Thousands of people on Friday participated in the funeral prayers of slain militant commander Zakir Musa at his native Noorpora village of Tral in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Reports and witnesses said that thousands of people from various parts of Pulwama district reached Noorpora despite restrictions and rains to participate in the last rites of Musa who was killed by the security forces in a gunfight last night.

An official said that the gunfight broke out after a joint team of the army and the SOG launched a cordon-and-search operation in Dadsara village last evening amid intelligence reports about the presence of one of the Kashmir’s most wanted militant commander Zakir Musa.

He said that Musa turned down offer to surrender and fired UBGL grenades and opened fire which was retaliated leading to a gunfight.

The gunfight raged for several hours and ended early Friday, resulting in death of Musa.

Musa, who hailed from Noorpora area of Tral, first joined the Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit in 2013 and went on to become close aide of Hizb commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani. Both worked together to strengthen the outfit and within years the outfit rose to prominence, recruiting plenty of young and educated youth in their ranks.

After Wani’s killing in July 2016 Musa took over the command. However, he hit the headlines in the summer of 2017 when in a video message he declared fighting for caliphate and not for joining Pakistan or creating an independent state. He also threatened Hurriyat leadership of dire consequences who he thought were a hurdle in the establishment of caliphate.

However, his views were not endorsed by Hizb leadership following which he parted ways and formed his own outfit Ansar Ghazwat Ul Hind.

Musa came from a well off family. His father Abdul Rashid Bhat is a retired assistant executive engineer. His elder brother Shakir Rashid Bhat is an orthopedic surgeon and his sister Shaheena Rashid Bhat is a banker.

In 2012 he left for Chandigarh to pursue engineering at Ram Dev Jindal college but left it midway and instead joined militancy.