Lab technician-turned-militant laid to rest in Pulwama
Pulwama: One among three Jaish-e-Muhammad militants killed in Pulwama gunfight on Monday was a local, identified as Hilal Ahmad Naik of Pinglenavillage of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Slain JeM militant joined militant ranks last year, before that he was running a medical lab in his native village.
Hilal Ahmad Naik, son of Ghulam Mohammad Naik resident of Pingelan village in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district was killed along with his two foreign associates in an 17-hour-long gunfight in his native village.
According to his family members, Hilal has left home on 28th of May without revealing anything to them. “After failing to trace him, we filed a missing report in concerned police station, however his photograph while welding a gun went viral on June 02,” they said.
An intelligence official said that within hours after he left home, he joined Jaish for whom he was working for over two years.
Same night, he along with his senior associate boarded a Sumo vehicle and were going through Kakapora area when a Naka party intercepted them, he said.
“The militant fired on the party which was retaliated by forces in Dogam area of Kakapora in which a driver of the vehicle and an Army man were killed, however Hilal and his senior associates managed to escape,” he said.
Hilal as per his friends after completing his 12th, pursued diploma in Operation Theatre Technology and later opened as his own lab in his native village near a local hospital.
He was arrested once before joining militant ranks and was kept in police custody over charges of having links with militants, they said, adding a militant got killed in Pulwama area and from his pocket a prescription on ticket of Hilal’s lab was found due to which he was arrested.
Belonging to a well off family, Hilal is survived by his parents, a brother and sister who both are employees of health department.
Meanwhile, thousands of people participated in last rites of slain Hilal who was laid to rest in a local graveyard after multiple rounds of funeral prayers.
Eyewitnesses said that around six funeral prayers were held in a local ground in order to accommodate heavy rush of people.
He was laid to rest amid massive pro-freedom and pro-militant sloganeering, they said.
Meanwhile, a complete shutdown was observed in many parts of Pulwama district including main town against civilian and militant killing.
KV Correspondent
