#Remembering Lieutenant Umar Faiyaz- Dear Media, Umar Is Real POSTER-BOY For Kashmir, Not Burhan Wani

Today, if you ask any journalist, who was Burhan Vani, all of them will tell you, he was the poster boy of terrorism prevalent in Kashmir, the smallest region of Jammu Kashmir, rather South Kashmir to be precise. They will also tell you that he was from Tral and inspired by Burhan, many young boys are becoming terrorists by following his footsteps. However, if you ask the same journalists, who was Umar Faiyaz, barely they will be able to tell you anything. Our media, which thrives on negativism, has no qualms in selling a terrorist as their poster boy. But the same media is not telling the people anything about this 22 years old Kashmiri boy, Umar Faiyaz, Lieutenant in Indian Army, who, exactly two years ago, was dragged out of a marriage in Kashmir and killed by the terrorists on 10th May 2017. Umar’s first posting was in Akhnoor, after joining the service he had come to his village for the first time, to attend the wedding of his paternal cousin. The night when he was kidnapped, celebration of wedding Sangeet was on. Next morning people found his dead body in the neighbouring village, Harman. He was killed with two bullets.

Ideally speaking it is absolutely wrong to compare Lt. Umar Faiyaz and Burhan Vani, in fact there can be no comparison between the two. But in order to expose some prominent media houses, we are compelled to make this comparison. In 2016 Burhan, a terrorist from Pulwama, was killed in an encounter. Pulwama is one of the five districts of Jammu Kashmir, where terrorism is widespread, the remaining four are Anantnag, Shopiyan, Kulgam and Srinagar. After the encounter of this terrorist, all the prominent news channels, visited his house and the picture created by them was as if all educated youth of Kashmir prefer terrorism and want to become terrorists!

The irony is that Lieutenant Umar Faiyaz was from Shopiyan, one of the above-mentioned terrorism festered districts. Despite the separatist atmosphere, Umar chose to join the army. After his brutal killing his family was completely devastated, but the media, which went to the house of Burhan and kept glorifying the terrorist, did not bother to even visit the house of Lt Faiyaz, who laid his life for the country. You will be surprised to know that the distance between the houses of Lt Faiyaz and Burhan is barely 40-50 minutes. Alas, our media could not even cover this distance. Or may be those who are promoting journalism of separatism, could not see any TRP ratings in interview of the family of Lt Faiyaz.

When you visit the house of Umar Faiyaz, you will find his elder sister, nursing her grandparents as they still under the distressing shock of his death. His grandfather suffered a heart attack when he heard the news of the killing of his 22 years old grandson, till date he has not been able to come out of the shock. Same is the condition of his parents. After Umar started earning, both of them had planned to go for Haj. But Umar’s death brought life to a standstill. Soon after Umar’s martyrdom, his younger brother was born. In the memory of their martyred son, his parents named the new born Umar.

His family will tell you that Umar was a very innocent boy. He took his education very seriously. Umar’s father wanted him to become a pilot, but due to some medical reasons he could not join the air force and instead joined the NDA. He studied in Navoday Vidyalay and was an inspiration for the young boys in his village. Whenever he went home while under training, many boys from his village would come and ask him how can they joined the army. He used to guide them and encourage them. This did not go down well with the terrorists and separatists and hence they targeted him.

If you go to Umar’s village Yaripora , the simple two storied house of Umar, still reminds us of his sacrifice, as if asking a disturbing question- who is an inspiration for the nation a Patriot army officer or a terrorist, who was given huge coverage by the media? May be the media did not reach there, but the nation stands with Lt Umar Faiyaz and is indebted to him for his sacrifice.