Why the romanticising of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani has to stop

The romanticizing of Muzzafar Burhan Wani needs to stop. Questions have been raised about his killing and the fall out of the same in Kashmir which has been on the boil since Saturday. It has been argued that Burhan restricted his activities just to the internet.

The argument that his acts were only restricted to the internet needs to be trashed. There are physical acts of terror and nearly 11 cases against him are under investigation.

Further he was not preaching peace on the internet, but urging the youth to take up arms against the Indian armed forces. He managed to sway into his fold several youth and if one looks at every case of terrorism it is the master who is far more dangerous than the foot soldier.

The man with the remote

If people want to argue that he had not committed any offense physically then by that logic, the same needs to apply to Osama Bin Laden and Hafiz Saeed. Laden when he was alive never went on to the battle field. Saeed too has not been on the ground, but sucessfully manages to stir up passions among thousands of youth to take up arms and kill.

The case is Burhan too is similar, although there are close to a dozen cases against him. Some of his cases include killing of an army personnel, a politicians, sarpanchs, an attack on a Rasthriya Rifle Party and also snatching of weapons. These are clearly physical acts of terror.

However for those who argue that his acts were more on the social media, what they need to understand is this is far more dangerous than his physical acts.

He became the poster boy for the Hizbul Mujahideen and in the bargain stirred up passions among several youth to take up arms. Probably for the first time in Kashmir thanks to Burhan, did the number of local militants outnumber the foreign terrorists.

An intelligence bureau official says that what people need to understand that the master is far more lethal than the foot soldier.

Take for instance the Mumbai 26/11 attack. Ajmal Kasab was just following orders and moved around like a remote controlled puppet. However the real inspiration for him was Hafiz Saeed. This is why I say that the master is far more dangerous than the puppet and this logic needs to apply to Burhan as well, the officer also noted.