Slain JKLF chief's dad facing threats

Abdul Majid Wani

Slain JKLF chief's dad facing threats after his disclosure that a militant commander Sheikh Abdul Hamid closely associated with his son was poisoned by the army. 

Abdul Majid Wani, father of one of the top most militant commanders in Jammu and Kashmir, is receiving 'threats' from ‘unknown people’ since he disclosed to Kashmir Dispatch two months ago that a militant commander Sheikh Abdul Hamid-- closely associated with his son-- was poisoned by the army.

Majid , father of slain JKLF chief commander Ashfaq Majid Wani, told the press in Srinagar that he was receiving threats from “unknown people” who even tried to 'run him over'. On November 19, last year, Majid, while commemorating the death of slain Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front commander Hamid’s death anniversary, had in a memory-narrative on Kashmir Dispatch noted: “Many people think that Hamid, the friend of my son Ashfaq Majid Wani, was killed along with his comrades while they were crossing Jehlum on a boat on this day in 1992 when, in fact, he was poisoned to death after he refused to be a part of a sinister plan hatched by the Indian military.”

“After my disclosure, unusual things are happening around me. Some unknown people either come to my shop as customers or follow me up to my home to give me threats,” Majid was quoted by a newspaper based in Kashmir.

The government says Hamid was killed along with half a dozen associates after their boat capsized when an government forces patrol party fired at them while they were crossing the Jhelum at Aael Kadal in Kashmir’s Old City in November 1992.

Majid in the memory-narrative had claimed that army had pulled Hamid alive while he was drowning and was later poisoned in an interrogation centre. “He was given a lethal injection after he refused to be part of a sinister plan hatched by the Indian military intelligence,” Majid had said.

“Apparently after being poisoned, his body had been kept in a freezer to make us believe that he had drowned. On Hamid’s right leg, below the knee, there was a needle mark,” he had said.

Majid said after the writing was published he noticed two persons moving around his house at Nowgam bypass in a white Ambassador car. “I became conscious of their presence and monitored their activities closely. They would come out of the car, park it a particular spot and pretend as if they were fixing it,” he said.

But some days later when he reached near the spot, he said, the same Ambassador car came rushing from a wrong direction towards him and tried to hit him.

“I fell down and had a narrow escape. I received injuries on my arm. The driver of the car came out and told me that this is a last warning to me,” said Majid, whose son is counted among the pioneers of armed insurgency in Kashmir.

Before the ‘accident’, Majid said for almost two weeks he would everyday receive two to three local and non-local customers at his shop at Maharaja Bazaar, who would purchase electric goods from him, but return them next day saying they don’t need them.

“This was unusual to me and it pestered me a lot. I was angry with all of them,” he said. “Once a non-local customer came to my shop to return goods he had purchased earlier, but after I refused to take them back he threatened me.”

READ HERE ABDUL MAJID WANI'S MEMORY NARRATIVE: 'HAMID SHEIKH WAS POISONED’

“He told me that he was a high-ranking officer in some Indian agency and that they have been witnessing my behavior for a long time. He also told me that if I don’t mind my behavior it can have bad consequences for me,” he said.

“I am sure I am being targeted for revealing the truth,” he said.

When asked why he was silent for so long if he so passionately believed that Hamid was poisoned, he said, “When Army took us to identify Hamid’s body, I raised an alarm and contested the Army’s claim that he died of drowning. But an Army Brigadier named Padmanabhan threatened me and told me not to raise the issue or I would meet the same fate.”

“I spurned his threats then and there only, and I am not afraid of anyone even now. But after these recent incidents my friends advised me to approach media so that people are aware about the facts before something untoward happens to me,” he added.