'15-year-old Kashmiri boys ready to be suicide bombers'

Amid reports of attacks on Kashmiris outside the state, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant outfit on Tuesday warned of attacks against non-local labourers in the valley in retaliation and more suicide bombings against security forces.

“Remember if anything happens to any Kashmiris outside, we will kill the non-local labourers in the valley,” Hizbul operational chief Riyaz Naikoo is heard saying in purported audio circulated on social media.

Warning that bloodshed will continue till ‘New Delhi doesn’t vacate its forces from Kashmir’, he says, “The body bags of your (Indian) security forces will continue to reach their homes till you don’t vacate Kashmir. We are ready to die but won’t let you live. Azadi (freedom) is our mission. You are yet to see the worse. Insha Allah (Allah willing) that day is not far when our 15-year-old would become suicide bombers and target vehicles of your forces.”

“The suicide bomb attacks will continue, and your oppression cannot stop us. Till Kashmir issue is not settled as per the aspirations of its people, every mother from Kashmir to Kanyakumari will have to bear the pain of losing their sons,” he warns.

“We want to tell Indian people that by the oppression of their forces, our attacks won’t stop. We know why your forces oppress Kashmiris. Because you don’t treat us as your own people. We also don’t consider India as our country,” Naikoo says. “You are mourning your dead soldiers, why do they come to Kashmir? They do not come to play a cricket match here. Sometimes they kill us sometimes we kill them.”

He claimed that Indian politicians were misleading their people by ‘fabricated statements’ “Yesterday (Union Home Minister) Rajnath Singh while leaving Srinagar claimed that Kashmiris were with India. I want to tell him if Kashmiris are with India and only five percent people want Azadi, why are you afraid of holding a plebiscite? Let you hold the plebiscite and if 95 percent people want to live with you, we will drop the guns,” he says.

In the audio clip, Naikoo is also heard praising Adil Ahmad Dar, who attacked the CRPF convoy with an explosive-laden vehicle in Pulwama district last week, killing 49 paramilitary personnel. The Hizbul commander also said that ‘while India is beating drums of war, they should understand that those politicians who cry for war do not send their children to join Army and forces.’

Naikoo is also heard saying that “India doesn’t have the courage to fight a war and if they do, they should move towards the border.”