The boy who acted in the Bollywood film Haider was killed in an encounter. He was found with a pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba militants. Along with him, a 9th standard boy was also killed in the 18-hour gun battle between the security forces and the militants in the outskirts of Srinagar on December 9.

Saqib Bilal was a theatre artist and was seen as a child artiste in Haider and did a cameo in the film. After the film released, he disappeared with another minor on August 31. He was in 6th standard when he appeared in the film Haider.

His family members have no idea why he joined militancy. One of his family members, Asim Aijaz said, "We went to several places to find him for more than a month. Finally, we realised the truth. He was interested in Engineering and we never expected why he joined. On the day he left, he bought some groceries home. Some people said that two boys were seen on a bike with a third person."

He also said that he was a briliant and smart youngster who cleared his 10th class board exams with distinction. Later he took physics, chemistry and maths for class 11. He was more into sports and used to play foorball, taekwondo and Kabaddi. The police said that Bilal and his friend joined hands with militants immediately after they disappeared. The people of Kashmir questioning the militants for luring minors. They also criticized the security forces for killing the minor boys.

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