Kashmiri IPS Officer’s Brother Joins Hizbul Mujahideen; Codenamed ‘Burhan Sani’

The brother of an IPS officer, who heads an anti-terror unit of the police in Assam, has joined the Kashmiri terror organisation Hizbul Mujahideen (Hizbul). The outfit has confirmed that Shamsul Haq Mengnoo, the younger brother of Inam Ul-Haq Mengnoo, has joined its ranks, as reported by Times of India.

It was widely suspected that the 25 year old Shamsul, who dropped out of a undergraduate course in Unani medicine and surgery that he was pursuing in Kashmir University, had joined the terror group after he disappeared from the campus on 22 May.

Shamsul’s parents, who reside in their native Draggud village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, filed a missing person report on 23 May and Kashmir Police suspected that the youngster had joined the outfit on 25 May. Hizbul released photos of about two dozen new recruits on Sunday (8 July), the first death anniversary of its slain commander Burhan Wani, and Shamsul figured prominently in the photos holding an assault rifle. He has been given the nom de guerre Burhan Sani.

Shamsul’s brother Inam Ul-Haq Mengnoo is a 2012 batch IPS officer who is now the commandant of the elite Assam Police Commando Battalion headquartered in North Guwahati. He was one of the first Kashmiris to enter the civil services and his entry into the IPS, along with a record number of ten other youngsters from the state, was widely acclaimed that time.

The IPS officer, who is a trained orthopaedic, was transferred from the post of police chief of a tribal dominated district in Assam in end-June after reports of his brother suspected of joining the Hizbul surfaced. Although top Assam police officers described the transfer as routine and described Inam Ul-Haq as an upright and dedicated police officer, questions have arisen about the advisability of posting him as the commandant of the state’s police anti-terror unit.