B.Tech student turned terrorist joins mainstream after laying down arms

30 local terrorists have joined mainstream since January 1, 2020

The joint team of security forces late Monday night captured another local terrorist ‘alive‘ and persuaded him to lay down his arms to join the mainstream during an encounter.

The local terrorist identified as Saqib Akbar Waza, a resident of the Gulshanpora area of Tral, later turned out to be a student of civil engineering. He was affiliated with pro-Pakistan terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen and was reported missing since September 20.

According to a Jammu and Kashmir police spokesman, Saqib Akbar was lured into joining the terrorist outfit by one of his close friends. So far around 30 youth have surrendered this year, fourth in the last one month in Kashmir valley.

Significantly, in all these cases the local terrorists were persuaded by their parents to return to the mainstream with help from the security forces.

How fresh recruits were convinced to lay down their arms

Despite exchanging fire and maintaining a tight cordon at the encounter site the security forces always make an appeal to the hiding terrorists to lay down their arms. The attempts are made to pacify them so that their precious lives can be saved and they are brought back into the mainstream. In the case of local terrorists if their identities are revealed in advance the parents are roped in to visit the encounter site and make appeals to their loved ones.

In several cases, hardened terrorists even refuse to pay attention to passionate appeals and ignore the presence of their parents in the close vicinity of the encounter site. They end up getting eliminated in the ensuing exchange of fire.

How did security forces convince a B.Tech engineer to lay down his arms?

Late Monday evening, after one unidentified terrorist was killed in the gunfight repeated announcements were made by the security personnel to convince his accomplice to lay down his arms and join the mainstream. Trapped in a separate accommodation the second terrorist responded to the passionate appeals made by the security forces and his parents.

Akbar is the fourth recruit in this month to have surrendered during a gunfight in Kashmir.

Earlier, a young man in Chadoora was captured during a gunfight in which a terrorist managed to escape. Last week, two men surrendered during an exchange of fire at Tujjar village in Sopore. Both of them had joined militant ranks only last month.

Inspector-General of Police Kashmir Range, Vijay Kumar, said that Saqib Akbar Waza is pursuing B Tech in Punjab and had recently joined the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. Kumar also appealed to parents of recently recruited men to persuade their sons to surrender before the forces and shun the path of violence.

Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.