s 92 base hospital in Srinagar for treatment.
