On the evening of October 6, eight-year-old Wafiq Altaf Khan strolled with his father Special Police Officer Altaf Hussain Khan from their home in Hanjin, in Kashmir’s Kupwara district, to their cattle shed nearby to tend to the animals. After their chores were done, they headed back home.

Suddenly, a gunman confronted them. The man said nothing as he calmly opened fire on the two, recounted Altaf Khan. Bullets hit the policeman’s left hand “My son was right behind me,” Khan said. “I immediately pushed him away. He was crying and fell to the ground.”

The attacker opened fire twice more as he walked towards Khan, hitting him on his arm this time. “I fell to the ground and stayed there, pretending to be dead,” said Khan. “He came closer and opened two more volleys at my legs.”

Khan added: “He thought I was dead so he started moving away. Then, I could not bear the pain and screamed. But he had gone by then.”

As the gunfire died down, family members and neighbours rushed towards the shed. Altaf Khan was still conscious but his son lay motionless. “I tried to get up and pick him up but I couldn’t get up,” said Altaf Khan. “We saw that bullets had hit him in the head, there was blood.”

Altaf Hussain Khan. (Photo credit: Rayan Naqash).

Though Altaf Khan is still in hospital, he is out of danger. But his son, who is in the Intensive Care Unit of Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, has not regained consciousness. Doctors attending to him said that “foreign substances were still lodged in Wafiq’s skull and brain”.

Wafiq Khan has already undergone one surgery but is too weak for more procedures to be carried out.

“We cannot understand why someone would attack a child,” said the relative at the hospital. “Is the child’s only fault that his father is a policeman? How many children will they kill if it is a crime to be in the police?”

Altaf Khan has not been informed of his son’s condition. “Everyone keeps telling me he is fine,” he said. “I haven’t seen him since Friday. He is just a little boy. I don’t even know how he is.”

On Monday, police officials identified the attacker as Khalid, a commander of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad, who had been killed in a brief encounter with security forces in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district earlier that day. According to the police, Khalid’s real name is Shahid Showkat, and he is believed to be a Pakistani.

Wafiq Khan in hospital.

Attacks on security forces personnel

There have been several attacks on Kashmiri members of the security forces in the Valley over the last year. Late in September, militants attacked and killed a soldier of the paramilitary Border Security Force in Hajin area of Bandipora district. In May, a young Army officer on leave was abducted and killed by suspected militants in Shopian.

Altaf Khan, who is in his late 30s, said that he joined the police less than a year ago after struggling to make ends meet as a driver for several years. Contrary to his designation as a Special Police Officer, there is little special about his job. Khan’s salary is low but he is relieved to be earning a steady income.

“I joined the police so I could have a respectable job and also serve the people,” said Khan, whose legs and left arm are covered in bandages. “I was posted in the lines [District Police Lines] mostly. Sometimes I drove vehicles of the police. I wasn’t even posted on the streets. I was hoping to become a permanent employee so I can take good care of my family and my son can study in a good school.”

He added: The attacker “wasn’t even moved looking at my small child. If I find him, I will not spare him.”