KN DESK; 20, April 2013: Shabir Ahmad Sheikh, in his early 30’s, martyred Thursday afternoon in a gunfight at North Kashmir’s Sopore, was buried yesterday in Martyrs graveyard of Palhallan Pattan. Shabir Ahmad, formerly a shopkeeper, was associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) rebel group since November, 2012. His parents attribute his morphing into a rebel to the constant harassment by the Indian army and the Special Task Force (STF).

“Indian Army and STF would often summon him to their camps and would torture him because of his involvement in stone throwing during 2010”, Shabir’s father Abdul Rehman Sheikh, a man in his 70’s says.

“Once he was released from the Indian army camp after torture and he said that he could not bear that anymore. He said that he would prefer to die as a martyr rather than as a victim of torture. On 1st November last year, he fled from home and joined rebellion movement”, he adds.


During the 2010 uprising, when most of the Kashmiris were on streets agitating against the Indian regime, stone throwing was regular part of the protests everywhere in the valley. Shabir Ahmad, according to his family, also used to take part in protests and stone throwing. Shabir was also arrested during 2010 for his involvement in stone throwing and was later released after 10 months. “Everybody here used to protest and stone throwing was common. Shabir would also take part. But after his release, he was constantly harassed and tortured in STF camps and Indian army camps”, his sister-in-law, Fahmida Akhtar says.

Mother of Shabir wailing after he was buried in Palhalan/Photo Courtesy: thevoxkashmir

“After his release from torture camps, I used to cure his wounds. It was terrible to see his wounds Everytime he returned from STF camps”, she adds.

Shabir’s mother, Mehtaba, is in deep shock at the death of his youngest son and does not speak to anyone. Many women-her relatives and neighbors- console her and she only weeps and occasionally cries out his son’s name.

After the 2010 uprising, many youth from north Kashmir were provoked to join rebl groups fighting for the freedom of Kashmir. On December, 20 2012, a boy in his teenage, Atir Ahmad Dar, was killed in a two day long fierce gun battle at Sopore, in his hometown. Atir was an aspiring commerce student. The family of Atir had also attributed the reason of his joining rebels to the police harassment.

Another youth, Ashiq Ahmad Lone, 22, from Shopian is said to be the ‘reincarnated rebel’ due to the police harassment. After receiving arms training in 2010, he had returned after 15 days and started his earning by opening a grocery shop in his village and also continued with his studies. But, as his family alleges, police started to harass and torture him frequently which led him to join rebellion movement again.

Akin to such cases, Shabir Ahmad, as his family narrates, was provoked to join rebel group by Indian forces and STF which are deputed in Palhallan, because of the frequent harassments and torture.

The body of the martyred rebel was yesterday midnight brought to his ancestral home in Palhallan where thousands of people attended his funeral. Hurriyat G chairman, SAS Geelani also addressed the people over phone, who were attending the funeral prayers.

 According to the police, the slain militant was the master mind in killing of one Sarpanch Gh Mohd Yatoo of Palhalan last year.