Dr. Mannan Bashir Wani: A journey from pen to gun

By Aadil Gulam Dar, M.A. Education, Aligarh Muslim University 

                         (A Poet, Writer, Debater & Blogger)

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A person of revolutionary ideology was having unique thinking and hold inclusive concepts. His social nature was an example of integration. He was known by his positive philosophy of life. Live and let live other’s was his only best motive. I still remember the cup which was laying on the foot path of library canteen, that is a usual process of students to lay down the cups at any place where they are sitting and standing to take the taste of tea. As usual with the charming face he came out from the library talking to a friend and I was behind him, obviously they were going to canteen for the tea. While walking towards the canteen the cup was laying there on the footpath, he took up it and placed it on the table in front of canteen. His ethical sense which I couldn’t found in anyone else without him and his friendly nature was his one of the amazing features. And the debate I remember too was in Kennedy Auditorium on ‘Sir Syed: Vision & Mission’, I was also taking participation in the competition. The words that he spoke out that time are still in my mind, the way of expression, the ideas, the concepts and the conclusion was really one of the dimensions of Sir Syed’s dream that the scholars like him to be in the Aligarh Muslim University and at the end of the debate I won second prize but without him there was no participant best suitable for first prize, and with the standing ovation of jury he was awarded with trophy of first prize. He was not only a student/scholar but a mind of rationale ideology, a one time friend, a philosopher and a guide that is why no one wanted to left his company whenever one was having an opportunity to be with him while walking or during the tea at DHABA.

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 father Bashir Ahmad Wani a lecturer in profession, 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 his friend. 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 his friend. 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 M.Phil was the watershed characterization of Lolab,” says his friend. “For his PhD, he was researching structural geology, as related to our homeland.”

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.  “He kept discussing politics, social issues, and the ongoing conflict in Kashmir, “He was stubborn, and he always tried to prove his point and only listened to himself. On March 10, 2017, Manan participated and won in the panel discussion on “Role of Men in Feminism”. The points he highlighted in the discussion were “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”. 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 but his father did not give his consent. But, being a good orator, he used to attract large crowds at AMU.

In October 2017, Manan was supposed to be at home to attend his brother’s marriage. On October 31, 2017, Manan entered his two-storeyed mud and brick house, but this time he was a changed man. Manan went to invite his relatives with the invitation card for brother’s marriage. He had not been in touch with his relatives but this time tried to spend time with them. His father was happy to see his son as a changed man. His brother, who had earlier been worried, felt relaxed to see Manan involved in the wedding preparations. His impish behavior 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 realized that they were seeing him for the last time. On January 4, 2018, Manan sent two pictures of the M.Phil Convocation to his friend “that was a little confused, wondering why he sent those pictures all of the sudden,” says his friend. His friend was trying to contact him but his (Mannan’s) phone was switched off. To check on Manan’s recent activity, his friend tried to see his Facebook profile but it was “deactivated”. This made him shudder. Bashir Ahmad, Manna’s father, kept enquiring about Manan’s whereabouts but their search yielded nothing.  Nobody was able to trace him. His brother 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 Ahmad 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. Just a day after the picture went viral, Manan’s mother, Shameema, 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 his friend.

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. Soon courtyard of Mannan’s home was filled with people wanting to know about Manan. The only PhD scholar of the 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 too. The people rushed to the village Chandigam about 8 km from Tekipora 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 Kashmir’s. 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. With this we lost a legend of having optimistic, ideological, conceptual and scientific ideas who wanted to live and let live others in self determination.

The last opportunistic moment I had to meet him inside the bus. I was going to see off my friends there as they were leaving for Delhi. When I entered into the bus Mannan Bhai was sitting on the front seat, I saw him and said with respect “Asalamuallikum doc. Sahab, how are you and where are you going?” Mannan Bhai replied with his same sweet and attractive voice “Walaikumasalam, allhamhulillah I am fine, I am going to Delhi for some work” then suddenly he stood up and hugged me tight and whispered in my right ear that was audible for me “koi baat nhe aap ne election nhe jeeta, aap apne padhaie pe zyda diyaan do pehlay” (don’t worry dear for not winning the election (AMUSU 2018), important is to focus on your studies first). With a strong hand shake he patched my back and I came out of bus. This was the last time I saw him and his last moment too in Aligarh. I thank almighty for giving me such a fortunate time that I met him at his last moment in Aligarh. And whole heartedly I am thankful to Mannan Bhai for giving me courage and suggested me to write and speak for the social causes and crises and mainly for the self determination for the people of our land.    

“we are soldiers, we don’t fight to die but to win, we don’t feel dignity in death but do feel dignity in fighting (Indian) occupation, its military might, its collaborators, its tyranny and most of all its ego and if/when we die while fighting all this, we do feel dignity in that death”

                                                                           - Dr. Mannan Bashir Wani

                    Aadil Gulam Dar

         (Poet, Writer, Debater, Blogger)

        Completed Masters in Education,

             Aligarh Muslim Universityity