Thousands of people on Tuesday participated in several rounds of funeral prayers for slain Lashkar-e-Toiba militant Yawar Bashir in his native village of Hablish in Kulgam district.
Yawar was killed along with two Pakistani nationals, Furqan and Abu Maviya, shortly after carrying out an attack on an army convoy in Bonigam village of Qazigund, along the Srinagar-Jammu highway, on Monday. Government forces retrieved Yawar’s body late on Monday evening from the debris of the house that they blasted to rubble during the gunfight. His body was handed to his family on Tuesday morning.

Soon after word about Yawar’s death broke out, thousands of people from across Kulgam and Anantnag districts started pouring into Hablish village.
“The mourners kept swelling despite an internet ban in force in both Kulgam and Anantnag districts, which kept the news from travelling far,” local sources said. They said that more than five back-to-back funeral prayers were held for the slain militant after which he was buried at his ancestral graveyard. Yawar’s body was draped in the Pakistan flag and the gathered mourners raised pro-Pakistan, pro-freedom and anti-India slogans.