The killing of a terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir has triggered a war of words between the state’s former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and cricketer Gautam Gambhir. After Mr Gambhir held politicians including Mr Abdullah responsible for Mannan Wani, a scholar from Aligarh Muslim University, taking to terrorism, the National Conference leader said the cricketer was poorly informed about the dynamics of radicalisation in Kashmir.
Mannan Wani’s death: We killed a terrorist and lost a radicalised talent. @OmarAbdullah @MehboobaMufti @INCIndia @BJP4India all should bow their heads in embarrassment that they left a young man drift from books to embrace bullet.
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) October 12, 2018
To which Mr Abdullah leader replied:
This man wouldn’t be able to find Manan’s home district on a map much less his village & yet he presumes to know what drives young men in Kashmir to pick up the gun. Mr Gambhir clearly knows less about Kashmir than I do about cricket & I know almost nothing. https://t.co/oZ8hc5VcgH
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 12, 2018
This sparked off a full-fledged war.
Come on @OmarAbdullah you shouldn’t talk about maps, you are hell bent in changing the map of my country by talking Kashmir to Pakistan! Stroll out of that ivory tower and explain what u or ur fellow politicians have done to engage the Kashmiri youth @BJP4India @INCIndia
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) October 12, 2018
It’s been less than a week since I had two of my colleagues killed by terrorists, my party has lost 1000s of workers, both senior & junior since 1988. I don’t need a lecture in nationalism & sacrifice from someone who wouldn’t know sacrifice if it kicked him. https://t.co/iM14SarX5j
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 12, 2018
You aren’t alone @OmarAbdullah, most of ur lot (read politicians) don’t like mirror thrusted on u and that’s why my country is bleeding. Nationalism and sacrifice need men of real character and not someone like u searching for lip-service in 280 character limit of social media!!!
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) October 12, 2018
Terrorist Mannan Wani, one of the top men of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir Valley, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kupwara on Thursday. Clashes broke out in some pockets of the district after the news spread. The encounter at Langate — roughly 80 km from state capital Srinagar – had started after security forces launched a predawn operation after the police received a tip-off about the presence of two terrorists in a residential house in the area. Security in Jammu and Kashmir has been very tight on account of the ongoing urban local bodies elections in the state. Once a research scholar of the Aligarh Muslim University, Mannan Wani had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen earlier this year. He had gone missing from the Uttar Pradesh university, where he had been studying Applied Geology. A few days later, his photograph, holding what appeared to be a AK assault rifle, appeared on social media
