The terrorist who carried out the Pulwama terror attack

Terrorists seem to be training the deaf and speech impaired Kashmiris to perpetrate violence in India. A video has surfaced after the Pulwama terror attack showing one such person threatening violence in India. Jammu and Kashmir police says it will have the matter looked into. A man threatening in sign language violence against India

NEW DELHI: The terrorists are sparing no effort to foment trouble in Kashmir. In the latest, after training locals such as Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Adil Ahmed Dar, who killed 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama on February 14, the terrorists are learnt to have trained the deaf and speech impaired to carry out blasts in several parts of India, including Delhi.

Soon after the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred, a video has surfaced in which an automatic assault gun-toting man is seen making gestures in the sign language.

The video is being circulated among WhatsApp groups of the deaf and speech impaired persons.

When contacted, Jammu and Kashmir Additional Director General of Police (Security, Law and Order) Munir Ahmed Khan said they would have the matter looked into.

Gyanendra Purohit, who runs an NGO called Anand Service Society in Madhya Pradesh especially for the deaf and speech impaired, told timesofindia.com that the video clip first surfaced sometime between 2016 and 2018.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has entrusted Purohit to trace the parents of deaf and speech impaired woman Geeta, who was brought back from Pakistan. He has also been asked to find a suitable groom for Geeta.

Purohit said the terrorists have started brain-washing the deaf and speech impaired persons in the Kashmir Valley and outside to carry out jihad in India.

Transcribing what the man in the video is trying to communicate, he said, “By raising his finger and turning his palm, the man says Indians are bad. By moving his finger up and down, he says India is committing excesses and that it has killed many of their men.”

Purohit further said, “The gun-wielding man goes on put his hand on his chest. It means he is telling the people to have patience. Then he says after some time, they will kill everyone. They will also attack India’s capital Delhi.”

He says when the man puts his finger on his head, he means he is talking about Hindustan or India. “The man subsequently makes more serious threats. He says he will not harm the deaf and speech impaired but he will not spare those who can hear and speak.”

“We will bring explosives and then kill the Indians,” the man is seen as gesturing in sign language, according to Purohit.

He said if brainwashed, the deaf and speech impaired can prove to be disastrous because they have limited exposure to the outside world.

Purohit, who has been working among the deaf and speech impaired for several decades, said, “These people are not suspected by the society and they can be easily convinced and used. This can prove to be disastrous."

He says the video clip is genuine because the expressions of the youth are original. The man seen in the video could belong to Kashmir or Pak-Occupied Kashmir (POK). He may or may not be deaf himself but his message certainly is aimed at the deaf and speech impaired people. “His expressions are a mixture of the American and Indian sign languages. He knows how to address India and Delhi,” Purohit said.

He said terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) had trained the deaf and speech impaired in warfare in 2015. Some of these differently-abled people in Kashmir may have fallen prey to their designs.

Indian security agencies are already trying to cope up with the new tactics of the terrorists of sending suicide bombers along with improvised explosive device (IED). If not checked in time, the addition of the deaf and mute will certainly make their job more difficult.