In an alarming development in South Kashmir, security forces have raised grave security concerns regarding the increasing use of burqas by terrorists to execute terror activities and avert military operations, reports Times of India. Recently in Shopian, South Kashmir, terrorists, under the disguise of burqas, snatched a rifle from a policeman before killing him. According to the reports, more than a dozen such incidents have been reported in Kashmir in last one year where terrorists, disguised in a burqa ambushed the armed forces, thereby taking them off-guard and inflicting serious casualties.
In October 2015, two people were injured when a terrorist clad in burqa opened fire in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. In July 2017, 3 terrorists wearing burquas entered one of the branches of Jammu & Kashmir Bank and looted away Rs 5.20 lakh at gunpoint. This desperate bid to rob the bank also testified how hard the terrorists were hit by Prime Minister Modi’s demonetisation move.
Earlier this year, a similar incident had occurred in Tral where Mushtaq, a dreaded LeT terrorist, clad in a burqa, attempted to escape the jail but failed when the grenade thrown by him in the police station to help him escape ended up killing him. It was suspected that the women who had earlier come to meet him at the police station passed on the burqa to him which he was wearing.
The Times of India report further mentions one more incident which saw two terrorists wearing burqas to evade arrests. Earlier this year, during an operation to arrest Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists in Shopian district, the duo, later identified as Samir Wani and Firdaus Ahmed, were cornered by the security forces while trying to flee the village wearing burqas. In the operation, Wani’s sister sustained serious injuries while obstructing armed forces from carrying out their duty. The duo was finally gunned down later.
