Burhan Muzaffar Wani (19 September 1994-8 July 2016) was a Hizbul Mujahideen commander during the insurgency in Kashmir in northern India. His social media outreach campaign appealed to Muslim youth in Kashmir, and his death in 2016 led to deadly riots in India.
Biography[]
Burgan Muzaffar Wani was born on 19 September 1994 in Dadsara, Jammu and Kashmir, India, the son of a secondary school principal. At the age of fifteen, he fled his home to join Kashmiri separatist groups, and in 2011 he became a Hizbul Mujahideen fighter. Burhan recruited thirty young boys from southern Kashmir to join HM, and he had a social media campaign that appealed for young Muslims to join Hizbul Mujahideen in the fight for Kashmiri independence. On 8 July 2016, Wani and two other HM fighters were killed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Rashtriya Rifles, an elite unit of the Indian Army, at Bundoora, Kokernag, Jammu and Kashmir. In the days following his death, deadly riots broke out as Muslim youth rioted against the Indian government.