Srinagar:Majid Irshad Khan, a top footballer of Kashmir who recently took up arms to liberate the disputed valley from India, has returned home after listening to his mother’s appeal.In a video that went viral on social media, Ashiya Begum, Majid’s mother, can be seen distraught and in tears, urging her son to come back, BBC Urdu reported.“I am waiting for him to come back. I want him to return home and play football again,” his mother said in the video. His father was also admitted to a hospital after he suffering a mild stroke on Tuesday.On Friday morning, Majid went to a security camp and turned himself in.
Some media reports quoted the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the armed organisation Majid had joined, as saying that it had itself allowed him to return to his mother after hearing her appeal.A district-level footballer of Anantnag in the southern part of Kashmir, Majid joined the Lashkar-e-Toiba a few days ago. He was a second-year under-graduate commerce student at the Government Boys’ Degree College, Anantnag.Majid broke the news about his joining the group through a picture on Facebook holding an AK-47 that went viral on social networking sites. “Why [to] look up at the stars when the biggest star is me,” he wrote in his post.The 20-year-old is a renowned footballer of the town and had passed class 10 and 12 board examinations with high scores.
His 59-year-old father Irshad Ahmad Khan suffered a mild heart attack on Tuesday after hearing that he had been trapped in an encounter in Kulgam. A terrorist was killed. The arrest of three local terrorists during the mop-up operations revived the family’s hope.
Two months prior to taking up arms against Indian security forces in Kashmir, Majid’s friend, Yawar Nisar, who joined the Hizbul Mujahideen in July this year, was martyred in an encounter with the forces on August 3.

We facilitated Majid’s return: Army and JK Police

Srinagar: The Army said on Friday that Majid Khan, a footballer who joined the militants over a week ago, has decided to return home and that the military merely facilitated his decision.Addressing the media in Pulwama district, Major General B.S. Raju said: “The brave young man, Majid Khan, decided on his own to shun violence and return back to lead a normal life pursuing his academics and passion for football. He was neither apprehended nor did he surrender. We only facilitated his return,” he added. Majid made a brief presence at the press conference.
The Kashmir Valley’s police chief, Muneer Khan, said no charges would be pressed against Majid, 20, and he would be straightaway allowed to join his family.
Army sources had earlier said that Majid surrendered after walking into a Rashtriya Rifles camp at Kulgam on Thursday evening. He came with his arms and ammunition.He was handed over to Victor Force in Awantipora town which oversees all anti-militancy operations of the Army in south Kashmir.