Most people in Kashmir have long resented the Indian presence, and support rebel demands for an independent Kashmir or a merging with Pakistan. Handsome and media savvy, he was widely credited for reviving armed militancy in Indian Kashmir in recent years, using social media like Facebook to reach out to young Kashmiri men. Wani, in his early 20s, had become the iconic face of militancy in Kashmir over the last five years. Street clashes spread to Indian Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar and at least a dozen places in central and northern Kashmir. Unlike the rebel leaders of the early 1990s, Wani did not cover his face in videos widely circulated on cellphones.

Source: National Post July 11, 2016 13:30 UTC