Manan Wani’s Journey From the Pen to the Gun

Born in a well-educated family Manan Bashir Wani shocked the Kashmir valley, including his friends and teachers who taught him at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), family members and also security agencies, when he joined the rebel ranks.  

A question crossed every mind: What made a PhD scholar pick up the gun? Was it due to the conflict in Kashmir or something else?

Passion for Education

Manan was born in Tikipora Sogam Lolab, an area of Kupwara district which is almost 128 kilometers from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.  

He spent his first six years in a local school in his village. Manan asked his lecturer father Bashir Ahmad Wani, 56, permission for joining the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) -- a school chain run by the Government of India. His father relented with much reluctance to send Manan to a boarding school.

Manan moved to JNV located at Podshahi village near a garrison, 17 km from his home. Bashir’s other son, Mubashir Wani, now 29, and his daughter Asimah, now 21, stayed at home.

During his first year at JNV, Manan became a good orator and apart from excelling in academics, was a good sportsman.  Manan represented his school and won many national kabaddi tournaments. He was also good at football and volleyball.

Manan proved to his father that his decision of joining JNV wasn’t wrong when he passed his 10th-grade exams with 82% marks.

“His passion for education increased by the day, and with the grace of God he was able to achieve his targets,” says Mubashir Wani.

Like before, Manan decided on his own to take up science and mathematics in senior secondary, with medicine as a prospect. He moved to another branch of JNV at Ganderbal in central Kashmir where he appeared for 11th and 12th grades. “Again, he proved that he had made the right decision, because he passed his 12th grade with 86% marks,” recalls Mubashir.

In 2008, Manan informed his father that he wasn’t interested in enrolling for MBBS and instead was going to take up humanities. He got admission in Amar Singh College in Srinagar for the bachelor’s course in geology. He maintained his track record and completed his bachelors without any break or backlog.

For further studies in geology, Manan enrolled in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2011, for a master’s degree and went on to finished his M.Phil. In 2015, he secured his admission in PhD at AMU.

“We were all happy with Manan’s success but his PhD was not the only reason. The topics he took for MPhil was the watershed characterisation of Lolab,” says Mubashir. “For his PhD, he was researching structural geology, as related to our homeland.”

In 2014, Manan created his Twitter account where he used to post things related to current politics and happenings across the globe. In the same year, when he got selected for PhD, he started his blog and posted regularly on it. His first article was an open letter to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a member of the Joint Resistance Leadership. He also wrote about Najeeb Ahmad who went missing from Jawaharlal Nehru University hostel. His last post was about the encounter in Bhopal.

Mubashir recalls an incident of July 8, 2016 when Manan was at home, and in the evening both of them left for Maghrib (evening) prayers. “When we came out of the mosque, I checked my phone and read the news about the killing of Hizbul Mujahedeen (militant outfit active in Kashmir) commander Burhan Wani. I told Manan about it,” says Mubashir.

Without saying a word, Manan walked back home and went to his room. The whole family ran to his room when they heard Manan wailing. “He was crying like a baby, this was for the first time when I saw him crying like this,” recalls Mubashir.

After spending 10 days at home ,Manan went back to AMU, but wanted to return back to Kashmir almost immediately. After about 20 days, his family allowed him to come back.

New Concerns

Manan surprised his family during this visit. “He kept discussing politics, social issues, the ongoing conflict in Kashmir,” recalls Mubashir. “He was stubborn, he always tried to prove his point and only listened to himself, since childhood.”  These discussions would stretch up to midnight. However, the situation in Kashmir after Burhan’s killing made him return to AMU.

Manan continued to use his Twitter handle to express his thoughts about the civilian killings in Kashmir.

“He was a lover of democracy, but the violation of human rights always hurt him. Right to expression was something he liked the most,” Mubashir says.

Months passed and Manan kept tweeting about things which were against democracy and about human rights. In 2017, he thought about contesting the student elections at AMU. He gave up the idea as Bashir did not give his consent. But, being a good orator, he used to attract large crowds at AMU.

On March 10, 2017, Manan participated and won in the panel discussion on “Role of Men in Feminism”.

“I called him and asked him what happened in the discussion. He replied that “not just women in India but my thoughts were clear about the women across the globe. Governments don’t have any right to interfere in what a woman should wear” and he dropped the call,” said Mubashir.

In September 2017, Manan called Mubashir and asked him not to be vocal about the happenings in Kashmir and other political issues on social media. This was for the first time Mubashir noticed that his brother sounded really scared.

On asking the reason for this, Manan told him “I was in my chamber with other friends, a couple of men who were dressed in black entered into the room. I didn’t notice them initially, but when I stood up from my chair they came and placed their hand on my shoulder and asked me to sit down. I sat down, and they told me to stop posting these things on Twitter as it can lead ‘you to lose your life’.” This time, he didn’t drop the call” said Mubashir.

