"You caught me, congratulations" -- these were the last words of the Lashkar-e-Taiba's Kashmir commander Abu Dujana, who was killed in an encounter in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.
Dujana spoke over phone to an Indian Army officer, who asked the former to surrender before the security forces minutes before the shootout began.
According to a report by TheTime of India, the officer, who commissioned a Kashmiri civilian to begin the conversation, could be heard asking Dujana to surrender as he had nothing against the commander, but Dujana refused do so saying he had left behind his parents in Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan for “jihad”.
Dujana asked the officer: "Kya haal hai? Maine kaha, kya haal hai (how are you. I asked, how are you)?" The officer calmly replied: "Humara haal chhor Dujana. Surrender kyon nahi kar deta…Tu galat kar raha hai…Tune shaadi ki hain iss ladki se…(Why don't you surrender? You have married this girl. What you are doing isn't right).”
Dujana, who had managed to give the security forces a slip several times in the past, carried a bounty of Rs 15 lakh on his head.
The army officer also tried to convince him by saying Indian security forces had no hard feelings against him and they were just doing their duty. He also told Dujana that he was being used by Pakistani agencies as a pawn.
To which Dujana said: "Hum nikley they shaheed hone. Main kya karu. Jisko game khelna hai, khelo. Kabhi hum aage, kabhi aap, aaj aapne pakad liya, mubarak ho aapko. Jisko jo karna hai karlo (I had left home for martyrdom. What can I do? Today you caught me. Congratulations).
"Surrender nahi kar sakta. Jo meri kismat may likha hoga, Allah wahi karega, theek hai? (I can’t surrender. Allah would do whatever is there in my fate)."
Dujana abruptly ended the conversation as the officer was heard making continuous appeals to save Kashmiris and not recruit youth for terror.
Dujana was killed minutes after that phone call in the encounter. The operation, which was conducted in the dead of the night, was over by about 6.30 am, with the first rays of sunlight.
An A+++ category militant, Dujana had taken over the reins of the Lashker-e-Taiba in the Kashmir Valley after the group's divisional commander Abu Qassim was killed in 2013.
