E-Paper
Riyaz Naikoo, schoolteacher to one of Kashmir Valley’s most wanted men
Before joining the Hizbul Mujahideen, Naikoo used to teach mathematics at a private school in Pulwama. The son of a farmer, Naikoo was detained by security forces during the unrest of 2010 and released in 2012. He was believed to have been radicalised around the same time.
Riyaz Naikoo, who rose to prominence in the Hizbul ranks after the encounter killing of militant leader Burhan Wani in 2016, dodged the police for eight years, before he was finally killed in an encounter in his village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama on Wednesday.
After Wani’s death, he was actively involved in militancy in Kashmir, especially south Kashmir. A resident of Gulzarpora Beighpora village, Naikoo was named in the killings of civilians including truck drivers, and policemen, according to a statement by the police.
Before joining the Hizbul Mujahideen, Naikoo used to teach mathematics at a private school in Pulwama. The son of a farmer, Naikoo was detained by security forces during the unrest of 2010 and released in 2012. He was believed to have been radicalised around the same time.
After Wani’s death created a vacuum in Hizbul, Naikoo stepped up, and circulated his audio and video messages on the social media to attract the youth. According to the security establishment, the bespectacled de facto chief Hizbul chief used the web to find new recruits.
A postgraduate, he carried a reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head. Naikoo was listed a category “A++” militant, which is the classification for most-wanted militants in the Valley.
The forces have actively pursued him over the past couple of years and launched several operations in south Kashmir to trap him. He managed to escape every time — until Wednesday, when he and an associate were killed in Gulzarpora Beighpora, 16km from Pulwama town.
According to local residents, he had come to his village to meet his ailing mother.
In the third week of May 2012, he left home, according to news agency PTI. In 2016, he made a dramatic appearance at the funeral of a militant in Shopian carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. He fired several shots in the air, starting a trend of giving gun salute to militants who were killed by security forces.
Naikoo released a video in 2017, saying he would welcome the return of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley and claimed that terrorists were not enemies of the Pandits.
