12-year old killed while being used as human shield by LeT
Guwahati: A 12-year old boy was killed in Kashmir's Bandipora who was mercilessly used as a human shield by two terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Although the family members made several appeals to them to release him during a gunfight with security forces on Friday, they killed him.
The two LeT operatives from Pakistan were among the eight terrorists who were killed in four different operations across the valley in the last 24 hours.
According to police, Atif Mir, a student of the sixth standard was charred to death along with the two LeT terrorists.
A video which went viral on social media of a neighbour of the child's family was heard pleading on a loudspeaker. 70-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Dar has been seen on the video saying, "Is this the Jihad you claim to follow? It is not Jihad but Jaahiliyat (ignorance). Jihad doesn't allow to use any child as a shield."
Dar also appealed to the terrorists not to use any innocent children as their shield and said, "You have chosen the path of armed struggle yourself, so fight it on your own."
While the child's mother Atiqa helplessly went to the house where they were holed up at Hajin in Bandipora to beg the terrorists to spare her son, his aunt Sharifa Begum made an appeal on loudspeaker but the terrorists were not moved by emotional pleas of either of the women.
According to a police source, the two terrorists Ali Bhai and Hubaib Bhai forcibly taken shelter in the house of the two brothers Mohammad Shafi Mir and Abdul Hamid Mir on Thursday evening and even ate their foods. The security forces, however, cordoned off the house and evacuated the family along with two daughters and the terrorists took the little boy hostage and used him as a shield.
Bandipora SSP, Rahul Malik said that Ali Bhai wanted to forcibly marry one of the girls of the Mir family but the family didn't allow the terrorists to meet her but they were adamant to meet the girl and as a result held hostage Atif and his uncle Abdul Hamid. While Hamid managed to escape, Atif was used as a human shield.
Malik further informed that the family members had sent the girl to some other place and Ali wanted them to bring back the girl. The police received the input when this tussle was going inside the house.
The police official further informed that the security forces have adopted various methods to rescue the boy. The SSP also said that they made announcements through microphones and also used local Auqaf committees and family members for the release of hostages.
According to sources, Ali Bhai was also involved in many civilian killings and he had a trademark of keeping a long knife which police recovered from his possession.
Meanwhile, six terrorists were killed and seven jawans were injured in three other counter-insurgency operations in the last 24 hours.
On Thursday morning, terrorists fired at forces and took shelter inside an under-construction school building in Bandi Payeen village in Baramulla district.
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