Riyaz Naikoo, Kashmir rebel commander killed
Riyaz Naikoo, senior commander Hizbul Mujahideen, a biggest separatist group fighting New Delhi in the disputed Himalayan region has been killed by Indian troops.
Naikoo was killed along with three other members of the group who were hiding in a village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Indian soldiers and police on Saturday launched an operation after they received intelligence about the group hiding in the Awantipora area in southern Kashmir.
Two civilian homes were blasted with explosives by the troops. They also dig up several latches of land using earth movers trying to find any possible underground hideouts.
Speaking of the encounter between the forces and the members of the group, Vijay Kumar, Kashmir’s inspector general of police said, “He was trapped in a house and early today a gun battle took place during which he and his associate were killed.”
Riyaz Naikoo was a mathematics teacher before he joined the separatists group in 2012 two years after troops killed about 100 people in a restive summer with so much protest and violence. He used to be aid to Burhan Wani, the commander of the group who was killed in 2016.
Speaking about Naikoo’s killing, Dibyesh Anand who teaches international relations at the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom said, “What’s likely to happen is more frustration, more anger, more anxiety that ordinary Kashmiri population would have.”
“The main intention of [India’s] Hindu nationalist government is not only to completely occupy Kashmir, but also to erase any form of resistance that Kashmiris have,” added Anand.
