Swelling herds of the long-haired Pakistani militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba have recaptured a vast fruit belt in Shopian-Kulgam area of south Kashmir and inspite of scores of Police, military and paramilitary camps all around they have been enjoying a field day---lifting civilians, slaughtering them in public view and roaming about, all in broad daylight.

This is how a 17-year-old poor student was picked up and slaughtered like a lamb on July 17th: Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh S/o Ghulam Hassan Sheikh was playing cricket with friends and neighbours at a playfield in his village of Chak Kachhdora. A group of four to five gun-totting militants appeared at the playfield at 1330 hours and kidnapped Sheikh. In broad daylight, he was taken to Vehil Nowgam, about 2 km from his village. On the premises of the village mosque, Sheikh was positioned like a sacrificial goat and brutally slaughtered with a sharp butcher's knife in full view of men, women and children. His severed head was dropped yards away in front of a house at which security forces had killed a couple of Lashkar militants three months ago in a fierce gunbattle.

Residents--- none of them willing to reveal identification---believe that Sheikh was done to death for the militants suspected him to be the man who had tipped off Army about the presence of militants. They maintain that they knew nothing about Sheikh who belonged to a different village. "Some women beseeched the militants to grant clemency to the youth but they did not listen to anybody. It was a horrible site as everybody ran away in panic", described a resident. Those living in Chak Kachhdora are equally terrorised. They revealed that Sheikh belonged to a poor family. "We believe he never became an informer (of security forces). Yes, once he was arrested by Police in a theft case".

SP Pulwama Nitish Kumar insists that Sheikh had never worked as an informer with Police or security forces. "He was a school drop out who had resumed his studies and was in Class 11th at Government Boys Higher Secondary School Kapran. The operation at Vehil Nowgam was jointly conducted by Army and STF and Sheikh was not the source", says the district Police chief. His head of operations Imtiyaz Hussain Mir sounds confident that Sheikh's killers would be got identified and taken to justice "very soon". According to him, Sheeraz Ahmed Chopan, killed in an encounter at Braripora on Wednesday alongwith another militant, had been identified by the local people as one of Sheikh's killers.

Mir revealed that a butcher's knife, recovered from Bashir Ahmed Bhat of Vehil Nowgam---a Lashkar militant killed in another encounter at Chak Amshipora, was believed to be the weapon used to slaughter Sheikh. "It had stains of fresh blood. We are sending it as also the student's clothes to Forensic Science Laboratory for certain forensic tests".

Even as Police insists, on the basis of eyewitness accounts, that the throat-cutters sporting unkempt long hairs and Islamic beards were the Pakistani cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba, none of the militant organisations has claimed responsibility of the student's broad daylight slaying in public. Reports from south Kashmir said that the brutal slaughtering of the 17-year-old student has spread shockwaves in a vast orchard belt of Kulgam-Shopian. It has reportedly evoked massive condemnation but none has mustered courage to register it on the streets.

Meanwhile, killing of two Jammu & Kashmir Police constables in point blank range at Hazratbal and Soura on Wednesday has also evoked remarkable condemnation in Srinagar outskirts. Shopkeepers in Soura observed a total shutdown today to register their condemnation of the killing of a Constable at Sabzi Mandi. The junior Policeman was a resident of Tangmarg area.

Jaish-e-Mohammad spokesman Abu Qudama today told the Srinagar-based news agencies that the militants of his organisation had shot dead the two Police personnel at Hazratbal and Soura on Wednesday last and left yet another wounded in a shootout near Biscoe School at Lalchowk. He claimed that the victims of the Jaish strike were associated with Special Operations Group of J&K Police. Officials as well as the bereaved family members maintained that the ill-fated personnel had never associated themselves with any counter-insurgent organisation. They asserted that the militants had made a "totally false claim" to justify their strikes on the innocent Policemen.

Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman Junaidul Islam has, meanwhile, claimed that it were the militants of his organisation who had shot dead a shopkeeper, namely Abdur Rasheed Sheikh of Trikanjan Uri, at Palhalan, Pattan, the other day. He claimed that Sheikh was actually an informer of Army who had been planted by a Major in the disguise of a shopkeeper at Palhalan. He claimed that Sheikh had been responsible for getting three of Hizbul Mujahideen militants killed and an identity card, signed by a Major, had been recovered from his possession.

The Hizb spokesman claimed that the posters found pasted at different places in Nattipora area of Srinagar were the handiwork of "some anti-movement elements". Text of these posters has described Hizbul Mujahideen's Yunis Group as "looters and extortionists". The spokesman claimed that Yunis was a "clean member" of his organisation. He warned "anti-movement elements" to desist from "defaming" the militants.

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