Burhan Wani: Che Guevara of Kashmir

It was a cold rainy day of December 1966 in the thick green valley of Vallegrande, in central Bolivia. A group of missionaries en route to a church in nearby Vellegrande municipality is stopped by a group of armed revolutionary rebels headed by a weak-looking man. Missionaries got stunned and feared harm from the group. The leader talked politely to them. Shocked were the missionaries to know that the leader of the group was Che Guevara, who was a fierce guerrilla fighter and a rebel leader of Latin America. He met the missionaries with full respect and told them that his struggle was against CIA-backed regimes and not against civilians and that missionaries were free to go anywhere they wished to.

This was 42-year-old Che Guevara at the time. He was later captured and executed in 1967 by a joint CIA-Bolivian Army operation. ‘No liberator can liberate people, people liberate themselves, Guevara once said.

History repeats itself!

Another rainy day of June 2016, in the valley of Kokarnag – Anantnag District – of Indian Occupied Kashmir, a 21-year-old leader of a group of freedom fighters, hears a rumour that forces of occupation are spreading news that his group is planning to carry out a series of activities against the Hindu pilgrims intending to travel to Indian Occupied Kashmir for Amarnath Yatra – a yearly holy visit performed at Amarnath Temple – in Anantnag. As the dates for the event were approaching, this young leader recorded a video message, which got viral on the internet.

‘We welcome you for your Amarnath Yatra. Our struggle for freedom is against the Indian forces. We are not against civilians of any religion coming to Kashmir for their pilgrimage’, he said.

This young leader was Burhan Wani. Born in 1994 in Tral, Pulwama district of Kashmir, he turned to armed struggle against the occupation forces of India in 2010, at an early age of 16. With the use of social media, he communicated with the masses and became a well-known face of resistance. He openly announced his acts of defiance against the occupation forces.

‘Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris; we are fighting for our basic right of freedom and self-determination, he maintained in his video messages.

Anantnag Yatra was to commence in mid-July, but this freedom fighter gave his life for the cause of freedom of his people on July 8, 2016. He and his two associates fought valiantly against scores of Indian commandos for four long hours. The Battle ended as all three freedom fighters embraced martyrdom while fighting. This freedom fighter’s martyrdom initiated a ‘new intifada’ in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

One man’s terrorist is another man’s ‘Burhan Wani’!

Though Indian media portrayed Burhan Wani as a terrorist – same as Che Guevara of Latin America was declared terrorist by western media – but both the names would never die. Burhan Wani would remain a symbol of resistance for the Kashmiri youth, same as Che Guevara is a symbol of resistance for the youth all over the world.

Like in Indian Occupied Kashmir, the first martyrdom anniversary of famous youth resistance leader, Burhan Muzaffar Wani is observed on 8^th July to pay tributes to the freedom fighter, who introduced new trends to fight against Indian tyranny and illegal occupation.

Burhan Wani, the Che Guevara of Kashmir, played an unmatched role to energize the legitimate armed struggle of Kashmir against the Indian illegal occupation, and the impact of his martyrdom is a unique episode in the history of the freedom struggle of Kashmir. After Burhan, the valley witnessed an exponential rise in the number of youths, importantly the research scholars like Dr. Manan Wani, who joined the armed struggle against the illegal and barbaric Indian Occupation.

Burhan Wani is a freedom fighter who died young for his cause, and now the youth of Kashmir idolize him as a symbol of freedom in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir.