Srinagar MBA youth joins Hizbul: J&K Police

SRINAGAR: J&K police on Tuesday disclosed that Hilal Ahmad Dar, the 26-year-old man from Srinagar who had dodged his friends during a trekking expedition on June 13 and went “missing”, has joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorist outfit.
Talking to reporters at RTC Humhama here on the sidelines of the wreath-laying ceremony in honour of a CRPF trooper who was killed along with two terrorists in a gunfight in Pulwama district early on Tuesday, IG (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar said, “Hilal Dar has joined Hizbul Mujahideen outfit” and added that police will not arrest him if the family brings him back.
An MBA from Kashmir University, Hilal was working with a private company in Gurgaon and had returned to Srinagar in March after the Covin-19 pandemic struck the country. On June 13, he went on a trekking trip from Naranag in Ganderbal district with five of his friends.
Hilal, according his friends, told them in the middle of the trekking route that he needed rest as was very tired and asked them to proceed.
Hilal made the last call from his mobile phone to his brother Yasir and informed him that he had decided to stay back as he felt very tired. He also said that the battery of his mobile phone was running low, so he would not be able to make any more calls, Yasir told police.
His family members, including his mother, brother Yasir and his uncles, had staged several protests at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk urging the Lieutenant Governor, the J&K administration, police and security agencies to trace Hilal.
“Our son is innocent. He has no terrorist connection or any such links. We make a fervent appeal to the heads of all security agencies in Kashmir to help trace our son,” Nisar Ahmed, Hilal’s uncle had told reporters. “Check his phone records of 20 years. He has nothing offensive against him.”
Police said, “The five others who were with Hilal are being questioned. They are cooperating with the police and even took us to the exact spot where Hilal was last seen.”