Security personnel undertake a cordon and search operation after getting specific input about the presence of terrorists, at Nader Tral area of Awantipora, in Pulwama district
Credit: PTI Photo
Srinagar: In one of the most emotionally charged visuals to emerge from a gunfight in Tral in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, a screen recording of a final video call has surfaced—between a mother and her militant son, Amir Nazir Wani, moments before he was killed in a fierce gun battle with security forces.
Amir, one of three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants killed in the encounter, appears defiant even as his mother breaks down, pleading him to lay down his arms.
“Beta, surrender kar do,” she pleads through tears, her voice cracking under the weight of fear and helplessness. Amir, clutching his rifle, reportedly responds coldly, “Let the army come forward, then I’ll see,” before the call ends and the sounds of gunfire return to dominate the scene.
Sources in the security establishment have reportedly confirmed that the terrorists had been given multiple chances to surrender. “The building was surrounded, announcements were made. But they refused to give in,” a senior official said.
Drone footage from the hours leading up to the encounter’s climax reveals haunting images of the three militants—Amir Nazir Wani, and his two associates - Asif Ahmed Sheikh and Yawar Ahmad Bhat from Pulwama—holed up in the basement of an under-construction building.
Armed and alert, they can be seen moving between shadows, their eyes scanning for movement, their rifles never far from reach.
Security forces, acting on specific intelligence, had launched the cordon-and-search operation in the early hours of Thursday. The gunfight lasted several hours. At its end, three bodies lay in the rubble—young men who had turned their backs on life, on family, and on the tearful voices that still hoped they would return.
This final call of Amir feels like a tragic epilogue to a story that repeats itself too often in Kashmir. A mother’s desperate love, a son’s deadly choices, and a community left to mourn another life lost to the unrelenting cycle of violence.