Musa killing: strike, curfew paralyses life in Kashmir

Strike and curfew continued in Kashmir for the second consecutive day in Kashmir on Saturday following the killing of most wanted militant commander Zakir Musa, the so-called chief of an Al-Qaeda affiliated group.

Musa, who was killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral area of south Kashmir on Thursday, was the second most popular militant commander in the Valley after Burhan Wani.

The Valley has been on edge with separatists calling for shutdown and authorities imposing curfew-like restrictions. Due to strike and restrictions, normal life remained paralysed in Kashmir with shops, business establishments, educational institutions and market-places remaining closed across the Valley and public transport off the roads.

Since 2017, Musa’s name had been sprayed on walls and shutters across the Valley with young men chanting “Musa, Musa” during anti-India protests. His face and voice are familiar from videos and audio clips circulated on social media, and from news reports.

The police on Friday termed his killing as a “major success.” “In a major success against militancy in South Kashmir security forces eliminated Zakir Musa; only surviving militant of erstwhile Burhan group.”

A police spokesman said that Musa was declared as a proclaimed offender by an NIA special court in a case that “pertains to his involvement in serial blasts at Jalandhar, Punjab, on September 14, 2018.”

After parting ways with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in 2017, Musa had floated ‘Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind’, an Al-Qaeda affiliated group. He had joined Burhan Wani group in 2013. But in May 2017, nearly a year after Wani’s killing, Musa released an audio message that caused a stir in the Valley.

Separatist leaders who called Kashmir’s war a political struggle instead of a religious one would be beheaded, he warned in an audio message. “I will not fight for Azadi for a secular state,” he declared. “I will fight for Azadi for Islam, for the establishment of an Islamic state. Not only in Kashmir but in India and Pakistan too.”