Hizb note on murdered Kashmir man’s body: ‘We have taken our revenge’

A man accused of informing the government forces about the presence of insurgents has been murdered in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shupain district. The throat-slit body of Ajaz Ahmed Lone was found in a playing field in Wathoo village of the volatile south Kashmir district this morning.

Sources told Kashmir Dispatch that Lone head left his house in Gatipora village of the district, some 60 kilometres from the summer capital Srinagar, late in the night on Tuesday and didn’t return. “He left his house at 10 pm and told the family that he had some impending work in his family-owned field,” the sources, close to Lones, said.

Highly placed sources told Kashmir Dispatch that a note- apparently left by the insurgents was found on his body along with a cell phone. The note in Urdu, a picture of which is with the Kashmir Dispatch, reads: “Revenge for Shaheed Zahid Bhai, Shaheed Irfan Bhai and Asif Bhai.”

The note further read: “By the grace of Allah we have begun to take revenge. And we warn everyone that they must repent otherwise they will face the same consequences.”

The note under the banner of ZIA squad claimed: “We have information about all the informers of army and police and this must be seen as a final warning.”

Hizb ul Mujahideen insurgents Zahid Mir of Ganowpora, Asif Ahmad Pal of Kathokalan and Irfan Abdullah Ganai of Heff village of Shupain were killed in a gunfight in Gatipora on October 9. “Zahid and Asif belonged to Hizb while Irfan was affiliated with LeT,” a police official had said.

Lone, who was a teacher at Kathalan middle school, lived in the vicinity of the encounter site in Gatipora.

Police in the district however maintained that Lone was an over ground worker of the insurgents and was killed owing infighting among insurgent groups.

Video footage from the October 9 gunfight shows the slain government teacher moving with troopers near the encounter site. In a video report by the Rising Kashmir, Lone is seen moving out from the gunfight site as a trooper from the Special Operations Group goaded him.