| Kashmiri scholar, who went missing during picnic outing, joins terrorist ranks | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 23: A Ph.D. scholar, who went missing from Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir last week, has joined the militant ranks, police said on Tuesday.
Hilal Ahmad, a resident of Bemina in Srinagar district, had gone missing on June 14 from Naranag (Wangat) area during a trekking and picnic outing, according to his family and friends.
Speaking to reporters, IGP, Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that Ahmad has joined the militant ranks.
During the picnic outing, Ahmad’s friends had proceeded to the Gangabal lake on the foot of the Harmukh mountain, however, he decided to stay and wait for them at Naranag.
Ahmad’s friends said that when they returned to Naranag, he was not there.
On Monday, Ahmad’s relatives held a protest in Srinagar seeking government’s help to trace the missing youth. Last week, Army said that as many as 49 youth joined various militant ranks this year out of which 27 have been killed in encounter.
“It doesn’t give us any pleasure to neutralise these young boys, but if anybody takes up arms and is causing harm to others, we will do what we are doing.
But to stop this whole process, a large number of steps are being taken,” General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, Lt Gen BS Raju had said during a press conference on Friday.
“We make fervent appeals to militants to surrender before the operations commence. We have had limited success on this front, but where we have been very successful, and I must compliment the security forces here, is our ability to prevent new recruitment as well as to identify those people who are on the cusp of recruitment,” he added.
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