Ex-engineering student emerges as Wani’s successor in video

A former engineering student has emerged as the successor of slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, asking the people of Kashmir to continue the agitation till the region achieves its goal of “azadi”.

An 8-minute video message by Zakir Rashid Bhat is being seen as confirmation of his elevation to the post once held by Wani, whose killing on July 8 sparked violent street protests in the Valley.

“We all know how the martyrdom of our three brothers (Wani and two other militants) has brought movement to a new point. Now we need to support this struggle and take it to its logical conclusion,” Bhat said in Urdu in the video, mailed to local media houses on Tuesday and widely circulated through mobile messaging service WhatsApp. The Hizb had earlier named one Mehmood Ghaznavi as Wani’s successor but many believe it to be an alias of Bhat.

Bhat, said to be around 22 years, was a student of civil engineering in Chandigarh before he returned to his ancestral village Noorpura in Pulwama in 2013 and joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, the only surviving Kashmir-based militant group. 

Bhat’s video, in which he appeared in military fatigues sitting on a chair with three AK assault rifles in the background, comes amid a wave of violent protests that started a day after Wani’s killing.

At least 65 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in clashes between stone-pelting protesters and security forces and the Valley has remained under curfew for the 40th day till Wednesday. More than 2,000 people have also been injured with many suffering eye injuries – including children as young as five year olds –from pellets fired by security forces, fanning anti-India sentiments across the Valley.