Lashkar’s Master of Masks, Their Kashmir Ex-Chief Abu Dujana

Dujana emerged as south Kashmir’s most popular militant after Wani – remarkable, for he wasn’t ethnically Kashmiri.

(Photo: Rhythum Seth/ The Quint)

So masterfully adept was Abu Dujana at disguise that even people who knew him sometimes failed to recognise him. His hair could be shoulder-length, utterly straight, or as curly as Goldilocks’. At times, his hair was golden-brown; at other times, it was black. He could wear glasses, have a beard, or be shaved. He could be dressed in jeans or in a pheran.

No wonder he often slipped past security. In fact, according to one story, he was riding a motorcycle in rural Pulwama during the agitations last year when a band of boys pulled him down at a barricade for defying the shutdown – not realising that the man they were confronting was Laskhar-e-Taiba’s chief in Kashmir.

Still of Burhan Wani, 21-yr-old commander of the Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen who was killed in July last year. (Photo Courtesy: ANI Screengrab)

Meteoric Popularity

It was partly owing to such legends that Dujana, who was killed by security forces on Tuesday, emerged for a while as the most popular militant in south Kashmir after Burhan Wani was killed in July last year. This was remarkable, for he was not ethnically Kashmiri.

Having come to Kashmir when he was just emerging from his teens, he had been accepted almost as a local, particularly in areas such as the Newa-Kakapora belt in the north of Pulwama district, where he spent a lot of time.

A Double-Edged Sword

Ironically, however, his ability to switch identities was Abu Dujana’s greatest disadvantage as a militant as much as it was his advantage. Since at least late last year, even the masters of Lashkar were apparently not quite sure about which of his affiliations they could trust.

Early this year, they replaced him as their Kashmir chief. According to some reports, a Pakistani called Abu Ismail has led Lashkar operations in the recent past.

Out From Qasim’s Shadow

If powers on various sides were unsure about what to make of Dujana, it was partly because he was a man about town – far more than his predecessor, the extraordinarily low-profile Abu Qasim, had been.

In fact, Dujana had been forced to keep a low profile as long as he was Qasim’s security man and shadow. 

It was when Qasim was killed in November 2015 that Dujana became prominent. And, after Burhan too was killed eight months later, Dujana really came into his own for a while.

Near Miss

One aspect of Dujana’s mastery at controlling how he looked was that he could look dazzlingly attractive, even if his physical stature was not immediately imposing. So it was little wonder that he married a Kashmiri woman – and adopted her family as his own.

His network of associates too was notable, especially as long as Yousuf Lone, an overground worker of Lashkar who had been active for close to two decades, remained his coordinator.

Also Read: Not Capturing Burhan Wani Alive Pushed Kashmir Over the Edge

Lone was killed on 19 May, a few hours after Dujana narrowly escaped an attempt by the forces to kill him.

Dujana was rumoured to have opened a line of communication with Zakir Musa.(Photo: lijumol Joseph/ The Quint)

Rubbing Shoulders with Musa

The most recent twist in Dujana’s tale of varied associations was pan-Islamism; he was rumoured to have opened a line of communication with the extremist Islamist Zakir Musa.

The latter has become associated with Al Qaeda and espouses a project of global Islamism that rejects any kind of nationalism, including Pakistani and Kashmiri.

Musa was the divisional commander of Hizb-ul Mujahideen until he was forced to leave that organisation after he threatened to slit the throats and string up any Hurriyat or other ‘leader’ who called Kashmir’s struggle political. In a message that went viral on the net, Musa rejected democracy and declared that Kashmir’s struggle was purely for Islam.

Foreign Strings

Since then, the Pakistan-based Lashkar has explicitly backed China, calling it the predominant power in south Asia.

In light of all this, simply adding a statistic to the tally of ‘kills’, calling him an ‘A++ category militant,’ or focusing on the huge bounty that the government had posted for his elimination might all only skim the surface. The challenge is to unravel the global links and geostrategic objectives at play. Those masks might prove far more devious than Dujana’s most beguiling disguises.

(The writer is a Kashmir-based author of ‘The Generation of Rage in Kashmir’ and journalist. He can be reached at @david_devadas)

Also Read: Who is Abu Dujana, the Top LeT Terrorist Killed in Pulwama?

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