J&K: Footballer who quit LeT will study outside state

Srinagar: Kashmir’s young footballer Majid Irshad Khan, who surrendered before the Army on the ninth day of his joining Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) in November following an appeal from his mother, has been taken outside the Valley by the Army to peruse his studies.

The Army sources here said that 20-year-old Majid had desired to continue his studies but in view of potential threat to his life from militants, he was advised to move out of the Valley to chase his dream. The decision to shift him outside Jammu and Kashmir was taken after receiving the approval of his father Irshad Ahmed Khan and mother Aisha Begum, the sources said.

Majid had left his home at Sadiqabad along KP Road of southern Anantnag on November 9 morning and next day, a post on Facebook announcing he had joined the militants’ ranks went viral. It confirmed that he was with the LeT which has given him non de guerre ‘Abu Ismael’. The brief announcement was accompanied by a photograph showing Majid, a tall, skinny boy with Caucasian features, holding an AK 47 assault rifle.

Soon, his mother stopped eating and, a few days later, his father suffered a mild heart attack after he learnt that his son was among the militants trapped in a village of southern Kulgam district when the security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation there. With the help of his friends, they launched a campaign on social media asking him to return home.

Responding to it especially the appeal from his mother, Majid surrendered before the Army’s 1 Rashtriya Rifles at Khanabal in Anantnag on the night of November 17, the decision termed by the Army as “very brave”. The Army had while complimenting him assured that he “will be able to get back to normal life very soon.”

The LeT, on the other hand, had claimed that Majid was allowed to leave the outfit and return to his parents for he was the only male among the three siblings and his parents, particularly mother, were emotionally very upset.

Majid is an undergraduate commerce student and has passed Classes 10 and 12 exams with good grades. The Army refused to divulge details about his new educational destination but said, “He wanted to continue with his studies and we agreed to facilitate his ambition.”