(Image source from: IBTimes India)

The 17-year-old Saqib Bilal Sheikh, a theatre artist and also who played a small role in 2014 movie Haider starring Shahid Kapoor and Tabu, has been killed in an encounter with the Indian security forces in Srinagar's Mujigund.

Nearly four months after he disappeared from home in Bandipora district's Hajin, Saqib was suspected to have joined militancy.

He was gunned down along with another teenager who also had gone missing along with Bilal and a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist identified as Ali Bhai, a Pakistani.

Mother and sisters of Slain LeT Rebel Sakib Bilal sit next to his body during the Last rits in Hajin village area of north Kashmir some 35 kilometers from Srinagar on December 10,2018. Slain Sakib was among the three militants killed in long gun-battle in Mujigund Srinager pic.twitter.com/nu0uqbHBha

— Sajad Hameed (@SheikhS57677840) December 11, 2018

Amid rains thousands of people attend last rites of slain millitant's 14 year old mudasir Rashid and saqib Bilal in hajjin Baindpora. pic.twitter.com/zS1cDZnztI

— Sajad Hameed (@SheikhS57677840) December 11, 2018

Haider, film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj dealt with the less discussed topic of ordinary Kashmiris who get caught up in the battle between the insurgent and the security forces.

Hindustan Times quoting a relative of Bilal said that the teenager had acted in Haider when he a class VI student. He appeared in two scenes, one as a 'chocolate boy' and in another, as surviving a violent incident in a bus.

News 18 reported that both Saqib and the other teenager, Mudasir Parray used to play football at Hajin's Eidgah and on August 31 they disappeared together.

The families, suspecting that the teenagers might have joined militancy tried to trace them for months, but to no avail.

Only recently when the photos of the two teenagers brandishing automatic guns began making rounds on social media the families realized that their worst fears have come true.

Recalling him as a bright student who had a passion for football and acting, Bilal's kin said the family is yet to understand how he got attracted to militancy.

"He wanted to be an engineer. He loved football and acting," his grief-stricken father Bilal Ahmad Sheikh told News18. "He would never talk about militancy or the conflict. His life was filled with his own adventures," he added.

-Sowmya Sangam