An Army Officer's Moving Tribute To A Former Terrorist

Noor Khan, a dreaded terrorist and commander of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in early 90s, died on Tuesday in police custody. He was 70. An Indian Army Officer has written a tribute for this man.

In 1993, Brigadier PS Gothra's father, a former Army Major, was the Chief Engineer of the Uri Hydroelectric Project when he was kidnapped by terrorists.

The man who saved him was none other than Noor Khan.

In a moving Facebook post shared by the Army, Brigadier Gothra writes, ''On a cold night in 1991, Noor Khan and his accomplices were surrounded by security forces. He jumped off from the first floor and got away but his leg got fractured. He could drag himself to a distance. By midnight he was lying helpless by the side of a road, when a couple of NHPC employees on a vehicle spotted him. They took him along, provided him shelter and medical aid."

Two years later, when the Brigadier's father was kidnapped, they went to Noor Khan for help.

Through his network, Noor Khan traced the NHPC engineer to a village in the Sheri Valley in Baramulla. He went to the terrorists, putting his own life on the line. By midnight, Brigadier Gothra's father and his assistant who was also kidnapped made it back safely.

Lekh Ram, Major GS Gothra's assistant, recounts, "Noor Khan played the most important and a selfless role to help rescue our project engineer Mr Gothra who was kidnapped by the terrorists and kept at a place called Dangarpora."

Ghulam Hassan Khan aka Noor Khan gave up violence after his arrest in the late 90s.

"I went to his house to thank him. He had surrendered and grown old. My relationship with him was personal. I wish him eternal peace," the post said.

Brigadier Gothra got posted in the same area in 2013. "Noor Khan was a dignified man. We last met in 2016 in Udhampur where he came to see me. We shared a special relationship," Brigadier Gothra told NDTV.

Noor Khan's elder son Irshad Malik, too, remembers his meetings with the Gothras.

"He didn't have a relationship with my father because he (Major Gothra) was an Army officer. He was his friend. Mr Gothra always remembers that my father saved his father,'' said Irshad Malik.