Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) & Jammu-Kashmir Police together carried out an operation in Avantipura of Pulwama District, Jammu & Kashmir to assassinate Riyaz Naikoo, Chief of the infamous terrorist organisation Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. He was one the 10 most wanted men in Kashmir & the authorities had put up a bounty on his head of Rs. 12 Lakh.

But it is crucial to understand that Riyaaz Naikoo’s killing should be celebrated more in-country than it is currently being. While the security forces have received a lot of appreciation & respect from relevant authorities & media for their zenith, it is still a lot less as compared to the celebration that occurred when 26/11 Mumbai attack culprit Ajmal Amir Kasab & 2001 Indian Parliament Attack accused Afzal Guru was hanged.

The nation needs to understand that the people sent by these terrorist organisations to execute on-ground terror operations are mere agents. They are as good as a pawn of this chess. Ajmal Kasab & Afzal Guru had been trained for less than a year for the attacks that they were part of. People like them are trained in terror camps which are based majorly in Pakistan, POK & Kashmir Valley. However, the people who train these terrorists are of higher rankings. They are like senior officers of the terror organisations. They brainwash the poor people & manipulate them to conduct the act of terror which they define as ‘Jihaad’.

Riyaz Naikoo, on the other hand, was chief of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terror group for India. The group is headquartered in Muzzafarabad Pakistan but has its branches shadowing in the Kashmir Valley as well. Riyaz who was a maths teacher till 2010, became the chief of Hizb-ul for Indian Kashmir territory in August 2017. He succeeded Burhan Wani, former chief of Hizb-ul, after his death in 2017.

Riyaz holds a Master’s of Science in Mathematics & was a Maths teacher till 2010 before he was

He was born in Beighpora, a small village in Awantipora tehsil of Pulwama district in April 1985. He completed his primary & higher secondary education from schools in Pulwama districts & afterwards completed his Masters to become a school mathematics teacher.

However, it is said that once, the transition to militancy came after he was detained by the security forces during the unrest of 2010 & released in 2012. It is where he came in contact with local militants and became an overground worker (OGW) responsible for providing logistical support to militant groups. In May 2012 he left his home never to return. He had joined the Hizb-ul-mujahideen terror organisation.

In 2016, the then commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, Burhan Wani, was killed in an encounter, shattering the organisation to a good extent. However, it is believed that Riyaz had played a vital role in strengthening back the organisation & extending its reins in Kashmir. He became the next commander of the organisation & continued Wani’s brutal legacy of killing, torturing & spreading terror in the locals.

He has carried out a lot of campaigns in Kashmir. One of the senior police officers who spoke to ThePrint said Naiko’s “major successes” includes a series of abductions of some police personnel and their families in 2018.

Another officer has stated that Naikoo has had early links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), two Pakistan-based terrorist outfits, actively fostering terrorism in Kashmir & whole of India.

As per a report by ‘The Print’ police data shows that 54 residents joined militant ranks in 2010, in 2011, 2012 and 2013, registering a steep decline, at 23, 21 and 6, respectively. However, in 2017, the year after Wani was killed, numbers reached 126 in 2017, & 200 in 2018 when Naikoo took over.

The Jammu & Kashmir police had encountered Riyaz Naikoo in his native village Baigpora on Wednesday, 6th 2020. The Army’s 55 Rashtriya Rifles, the Jammu & Kashmir Police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) took part in the operation that started Tuesday night.

While Afzal Guru was responsible for 1 terror attack & some tens of deaths, Ajmal Amir Kasab was one of the pawns of one the most heinous terror attacks in human history, killing more than 160 people in 36 hours.

However, Riyaz Naikoo, alias Muhammad bin Qasim, who has been on the security forces A++ category militant list since 2012, has been responsible for the growth of terrorism in Kashmir, manipulating hundreds of locals to become militants & terrorists, killing of many people & looting of uncountable poor families, is a much bigger devil than Kasab & Guru.

In this real game of chess, while Afzal Guru & Ajmal Kasab were as good as Pawns, Riyaz Naiko was more of a Wazir (Minister/Queen).