Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar,May 6

Slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani’s famous group photo had 11 militants in it. Three years down the line, only one ultra from the group is alive, the rest have been neutralised.

Video pictures: Tribune file photo/Social media | Text: IshfaqTantry

With the killing of Hizb commander Saddam Padder, now only Anees, alias Lateef Tiger, survives and remains active from the infamous ‘Burhan gang’.

In a photograph that went viral on social media in June 2015, 11 local militants had posed along with arms and ammunition, with Burhan in the centre, to announce the birth of “new-age militancy” in Kashmir.

The killing of Burhan on July 7, 2016, in an encounter in the Kokernag area of south Kashmir plunged the Valley into months of unrest and saw an increasing number of local youth joining militancy. It was the image of Burhan surrounded by 10 armed aides that had caught the imagination of the local youth and also the attention of the security forces, setting off an unending cycle of violence in the Valley.

Hizb commander Saddam Padder, who was killed along with four other militants in a Shopian village on Sunday, had also posed in the picture along with Burhan. “Now only one militant remains alive from the group. He is Lateef Ahmad Dar, alias Lateef Tiger, and hails from Dogripora, Pulwama,” a police official said.

Sources in the police said Lateef was currently associated with Hizb commander Riyaz Naikaoo. Besides Lateef, there’s another man from the group, Tariq Pandit, who is alive. He had, however, renounced militancy after surrendering before the security forces, the sources added.

11-member group