Over 12,000 attend LeT militant's funeral in PDP stronghold

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 13: Allegedly involved in dozens of attacks on security forces and several civilian killings, including the killing of 8 soldiers on the eve of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba's top wanted militant Irshad Ganai was buried amid pro-Pakistan slogans in his village of Padgampora in Pulwama district on Sunday. He had died in an encounter with security forces and Police near Kakpora last evening.

Residents and some separatist leaders claimed that 25,000 tp 30,000 people participated in Ganai's funeral. However, independent reports put the number of the participants as 12,000 to 15,000. A J&K Police agency also reported that it was a gathering of 12,000 to 15,000 people----the biggest for a militant in recent times and several years. Padgampora is a village in the ruling PDP stronghold of Pulwama, in South Kashmir.

"1000's attend a LeT militant's funeral in Padgampora, Kashmir (I heard 20k-30k). Still believe an economic package is the solution, do you??", National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted.

Separatist hardliner and Chairman of the radical faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani addressed the huge gathering on telephone from his residence in Hyderpora where Ganai and other LeT militants had ambushed an Army convoy and killed 8 soldiers in 2013.

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