Jammu and Kashmir chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba Mahmood Shah paid rich tributes to the outfit’s slain commander Mehraj-ud-Din Bangroo and his associate Fahad Mushtaq who died in a gunfight in Srinagar’s Fateh Kadal locality on Wednesday.
In an e-mailed statement, LeT spokesperson Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi quoted Shah as saying: “We will continue our struggle until freedom. The joy of forces is mere temporary. Mehraj-ud-din was a son of Bangroo family that has rendered great sacrifices for the cause. The Bangroo family will continue this legacy and there will be many to pick up the gun of a fallen freedom fighter.”
Shah accused forces of “deliberately burning the homes of Kashmiris,” saying: “This is nothing but a severe war crime. If Indian media has any courage then they should expose this reality. But it is active only when the clouds of sorrow are cast upon the homes of forces. The burning of civilian houses is an utterly disgraceful and shameful act. The Kashmiri political parties, media, civil societies must raise this issue.”
The statement read: “The Indian media must expose atrocities of forces if they are up to (sic) the journalistic ethics. The local journalists and media persons were beaten up by forces at the encounter site so that war crimes are never visible to the world. It is evident that forces do not want the world to know how they use civilians as human shields, thereby ultimately getting a bullet in their own back.”
Shah, according to the statement, vowed to “continue the mission of Bangoo and prayed for his highest status in jannah.”