Manan further told his brother that they shouldn’t post anything, it can put the family into trouble. His last tweet was about the Rohingya Muslims, posted on September 8, 2017.

“I never once thought that he will pick up arms after he was stopped to enjoy his Article 19(1) A (freedom of speech),” says Mubashir with tears rolling down his face.  

A Changed Man

In October 2017, Manan was supposed to be home to attend his brother’s marriage. “He asked me to wait for him, and insisted that he will distribute the invitation cards to all the relatives,” said Mubashir. “I never knew he was looking for a way to meet everyone who was related to him.”

On October 31, 2017, Manan entered his two-storeyed mud and brick house, but this time he was a changed man.

His decision was clear about taking all responsibility of arranging Mubashir’s marriage.

“He asked papa not to work, he will manage all the things by himself, which surprised everyone in our family,” says Mubashir.

Manan went to invite his relatives with the invitation card for Mubashir’s marriage. He had not been in touch with his relatives but this time tried to spend time with them. Bashir was happy to see his son as a changed man. Mubashir, who had earlier been worried, felt relaxed to see Manan involved in the wedding preparations.

“He had changed, after the incident that happened with him in the chamber, but, of course I was not able to see what was going on inside him,” Mubashir laments.

His impish behaviour was gone, he wouldn’t behave stubbornly. He would listen to everyone without saying a word. This change made Wani’s family worried. But no one was able to figure out the real reason for this change.

On December 4, 2017, Manan rolled his stuff in a bag and was ready to leave for AMU. Like other days, he said goodbye to everyone, no one realised that they were seeing him for the last time.

Manan Disappears

Mubashir would chat with Manan on a daily basis and alternatively talk with him over the phone. On January 4, 2018, when Mubashir was driving back home from Srinagar, Manan sent him two pictures of the MPhil Convocation, “I was a little confused, wondering why he sent me those pictures all of the sudden,” says Mubashir.

Once home, Mubashir tried calling Manan but his phone was switched off and the other number was not reachable. At around 10 p.m, he tried again but his phone was still off.

Next day while coming home from work, Mubashir tried again to reach Manan but to no avail. He was beginning to get worried but was relieved when Asimah (their sister) told him “he messaged me on WhatsApp.”

To check on Manan’s recent activity, Mubashir tried to see his Facebook profile but it was “deactivated”. This made Mubashir shudder. Bashir kept enquiring about Manan’s whereabouts but their search yielded nothing.  

Nobody was able to trace him. Mubashir called one of Manan’s friends and asked him to check if Manan was in his room. In an hour, the friend called back and told him, “Manan has gone to Delhi as his grandfather is admitted in a hospital there”. In Delhi, Manan had told his friends “my grandfather is admitted in Jammu.”

Finally, Bashir filed a missing person’s report on January 7. The police gave the last location of Manan’s phone at Bijbehara an area in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, which is one of the hotbeds of militancy.

The suspense of his whereabouts finally came to an end, when Manan’s picture wearing armour waist with AK 47 went viral on social media on the same day.

Bashir’s dream was to see Manan following the path of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of AMU. But his dream was shattered when he saw the picture.

Just a day after the picture went viral, Manan’s mother, Shameema, 50, tried to plead to her son via many TV news channels to come back, but his decision remained unchanged.

“It was clear why he had picked up the arms -- he was a democracy lover, his right to freedom of speech was snatched and what he did next was the outcome,” said Mubashir.

Last Days

The morning of October 11, 2018 started with the news of an encounter in Shatgund Salamabad, an area of Handwara in north Kashmir. From every corner of valley, rumours about Manan being trapped in Shatgund were abuzz on Facebook. The authorities ordered a shutdown of all the educational institutes in the valley.

“I called the station house officer of our police station to confirm this rumour but was told that Manan is not there,” Mubashir said. “They denied his presence because they were preparing to control people from reaching here.”

Soon Bashir’s courtyard was filled with people wanting to know about Manan. The only PhD scholar of his village was in a fight with the government forces in Shatgund. Internet services were banned in Kupwara Handwara, and in the rest of Kashmir high-speed internet was reduced to 1.5G.

“I called the SHO again, and asked him to confirm the news, as earlier he said declined. I asked my cousin to go to the police station to check. As soon as he entered the police station, the authority letter of handing over the dead body was already lying on the table,” said Mubashir.

Mubashir rushed and joined his cousin and was taken to a village Chandigam about 8 km from Tekipora in a Casper (army vehicle) where the dead body of Manan was handed over to them.

Living the life of a militant for 10 months, Manan didn’t stop writing. During these months, he wrote two letters addressed to the Kashmiris. In his first letter, which was published on July 17, 2018 by Current News Service, Manan wrote “we love peace but not at the cost of our freedom.”

Another letter came on September 14, titled ‘Voice from Hills’ in which he wrote about his educational journey from Lolab to AMU. Just 24 days after this letter, Manan was killed by the forces, as thousands of people gathered for his last journey at Tekipora.