"Come out. They will not harm you. Come out. I'm missing you," the boy is heard saying.
A video of a four-year-old's appeals to his father -- who had joined hands with terrorists -- to come out of a barricaded house at an encounter site is being widely circulated on social media in Jammu and Kashmir. But despite the heart wrenching appeals, he was not allowed to come out of the barricaded house by the other terrorists. The man -- 25-year-old Aquib Ahmad Malik who joined terrorists in Kashmir barely three months ago -- eventually died in the operation along with three accomplices.
Amid the raging gun battle in Shopian, security forces had brought the child and his mother to persuade Aquib Ahmad Malik to surrender.
"Come out. They will not harm you. Come out. I'm missing you," the boy can be heard saying.
The video, apparently sourced from security forces, show Aquib Ahmad Malik's wife also making an emotional appeal to her husband during the midnight operation. "Please come out and surrender. Please shoot me if you don't want to come out. Our both children have come with me. Come out and surrender," she is heard saying.
The army said Aquib Ahmad Malik wanted to come out and surrender, but he was prevented by other terrorists holed up in the building.
"First his wife appealed him to surrender. Then we facilitated his four-year-old child with the hope that his appeal will make him to come out and surrender," said Major General Rashim Bali, a senior officer.
"We have information that Aquib wanted to come out but his accomplices stopped him. If he had come out, we would have been able to save him," he added.
Locals say Aquib Ahmad Malik was a bank employee before he disappeared on December 20 and joined the terrorists.
The army said one AK rifle and three pistols were recovered from the encounter site.
During the operation, two residential houses were destroyed. For the last few years, destroying target houses where terrorists take shelter have been used as effective means to kill holed up terrorists.
Last week, seven residential houses were destroyed in Shopian during an encounter, in which two terrorists were killed.
The police said 19 terrorists have been killed this year. Giving a chance to terrorists to surrender remains part of the administration's policy.