{"id":8060,"date":"2016-12-15T11:13:49","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T05:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kashmir.today\/?p=8060"},"modified":"2016-12-15T11:13:49","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T05:43:49","slug":"basit-fourth-engineering-student-turn-militant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=8060","title":{"rendered":"Basit, fourth engineering student to turn militant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Srinagar:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><em>Basit Rasool Dar, Zakir Rashid, Masiullah Khan and Saifullah Ahangar had two common connections that define them: they were engineering students-turned-militants \u2014 one of them still is.It is these young men, and others like them, who are serving as the local face of Kashmir\u2019s militancy that in recent years has gained several hundred recruits.On a foggy morning today, Dar became the latest name on the list of militants killed in gunfights with security forces. He was killed near Bijbehara town.More than 140 militants, many of them locals, were killed in gunfights with security forces this year in the region, according to official figures. The profile of Dar, the latest militant to die, is defining the region\u2019s new militancy as it becomes younger, lethal, self-sustaining and tech-savvy.In his early twenties, Dar studied at a local university before becoming a militant. He was \u201cvery pious\u201d, Dar\u2019s cousin Suhaib Ashraf told The Tribune. \u201cHe was obedient and everyone in the family loved him. He was a hardcore Muslim,\u201d he said in a text message.Dar\u2019s death in a brief gunfight quickly unravelled the pieces of his life. He was an engineering student. He had an account on social networking site Facebook where he posted pictures \u2014 picnicking at Manasbal lake, posing randomly, wrote few commentaries. He also wrote a blog, the last one a withering lamentation \u2014 \u201cYes, this is Kashmir\u201d, published online on June 30, and he disappeared in autumn this year.On his blog, Dar described himself. \u201cI like painting, writing and exploring new things. I love my Kashmir and I start writing for Kashmir but then I start writing on other topics too,\u201d he wrote.The most defining moment in Dar\u2019s life is also scripted. \u201cNo,\u201d he wrote on Facebook on the evening of July 8 when militant commander Burhan Wani was killed sparking protests in the region, \u201cI can\u2019t believe it\u201d. It was his last update on Facebook and weeks later he joined the militants.Dar is the fourth engineering students in recent years to join militants whose numbers have swelled despite their cadres and commanders frequently dying in counter-insurgency operations.Zakir Rashid, the militant who replaced Wani as commander in south Kashmir and as the voice and face of insurgency, is also a former engineering student. He was a second-year student of Bachelor of Technology at a college in Chandigarh, when he returned home and disappeared to become a militant.Earlier, two other militants, Masiullah Khan and Saifullah Ahangar \u2014 both residents of Tral \u2014 had joined militant ranks and died in gunfights. Khan, who had completed a degree in mechanical engineering before becoming a militant, was killed in 2011 in a gunfight. Ahangar, who was a diploma student in civil engineering, was killed in 2013. <strong>(TNS)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar:\u00a0Basit Rasool Dar, Zakir Rashid, Masiullah Khan and Saifullah Ahangar had two common connections that define them: they were engineering students-turned-militants \u2014 one of them still is.It is these young men, and others like them, who are serving as the local face of Kashmir\u2019s militancy that in recent years has gained several hundred recruits.On a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}