London: 10 years passed to the martyrdom of Burhan Muzaffar Wani; The Kashmir Centre presents tribute to the martyred.

According to the Kashmir Centre report, the martyrdom anniversary of the most prominent icon of the latest freedom movement of occupied Jammu and Kashmir and former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen Burhan Muzaffar was observed on Wednesday with traditional determination and resolve.

According to the report, Burhan Muzaffar Wani was the teenage son of a school principal from south Kashmir. He became the commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, the first resistance figure to use social media to reach a generation of young Kashmiris who had grown up under occupation with no voice and no platform. The Indian occupation could not catch him for years. So they tried to destroy his name instead.

When the occupation killed his brother Khalid Muzaffar Wani under interrogation in 2015, the last pretence of the propaganda collapsed.

On 8 July 2016, Indian occupation forces killed Burhan Wani. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets. Over 90 civilians were killed in the crackdown. Hundreds were blinded by pellet guns.

Burhan Wani was the commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir, the son of a school principal, and one of the most significant figures of modern Kashmiri resistance. He was martyred by Indian occupation forces on 8 July 2016. His funeral drew one of the largest processions in the valley's history. The occupation tried to bury him with smear campaigns. Kashmir keeps him alive as an icon, through memory.

In the early hours of dawn, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat lay wounded in a cordon with his associates, surrounded by Indian occupation forces. As bullets flew, he made a final desperate request on a phone call: "Tell Burhan to pray for my forgiveness." Aijaz and his companions were martyred. But the name he had spoken in his last moments spread through the valley like fire. Burhan Wani was only known to a few. But after that call, his name reverberated throughout Kashmir.

Burhan was the teenage son of a school principal from south Kashmir. His boyish looks masked a growing resolve and a tactical acumen that would redefine the resistance movement. What set him apart was not only his strategic skill but his character. Those who knew him said his greatest strength was his absolute refusal to harm innocents. "His strength was his character and his utmost cautiousness to not kill an innocent person." A close companion, speaking to a Kashmiri journalist who was later imprisoned for over five years for writing about Burhan's rise.

Burhan's defining innovation was his use of social media. His images and messages spread across the valley and beyond, reaching a generation of young Kashmiris who had grown up under occupation with no voice and no platform. He did not merely command an armed group. He commanded a story, one that resonated with the disenfranchised youth of an occupied territory in a way that no resistance figure had managed before him.

He blended into the local population with uncanny ease, evading the Indian occupation apparatus for years. The occupation's premature reports of his death only deepened the mystique surrounding him.

Recognising the threat he posed, the Indian occupation's police and military launched a coordinated smear campaign. Images of Burhan were circulated across WhatsApp groups with the caption "Mukhbir" meaning informer. Fabricated stories claimed he had colluded with occupation forces, got his companions killed and fled cordons to save himself. Police-run IT cells spread these lies systematically. It was the first time the Indian occupation apparatus had deployed social media specifically to character-assassinate a Kashmiri resistance commander.

After his martyrdom, Indian national television channels ran prime-time segments portraying Burhan as a womaniser with multiple girlfriends entirely fabricated. Police and military IT cells released fake audio clips of resistance fighters making objectionable statements. Bollywood then joined the campaign: the film "Article 370" depicts Burhan as having multiple illegal relationships and portrays the entire Kashmiri resistance leadership as corrupt and protests as "instigated."

Kashmiris knew it was all lies. The propaganda only deepened their contempt for the occupation and their reverence for the man it was trying to destroy.

Burhan Muzaffar Wani was martyred by Indian occupation forces on 8 July 2016 in Bumboora village, Kokernag, south Kashmir. His martyrdom triggered one of the largest uprisings in the modern history of the Indian occupation. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets. The occupation apparatus responded with pellet guns, live ammunition, curfews and mass detention. Over 90 civilians were killed. Hundreds were permanently blinded. The uprising drew the attention of the United Nations and international human rights bodies.

The Guardian asked: "Is this the world's first mass blinding?" The Indian occupation had no answer.

What the Indian occupation deployed against Burhan Wani has a long history. Before the internet, occupation police pasted posters across Kashmir depicting resistance leaders as corrupt agents. The same campaign was run against Syed Ali Shah Geelani, falsely accusing him and his associates of money laundering and treason. These were people who had sacrificed everything and spent decades in Indian jails.

Propaganda is a tool of every occupier. Its purpose is not to convince the occupied, who know the truth. It is to confuse the outside world and erode international solidarity with the resistance. Kashmir's case, the truth has outlasted every campaign mounted against it.

Burhan Muzaffar Wani will be remembered not only as a commander but as the face of a generation that refused to accept the permanence of occupation. He was a teenager who understood that resistance in the 21st century required not just courage but communication. He gave Kashmir's freedom movement a face and a voice that no blackout, no smear campaign, no Bollywood propaganda film and no occupation apparatus has been able to silence. The Kashmiri nation will continue to hold Burhan and those like him in reverence. No rogue intelligence agency, no IT cell and no prime-time lie will change that.