Hizbul Mujahideen, one of the oldest militant outfits in Kashmir Valley, is in a visible leadership crisis after security forces gunned down its operational chief, Saifullah Mir, police said. Mir was killed on November 1 in a gunfight with security forces on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Mir, who was described by J&K police chief Dibagh Singh as the “number one commander of Hizb”, was a close associate of the outfit’s former commander Burhan Wani, a social media-savvy militant whose killing by security forces in July 2016 had sparked a months-long public unrest.
Mir, son of a government schoolteacher, joined the Hizb in 2014, but his family and friends came to know about his turn to militancy when a photograph showing him with an AK-47 went viral on social media. Mir worked under Wani and also appeared in a highly-circulated group photo with the former leader and other associates.
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He was more commonly referred to as Dr Saifullah, a titled he earned in his village where he was known as a “healthcare professional”. In reality, he was a diploma-holder in medical electronics from the Industrial Training Institute in Pulwama. He also had a degree from the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology in Srinagar.
In May this year, Mir was appointed as the new Hizb chief—five days after his predecessor Reyaz Naikoo was shot dead by the army in an encounter at his native village in South Kashmir. Unlike Naikoo, Mir kept a low profile.
Police and other security agencies operating in the Valley say there are three names for Hizb to choose its new operational chief— scholar-turned-militant Zubair Ahmed Wani, Ashraf Molvi and Farooq Ahmad Bhat.
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By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar
