Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)’s Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, a notorious Pakistan sponsored Islamic terrorist who waged war against the Indian state for decades, is married to a bureaucrat working for the Indian state.
It is surprising to know, in 2011, Bitta Karate, the terrorist responsible for the mass killings of Kashmiri Hindus in the valley in the 1990s, got married to Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officer Assabah Arjumand Khan.
Assabah Khan, who holds a MA degree in mass communication and journalism from the University of Kashmir in 1999, worked as an editor in the Agriculture University of Science and Technology till 2007. In 2009, Khan passed the Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) examination and subsequently was posted in the general administrative department. In the later years, Khan also did a course in Peace and Conflict Studies from Germany.
On the other hand, Farooq Ahmed Dar Dar was waging war against the country by mercilessly killing innocent civilians and the security personnel on the instructions of Pakistan. He was arrested in 1990 and charged with the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. However, he was set free after 17-years.
Bitta Karate, the butcher of Kashmiri Hindus, was once again arrested in 2008 during Amarnath land row agitation. He was released eight months later, only to be picked up again in 2019 on terror funding charges.
Apparently, Karate and his government officer wife met at a friend’s house in 2008. Farooq proposed to her five months later, and Assabah agreed after initial hesitation. The two decided to marry a year later, but Assabah’s family resisted it. The family did not want her to marry a terrorist, but KAS officer Assabah was in no mood to relent.
Finally, after much drama, Assabah’s parents agreed.
Marrying Bitta Karate was an honour for me, says KAS officer Assabah Khan
In an interview, a close aide of Karate had revealed that many youths were at the forefront of the ‘armed struggle’ aka terrorism in the early nineties, and they were most sought after men for marriage in Kashmir.
“When the armed struggle was at a peak in the Valley in the early nineties, militants were the most sought after men. People used to accord them a warm welcome and give them all the respect,” said a close aide of Karate. The ‘armed struggle’ was terrorism targeted toward Kashmiri Hindus, backed by Pakistan and Pakistan sympathisers in India.
Shockingly, Assabah Khan, a government employee who ideally should have stood against terrorists like Karate, admired him as well. As per Khan, when they met, she had not qualified KAS.
“I cleared the exams later. Even if I had not been a KAS officer, I would have got married to him,” Khan said. However, Khan had cleared her KAS exams in 2009 and married the terrorist in 2011.
“Getting married to him (Karate) is an honour for me. When people around me came to know that I am tying a nuptial knot with a separatist, they showed a lot of concern initially, but I made them understand that there is nothing wrong in it,” added Khan, who married a dreaded terrorist after joining service in 2011.
As of December 2021, Publicity, 48-year Assabah Khan was serving as the Directorate of Rural Development, Kashmir.
