‘I Lost My Best Man’: Friend Of Kashmiri Boy Killed By Militants
A 12-year-old boy, Atif Mir, was held hostage and killed by LeT terrorists in Kashmir’s Hajin town on Friday, 23 March. A heart-wrenching video of his mother pleading on a loudspeaker to let her son go surfaced on social media on Friday.
A 24-hour gun battle ensued between the security forces and the militants in which both the militants were killed. Atif Mir’s body was recovered from the rubble of the building where he was being held hostage.
The brutal incident has shocked the nation, and condolences and solidarity for Atif Mir poured in on social media.
One tweet has a photograph of Atif Mir’s friend in tears, at the funeral procession of Atif. The tweet quotes him saying, “I lost my best friend, my brother, my secret keeper, my companion, my best man, my childhood, my youth, my innocence, my present, my past, my future, my happiness. I lost. I lost.”
Scenes From The Funeral
Twitter was also packed with videos and photographs from Atif Mir’s funeral procession.
‘Victims Of Fruitless Struggle’
Twitter users condemned the brutal murder of Atif Mir.“Selective condemnations & glorification of violence will keep killing our people. Innocents like Atif will continue to become victims of fruitless struggle,” said one Twitter user.
‘Observe The Quiet Leaders’
Another asked the country to “observe and keep in mind those leaders who are keeping quiet in the death of the 12-year-old Atif Mir, used as a human shield by the militants and killed by them.”
President of the Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti was questioned by Twitterati too, for her tweets.
No Whataboutery
Grieve the killing of both Atif Mir just like you grieved the custodial death of school teacher Rizwan Asad Pandit, said one Twitter user.
Atif was a class 6 student at Army Goodwill School, and he was buried about 500 metres away from his school.