Around 50 men from Salani village in Mendhar in south Kashmir left their jobs in Saudi Arabia to return to their village. They have only one desire – to avenge the death of Indian Army rifleman Aurangzeb, who was killed by terrorists on 14 June.

The villagers of Salani, near Poonch, have been seething with rage ever since terrorists abducted and killed their 24-year-old friend Aurangzeb while he was on his way home to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr. While Aurangzeb’s death was mourned by all, his family members demanded that authorities in India avenge his killing.

Now the 50 men have arrived to join the efforts in the fight against terrorism.

Mohammad Kiramat, one of the men, told NDTV that all of the men left Saudi Arabia the day they heard of Aurangzeb’s killing.

“When we heard about the killing of brother Aurangzeb, we left Saudi Arabia the same day, and forcibly got ourselves relieved from the job,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Kiramat added that leaving jobs on the spot is difficult in Saudi Arabia but they managed somehow.

“The only mission is to avenge the death of Aurangzeb”, said Kiramat.

Aurangzeb belonged to the Gujjar community. His village, Salani, is near the Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch district of Jammu.

He belonged to 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry and was posted on deputation with the 44 Rashtriya Rifles camp at Shadimarg in Shopian, with which he participated in anti-terror operations.

He was part of the commando unit which killed ‘A++’ category Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sameer Tiger in an encounter in April. Sameer Ahmed Bhat, alias Sameer Tiger, the Hizbul Mujahideen’s main recruiter, was gunned down in Pulwama district’s Drabgam area.

A team of J-K Police and the Indian Army found Aurangzeb’s bullet-ridden body at Gussu village, about 10 km away from Kalampora in Pulwama from where he was abducted.

Aurangzeb’s elder brother, Mohammad Qasim, who is also a serving soldier in the Army, expressed his suspicion that someone from the inside might have passed on information about his brother’s movement to terrorists who synchronised his kidnapping and killing in a precise manner.

Read More: ‘Insider hand’ in Aurangzeb killing under probe

His father, Mohammad Latif, blamed the “weak policy” of the government towards terrorists in Kashmir for the killing of his son.

Latif, who himself was earlier in the Army, wanted that politicians and separatists should be thrown out of Srinagar and the army given free hand to comb the entire Valley and eliminate the terrorists.

Read More: Aurangzeb’s father blames politicians for weak policy towards terrorists