Jammu:
NDTV has gained access to an exclusive video of the terror outfit, the Hizbul Mujahideen and one of its key leaders Shahdeen Khanday. The video has been shot by the militants on a cell phone to promote their cause and it shows Khanday posing with a 12-bore rifle in one hand and a bird in the other. With him are two other commanders, Gamma and Toufiq.
Former DIG of Doda, Satveer Gupta says, "He (Shahdeen Khanday) doesn't remain at one place. You will always find him shifting from one place to another place, he knows that the police and paramilitary forces are chasing him."
The cell phone was recovered two months after an Army operation on the Kishtwar range targeted at Khanday. The militants managed to escape but left the cell phone behind in their hideout. Security forces say that the video, which portrays the Hizbul as a heroic cause, is a clear sign of desperation.
"They are not getting recruitment and now they are employing these tactics are for mass contact and attracting the youth," says Ashok Gupta, IG Police, Jammu.
Khanday has been an active militant for two decades and has always managed to dodge security forces, but sources say, he has moved away from active militancy operations. Instead he's focusing on strategy as a planner and organizer for the Hizbul Mujahideen.
According to the police, depleting cadres and a number of unsuccessful infiltration bids is forcing the militants to spread propaganda to attract youth towards them and with men like Shahdeen Khanday still out there in the open, planning and coordinating militancy, it is always going to be a tough challenge for the security forces.