The picture of a young PhD scholar from Aligarh Muslim University with an assault rifle in his hands shocked not only his friends and family in the valley but the entire nation. Today his friends from AMU reached out to the 27-year-old in their university to ask just what made him leave his books and reach out to the gun.It was an anguished cry, against violence, against what the implication of such a move would be, especially because he seemed to signal a new trend. Instead of the terrorist being someone who had trained across the border, he was actually a well-off man from Takipora in Kupwara. Tonight on Reality Check, we discuss why an award-winning scholar joined Hizbul and is this the new face of terror?
