Burhan Bashir Bhat was a three-year-old boy who was killed by unidentified gunmen on 19 September 2015 when he and his father were walking home in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore in India.[1]
Burhan's father, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, who was identified as having been part of the militant organization Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen 15 years earlier, was also killed. Burhan was shot three times, and died in the hospital the following day.[2] After his death, Burhan Bashir Bhat became a symbol for regional conflict and lack of governmental accountability.[3]
He was compared in the media to Aylan Kurdi — the three-year-old Syrian boy of Kurdish ethnic origin whose images brought about an onslaught of global outrage after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea during part of a great Syrian refugee crisis.[4] Hurriyat separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani called for protests on 20 September 2015 against the killings in Kashmir Valley.[5] Everyday life was affected in Kashmir Valley following a strike called for by the Hurriyat Conference organization to protest the killing.[6]