From a love-lorn young man to a dreaded terrorist: The tale of slain Hizbul commander Sabzar Bhat

When Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, who was killed by security forces last year, started exploring the power of social media, a tall burly youth donning combat fatigues used to stand out in the photo frames.

Initially, he was passed off as a Pakistani national given his built and features. Gradually when Wani flooded the social media with pictures of gun-toting youth posing like models, security forces identified the burly man as Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, a love-lorn boy who took to arms to look for a "meaning to his life" after a broken heart.

A school dropout, 28-year-old Sabzar hailed from a poor farmer family in Rathusana village of Tral, nicknamed Kandahar of Kashmir owing to the huge terrorist infestation there. Locals remember him as a sober boy who was good at drawings but poverty forced him to drop out after which he started working in the fields to sustain his huge family.

"Sabzar was a regular village boy before taking to terror. He was having an affair with a girl but her family did not agree for the marriage. So he took to religion and became suave and gentle. After dropping out from school, he worked in fields and managed to build a house for the family," said a local resident of Tral.

Sabzar became a full-fledged terrorist in April 2015 soon after Wani's brother, Khalid Muzaffar, was killed by security forces in Kamla forests of Tral. Sources said Sabzar's first act of terror was to snatch a rifle from a securityman.

Soon, he won the trust of Burhan and became his close aide. Police sources said Sabzar was called an organisational man given his dedication and caring attitude towards the younger lot.

Police sources said there were a few criminal cases lodged against Sabzar before he took to terrorism.

After Burhan's death, Sabzar was tipped to be his successor, but he had the handicap of being uneducated and lacking in oratory skills. Therefore, it was decided that both Sabzar and Zakir Musa, who had quit engineering to join Hizbul, would be the successor to Burhan Wani.

"Sabzar was entrusted to look after the tactical part of the outfit while Zakir, because of his background, was made the face of the outfit who would release the videos akin to Burhan," said a source.

Jammu and Kashmir police chief Shesh Paul Vaid told DNA that Sabzar was the main motivator to lure the youth to take to terrorism in the state.