Newborn makes security forces nervous
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria
Tribune News Service
Jammu, June 4
A baby boy’s birth in remote and mountainous Doda district has sent the security forces, including the police and intelligence agencies, into a tizzy. Reason: The father of the newborn is a top militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen, who has been active for the past 11 years.
Official sources said the dreaded militant involved in murders also carried a reward of Rs 2.50 lakh on his head. Besides, three companies of the Army, one company of the CRPF and eight police pickets of the Doda police were on the hunt of this elusive terrorist, who was allegedly involved in 14 murder cases, they added.
While officials of various counter-insurgency forces and intelligence agencies are tight-lipped over the development, hospital records accessed by The Tribune stated that Shazia Bano, wife of Waseem Ahmed, a resident of Marmat, delivered a baby boy at the District Hospital, Doda, last evening.
A hospital official, who wished anonymity, said, “Shazia Bano, who was brought by her relatives, gave birth to a baby boy in the hospital labour room around 6 pm yesterday. She had a normal delivery and around 3 am this morning both mother and baby were discharged from the hospital”.
Her husband had not come to the hospital for obvious reasons because he had been underground, he said. The sources also stated that after Shazia gave birth to her second child last night, Waseem talked to her on a mobile phone, telling her not to talk to mediapersons, who had gathered on the hospital premises.
SP, Doda, Moahmmed Arif Reshu confirmed to The Tribune that Waseem was a wanted terrorist and his wife, Shazia Bano, gave birth to their second son. However, he refused to say anything further citing his busy schedule because of the ongoing panchayat poll.
The sources said, active for the past 11 years, Waseem was allegedly involved in 14 murder cases, including those of surrendered militants, security personnel and civilians. “It sounds interesting that a listed militant, badly wanted by the security forces, fathered his second child and it points towards the efficacy of intelligence agencies,” they added.
However, a senior police officer tried to downplay the development saying, “We all know that militants meet their wives and girlfriends on the upper reaches and jungles. In some cases in the past we had caught hold of such women from their hideouts”. This woman also might have met her husband in the jungle, he added.
Confirming the birth of Waseem’s second son, a local source from Doda told this correspondent over the phone that the militant now wanted to surrender so as to return to the national mainstream and start afresh as a law-abiding citizen.