Suspected militant Danish Ahmed, seen at Sabzar Bhat's funeral, surrenders

Danish Ahmed, a suspected militant surrendered before the Handwara police on Wednesday. The young man is a third year student at the Doon PG College of Agriculture Science and Technology in Uttarakhand's Dehradun.

Ahmed had earlier been seen in video clips from Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Bhat’s funeral. In the clip, he was seen in all-black outfit, holding a grenade and shouting slogans.

Bhat, the successor to Hizbul commander Burhan Wani who was killed in 2016, was shot dead in a massive anti-terror operation on May 27. According to the police, Ahmed has revealed that he was in touch with terrorists of south Kashmir on social media and was instigated by them. Danish was suspected of having been involved in stone-pelting incidents at Handwara during the 2016 unrest.

He was earlier picked up by police but was let off after counselling in order to protect his career. As security agencies became convinced that Danish had joined the militancy, Handwara police and the 21 Rashtriya Rifles unit of the Indian Army got in touch with his parents and asked them to counsel their son and get him to surrender.

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Ahmed has reportedly told the police that terrorists in south Kashmir are mainly involved in extortion and looting. He also confirmed that money is freely flowing from Pakistan for funding of terror in Jammu and Kashmir.

He further said that local boys also join militancy in order to ‘make friends’ with the girls in the areas so that can be regarded as heroes. 

Danish told interrogators that he is not the only one to get disillusioned with the militancy so quickly. According to him, most local boys become disenchanted with the 'gun' after just a few days of joining the militancy. However, they are too afraid to surrender because they believe their lives are under threat from their commanders. 

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Jammu and Kashmir Police has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Danish and is considering rehabilitating him under the J&K Surrendered Militants Rehabilitation Policy.