One week after police detained army Major Leetul Gogoi along with a local army man and a young woman in Srinagar, a Hizbul Mujahideen commander has asked Kashmiri women to avoid chatting with soldiers and strangers on social media.
In an audio statement on Wednesday, Hizbul Mujahideen’s Riyaz Naikoo also asked young men to post their experiences on social media if army “pushes them” for providing information about militants.
“We have got information that army and policemen are developing relationships with women particularly school girls to prompt them for providing information about militants. Army men are developing contacts with these girls to get them do wrong things,” Naikoo alleged in the 10-minute audio clip which has gone viral in Kashmir.
Naikoo, 30, one the longest-surviving militants in Hizbul Mujahideen had joined group almost along with Burhan Wani who was killed in 2016.
“We appeal to our sisters to remain away from army and policemen and avoid chatting with strangers on social media. Nor you should share your secrets with strangers. It will be used to blackmail you,” he said.
The woman from Budgam who was detained along with Major Gogoi last week told the police that she was not a minor and that she had come in contact with the officer on Facebook and had come to meet him of her own will.
Major Gogoi hit the headlines last year after he tied a Kashmiri civilian to the front of his vehicle and claimed that he did so to prevent stone-pelters from targeting his convoy.
Naikoo also cautioned parents and teachers against sending their wards to army-sponsored educational tours.
“I am at a loss to understand how parents allow their daughters to go on tours with army officers like Major Gogoi… Army and education are two separate departments and they are not connected to each other even remotely. Army tours are a conspiracy so that they can reach our sisters. Then they lure them to do wrong things and then blackmail them to work as informers for army,” the militant commander charged.
“We will not spare those parents and teachers who allow their children to go on tours which are directly or indirectly connected to army,” he warned.
Hizb is the largest local militant group in Jammu and Kahsmir.
Naikoo also claimed that youth were reaching out to militants with complaints that “army was detaining them from streets, calling them to camps and torturing them mentally and physically to become army informers”.
“You should share these things with your village elders and share your experiences on social media in the form of videos,” Naikoo advised the youth.
He also threatened jail superintendents and prison staff for allegedly torturing militants in jails. “We know who is inflicting cruelties on our brothers in jails in Jammu and Kashmir. All those jail superintendents, whether Hindu or Muslim, they are all on our target…. If you do not stop these atrocities we will barge into your homes or capture you on roads,” he threatened.
