Rukhsana, 18, doesn’t strike you as a remarkable girl.

Certainly, it was not until yesterday that she struck to her neighbours and family members as someone who could kill a terrorist.

Displaying courage usually seen in battlefields, the Muslim girl on Sunday axed to death a heavily-armed terrorist who had barged into their house in the mountainous regions of Rajouri district.

The terrorist, part of a group of three, wanted to kill her family, suspecting them to be police informers.

She says she couldn’t have reacted in any different manner. Rukhsana Hussain was born when militancy was beginning to sprout in the Kashmir Valley. Having grown up amid the sound of gunshots and hearing tales of fierce battles between terrorists and security forces, Rukhsana is among a growing army of gritty Kashmiri girls who are not afraid of terrorists.

The sight of an AK-47 rifle do not faze these girls, who grew up playing with empty bullet shells and used ammunition left behind in encounters. Many have seen fierce combat between terrorists and security forces from close range, subconsciously picking up hand-to-hand combat techniques.

Rukhsana & her 'friend': Jihadis, don't mess with them

As little girls, they would cower in fear. As grown-ups, their eyes betray no fear.

Like Rukhsana, the new generation of women wants to take the terrorists head on. Many of these women have experienced harassment by terrorists first hand, having been raped or tortured.

Rukhsana was kidnapped about two months ago. The police rescued her.

The manner in which she killed the terrorist could easily be the story of any brave officer killing armed terrorists in close combat. She killed a terrorist named Abu Osama [or Uzafah Shah - Ed.]. He along with two other terrorists had forced their way into her house.

The terrorists were armed with AK rifles when they raided her house about 6 km from Upper Shahdra Sharief, nearly 30 km from the main Rajouri town.

“The three terrorists knocked on the door of our house. We didn’t open the door, fearing the men could be terrorists. They went to my uncle’s house (Wakalat Hussain) nearby and, at gunpoint, asked him to make us open the door,” she said.

“The terrorists mercilessly thrashed us after they barged inside our house.” Rukhsana’s brother and mother were beaten up severely, said senior superintendent of police (Rajouri) S. A. Watali.

The terrorists also opened fire. A bullet hit Wakalat Hussain.

Rukhsana’s brother Aijaz Ahmed managed to pick up an axe and swung it at one of the terrorists.

Hit on the head, the terrorist started bleeding profusely.

Seeing her brother single-handedly fight the terrorists, Rukhsana, displaying raw courage, snatched an AK-47 rifle from one of them. She pulled the trigger.

A shot went off, the bullet missing the terrorist and hitting a wall of the house.

Seeing the gun in Rukhsana’s hands, the other two terrorists escaped. Gathering courage, Rukhsana fetched another axe with which she hit the cornered terrorist repeatedly. He died.

The family members then went to the police station, where they handed over one AK- 47 and one AK-56 rifle.

Rukshana says she is not afraid of terrorists but fears they might return to harm her family.

Watali said a police picket had been set up outside their house to prevent a retaliatory attack by terrorists. Soldiers of the 38 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) reached the spot and recovered two AK magazines and grenades.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has not yet announced a reward for Rukhsana, who has set an example by showing courage in tacking terrorists.

On her part, she has asked the authorities to give her a job.

This is the second incident in the recent past in which women have stood up against terrorists.

Earlier, a woman thrashed a terrorist inside the police station at Bhaderwah.

The terrorists had taken her to their hideout in a forest area of Zainedal, where they held her hostage for over a month and raped her. A mother of three, the woman filed a complaint with the police at Bhaderwah.

Buoyed by the courage of young girls in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, the authorities are planning to train them in handling of arms and ammunition.

After 20 years of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir, the local people – and in particular women) are showing signs of fighting back.

The terrorists, in common with Muslim terrorists everywhere, think that women and girls in their areas of operation are fair game and often mount raids to capture them – from where they are either raped (and sometimes killed), or married against their will – with brutal disregard for the feelings of the girls or their families.

This was one young girl that was not willing to endure the brutal misogyny of radical Islam, however. She overcame massive physical force with the power of pure rage, sharp wits and a determination not to see her loved ones wiped out by thugs.

Her courage boosted the morale of both the Indian forces engaged in the pursuit of these terrorists; and surely also of the ordinary populations of Kashmir, numb and weary after years of endless violence.

In further developments since this story was published, it turns out that Rukhsana did far more damage to the terrorist operation than she could have ever envisaged – the dead man was later identified as Uzafa Shah (Jihadi play-name ‘Abu Osama)’, a Pakistani national and a top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked group responsible for the horrific Mumbai Massacre last November.

We hope that Rukhsana and her family are adequately protected against reprisal action and Rukhsana in particular, generously rewarded for her quick thinking and fortitude. She is an example to the world.

She is said to have asked the authorities to give her a job – let’s hope they see sense and do so – and to ensure that it is somewhere where her courage can be used to fight lawlessness and terror in Kashmir – and perhaps to teach others to do the same.

Terrorism can be defeated when people fight back – it cannot survive when deprived of the oxygen of perceived popular mandate – which is clearly starting to become the case in this part of the world.

[Main story: India Today]

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