Burhan’s death has infused a fresh lease of life into Kashmir’s azadi movement. In his native town Tral, there seems to be no end to people thronging his residence. A local journalist, Khalid Gul, told Outlook that mourners are coming in mini-buses, load-carriers, trucks, cars and motorcycles. They chant pro-freedom, pro-Burhan and anti-India slogans and many of them carry Pakistani flags. A large billboard erected outside Burhan’s house reads, ‘Burhan, the pride of the nation.’ Gul says that a group of four militants also appeared at Burhan’s grave on his ‘chaharum’ (fourth day of mourning) on July 12. “They offered gun salute to their fallen commander and later shouted pro-Pakistan slogans. All the four militants were guarded by the locals till they left,” he says. Last week, nearly a dozen gunmen had turned up at his funeral, which was attended by an estimated 2,00,000 people. It was the second biggest funeral for a militant in Kashmir after JKLF commander Ashfaq Majeed Wani. Around half a million people had joined the funeral of Wani in Srinagar in 1990. Contrast this with ex-CM Mufti Sayeed’s funeral in January this year. Only about 1,000 people, mostly bureaucrats, ministers and political leaders, had participated in that funeral.