Militant Majid returns home

Majid Khan, a 20-year-old promising footballer from Anantnag, who had joined the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba last week, has returned home, ending the ordeal of his parents.

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted that “mother’s tears have won” and described Majid’s decision as “bold”. She said that most of the young boys who have picked up guns want to return and lead normal lives, but, according to her, the social stigma of surrender was not allowing them to do so.

Earlier, Ashya Begum, Majid’s mother, had made an emotional appeal, with tears rolling down her eyes, asking her only son to return home. Majid’s parents had told media that Majid had gone missing a week ago. Subsequently, photographs showing him posing with an assault rifle on WhatsApp had gone viral in Kashmir.

At a press conference, Major General B.S. Raju said that the Army facilitated Majid’s decision to return home after he had spent a week with Lashkar militants. Raju said that they had neither arrested him nor did he surrender, as Majid was also present at the press conference. Kashmir police chief Muneer Khan, who was also present, told the media that they would not press any charges against Majid and would allow him to join his family. Earlier, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had tweeted that he was hopeful that police would not harass him. Meanwhile, in a statement to a local press agency, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s J&K chief Mehmood Shah said that they permitted Majid to leave for his home on the request of his mother, “since he was the only son of his family”.