MLM: Burhan Muzafar Wani: The Viral Poster Boy of Kashmir Jihad
Hizbul Mujahideen’s (HM) newly recruited commander, Burhan-ud-Din Muzaffar Wani, has taken Kashmir’s militant landscape by storm by using his social media skills and guns. One of his recent photographs featured the 21-year-old commander surrounded by at least ten other militants of roughly the same age carrying guns; the image went viral on social media applications (such as Facebook and WhatsApp) and is considered to have marked a new phase of the Kashmir conflict. In an audiovisual message, Wani also encouraged disaffected Kashmiri youths to join the ongoing militancy. He spoke of “jihad,” urging young men from Jammu and Kashmir not to become informers for the Indian Army or police. Wani’s lieutenants, in a rare but direct recruitment drive in the state, offered remunerations of $530 (approximately INR 35,000) to whomever was willing to join HM (Zee News, August 17).
Wani instantly achieved an iconic status as the new face of Kashmir’s decade-old militancy through these novel tactics, which have galvanized the dwindling Kashmir militancy. He is one of the first of a new breed of school- and college-attending militants emerging in the region. In July 2015, the government of India announced a bounty of around $15,000 (10 lakh rupees) for information leading to his arrest (NDTV, August 17).
Background
Wani originally is from the Shareefabad area of Tral, Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, and is the son of Muzaffar Ahmad Wani, principal of Lorh Gam government secondary school. Burhan Wani joined the HM militant group at the tender age of 15, soon becoming the district commander (NDTV, August 17). He joined the most powerful militant group of Jammu and Kashmir after he and his brother, Khalid Muzaffar Wani, were detained by Indian security forces during the street violence of 2010 for violating curfew by roaming around on a motorcycle. Indian Army personnel allegedly harassed them, especially humiliating Khalid, after which Burhan vowed to take revenge (Indian Express, April 20).
Indeed, the origins of this new wave of young recruits joining the Islamist bandwagon can be traced back to the 2010 street violence in Kashmir, when over 100 young civilians were killed in retaliatory action by security forces (Asian Centre for Human Rights, July 2010). [1] These unfortunate events and subsequent security actions provided excuses for many young men like Wani to choose militancy and join the ongoing Kashmir jihad against the Indian state.
Wani joined HM in early 2011, and by 2013, he had surfaced on social media, urging young people to join and reinvigorate the already waning Kashmir jihad. In early July 2015, 11 young Kashmir militants affiliated with HM posted their images on Facebook (India Today, July 3). Subsequently, there were series of audiovisual messages from Wani released on the Internet that mostly depicted he and fellow recruits armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and dressed in battle gear. [2]
Burhan Wani, according to police sources, has been involved in many targeted attacks in South Kashmir, mostly in and around Tral, Pulwama. He was accused of masterminding at least three beheadings involving Indian Army soldiers in 2013 (Daily Excelsior, May 25, 2013). Khalid Wani, the older brother of Burhan, was killed in an encounter with Indian security forces in April 2015, when Khalid along with his friends went to the Tral forest to meet Burhan (Indian Express, April 20).
Militant Narratives
Close scrutiny of Burhan Wani’s propaganda—whether recruitment videos or images posted to social media platforms—suggests a few things that could possibly affect the prevalent jihad narratives in Jammu and Kashmir. In one of his video messages, he took pride in his fight against the Indian establishment, while urging his friends and other young men to support the Kashmir jihad. His discourse is usually laced with verses from the Quran, calls to establish Nizam-e-Mustafa (God’s government) and general gratitude for the people of Kashmir for their support as well as implied threats against state police forces and their civilian informants in Kashmir (Daily Motion, September 13).
He directly exhorted fellow Kashmir youths in his Urdu-language video message, saying: “If you [cannot] join us, then you should support us in other ways.” He even accused the state police of torturing militants’ families. He also issued a veiled threat to the security force personnel: “They too have families but [we] [will not] harm them as we belong to same Allah and our Shari’a [does not] allow us to do that. We are here to protect the honor and dignity of the women, including their daughters, mothers and sisters” (Daily Motion, September 13).
Posters of Burhan Wani are regularly displayed during clashes between youths and security forces, especially after Friday prayers at mosques of Nowhatta, Kawdara and Rajouri. His posters are often accompanied by flags of the Levant-based Islamic State and banners of Pakistan-based militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaysh-e-Muhammad. Pro-Islam and pro-Pakistan slogans are increasingly common in these areas, especially during protest rallies during Friday congregations (Kashmir Watch, August 28).
Indian Response
In mid-2015, Jammu and Kashmir police chief Javed Mujtaba Geelani made a revelation the shifting trend of militancy in this restive Indian state. He expressed concern that 35 young men from the state who recently joined two major Pakistan-based terrorist groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and HM, could reinvigorate the Kashmir armed militancy, which has clearly been in decline over the past few years. Even though the unofficial estimates put the number of young men joining these terrorist groups at 66 in November, the problem lies in the new young recruits opting for jihad, who are also increasingly using social media tools to entice other fellow young men from the state to come into their fold. [3]
To disrupt and destroy Wani’s network of homegrown young jihadists, the Indian Army, paramilitary and state police have devised novel strategies that include monitoring and blocking social media propaganda from Wani and his fellow militants and sympathizers (Kashmir Monitor, July 15). This effort is also complimented with search and sweep operations in the forests of south Kashmir.
On October 23, Indian security agencies terminated two of Wani’s fellow militants, identified as Adil Khanday and Irshad Ahmad Shaykh; both were residents of south Kashmir’s Shopian district and had appeared in many of Wani’s audiovisual messages. There are other young new faces of HM who are following in Wani's footsteps (Indian Express, October 24). The Jammu and Kashmir police have also been tracking individuals involved with Wani, like Wasim Malla and Zakir Ahmad Bhat, both of whom are in their 20s and are using smartphones and the internet to spread jihadist messages (The Hindu, October 14). Wani and his followers have adopted available technology and largely defied the secrecy and invisibility akin to the traditional mujahideen phenomenon in their attempt to remain in the limelight to invigorate the Kashmir militancy.
Conclusion
The growing popularity in Jammu and Kashmir of Burhan Wani, who has romanticized the concept of jihad and martyrdom and succeeded in influencing a generation of young men, does not augur well for Indian authority. Evidently, he is the first recognizable militant of Jammu and Kashmir, receiving a hero’s status among the young generations in the state for his audacity to challenge Indian authority openly, especially in south Kashmir. In other words, he is the face of a new Kashmir jihad, who can inspire and entice young recruits into the fold of various militant formations that have been experiencing operational setbacks in recent years.
Notes
1. See, “Behind the Numbers: Profiling those Killed
in Kashmir’s 2010 Unrest,” Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation.
2. Videos are listed here, http://hdking.mobi/video/miltant-burhan.
3. For a riveting documentary on the Kashmir’s new militants, See, Harinder Baweja, “Young men in Kashmir once again turning to militancy,” Hindustan Times, December 17, 2015, http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/young-and-armed-men-in-kashmir-once-again-turning-to-arms/story-rWP6TW2rbZZWj9oC724qHK.html.
Originally Published as : "Burhan Muzafar Wani: The Viral Poster Boy of Kashmir Jihad, Militant Leadership Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 12, December 31, 2015"