JeM militant commander Ashiq Nengroo's house demolished in J&K's Pulwama

A house of a designated Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant allegedly built on encroached government land in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district was demolished by authorities on Saturday.

This is the first instance of authorities in Kashmir demolishing a house of any militant. The house belonged to Ashiq Ahmad Nengroo alias Amjid Bhai of Hajan Bala, Rajpora in Pulwama, who is a wanted JeM commander and an accused in the 2019 Lethpora fidayeen (suicide) attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

In April this year, the Central government had declared Nengroo as a designated terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Nengroo's two-storey house was demolished by the district administration Pulwama in the presence of police, reports said.

Immediately after the incident, Kashmir Fight, a blog linked to The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) threatened the team which carried out the demolition.

In a statement, the TRF threatened to “avenge every brick” with the “blood of traitors”, and added that the “Resistance Struggle” will not budge with such acts by the administration.

"Bulldozing the house of a Resistance Fighter by the Fascist Colonial regime is another low which clearly depicts how frustrated these colonial forces are. Irony is that the demolishing team are all locals who are so bootlicking that they are blindly following every Draconian dictat of this Fascist puppet government stationed by Delhi,” the TRF statement warned.

Police, however, downplayed the threats, saying this was a desperate attempt by the militants who had been cornered.

According to an official statement, Nengroo got his basic education from Abbu Hanifa Public School, Rajpora and after passing 12th class, he joined Degree College Pulwama to complete his B.A. He did his M.A in Urdu through distance mode from Maulana Azad National Urdu University and got married in 2011 and is having two daughters and one son.

After getting married, he shifted from his native village Hanjan to New Colony Rajpora and constructed his own house there. In order to earn a livelihood, he chose the driving profession.

“His brother namely Abas Nengroo was an active terrorist of JeM outfit from 2011 and was killed in 2013 in an encounter at Achgoza. Ashiq started working as over grounf worker (OGW) for the JeM and besides providing assistance to the terrorists he was also transporting smuggled weapons for the terrorists in his vehicle from one place to another. Ashiq was finally arrested by Police in case FIR No. 129/2013 U/S 302 RPC, 7/27 IA Act in 2013, but was later bailed out by the court,” the statement said.

“He was tasked to ferry terrorists who would cross through international border into Kashmir. Later, it is learnt that from 2016 to 2018 subject ferried more than 20 Pakistani terrorists and huge arms and ammunition into valley using his trucks,” it added.