10 FACTS ABOUT BURHAN WANI- the father of new age militancy in Kashmir

Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the most wanted commander of terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen who died in an encounter in Kokernag in South Kashmir on Friday was only 15 years old when he left his home in Tral and joined militancy. In last five years, this boy changed the face of militancy in Kashmir.

He was an idol, a role model to many young and educated boys in Kashmir turning into terrorists in recent months. This 22 years old boy was the architect of the social-media driven psychological warfare in Kashmir. Here is all you need to know about this Militancy poster boy.

1. Burhan fled from his home and joined HM on October 16, 2010 after his elder brother Khalid Muzaffar Wani was allegedly assaulted by security men upon the charges on being a militant sympathiser.

2. He was made a member by Hizbul Mujahideen in 2011 due to his popularity on social media. He featured in videos and photos posing with weapons and taunting security forces, which were circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp which helped the recruitment of young Kashmiri men in terror outfits in large numbers.

3. He was the topper of class X examination and his father is the head master at a government school in Tral where he used to live before joining militancy.

4. As a young boy, he used to love playing cricket and has niche for technology which helped him a lot in radicalising youth towards militancy through social media.

5. In one of his videos which were circulated on social media Burhan asked youth to join Hizb Ul Mujahideen in clear words and it is said that HM made over 30 recruitments that year because of the video.

6. Wani made Hizbul Mujahideen, the number one terror outfit in the State, leaving behind Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

7. A picture of him with 10 gun-toting local youths went viral last year and made him the poster boy of the Hizbul Mujahideen. His ultimate goal is to “unfurl the flag of Islam on Delhi’s Red Fort”.

8. In his last video released in June, Wani was seen playing cricket with other militants.

9. There are hundreds of pages on facebook dedicated to Burhan Wani and some of the more famous one’s post the recent images of him with his associates.

10. Described by security agencies as “the biggest-ever success” in recent times, Wani, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, was tracked after a tip-off that he was planning to come down from the Tral forest area for Eid celebrations.