Tral/May, 24 : Thousands of people on Friday morning attended the funeral prayers of slain militant commander Zakir Musa in his ancestral village Noorpora in Tral area in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Reports said thousands of people from various parts of Pulwama district throngef Noorpora village despite restrictions and attended the funeral prayers of Musa. As reported already Musa was on Thursday evening killed in a gunfight in Dadsara village of Tral area in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district after joint search parties of army and SOG cordoned off the area on specific information about the presence of top militant commander in the area. Musa had turned down the offer to surrender and fired UBGL grenades and opened fire which was retaliated triggering a gunfight.which raged for several hours and ended early Friday, resulting in killing of the top militant commander.
Musa, who hailed from Noorpora area of Tral, first joined the Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit in 2013 and was close aide of Hizb commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani. Both worked together to strengthen the outfit and within years the outfit rose to prominence, recruiting a large number of of young and educated youth in their ranks.
After Wani’s killing in July 2016 Musa took over the command. However, he hit the headlines in the summer of 2017 when in a video message he declared fighting for caliphate and not for joining Pakistan or creating an independent state. He also threatened Hurriyat leadership of dire consequences who he thought were a hurdle in the establishment of caliphate.
However, his views were not endorsed by Hizb leadership following which he parted ways and formed his own outfit Ansar Ghazwat Ul Hind.
Musa came from a well off family. His father Abdul Rashid Bhat is a retired assistant executive engineer. His elder brother Shakir Rashid Bhat is an orthopedic surgeon and his sister Shaheena Rashid Bhat is a banker.
In 2012 he left for Chandigarh to pursue engineering at Ram Dev Jindal college but left it midway and instead joined militancy.
