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Altaaf Khan is the protagonist of the 2000 Bollywood film Mission Kashmir. He is a young Kashmiri Muslim who resorted to terrorism to avenge the tragic deaths of his family committed by police officers.
He was portrayed by Hrithik Roshan.
Personality[]
During his childhood, Altaaf started out a playful boy as he enjoyed living with his family in peace (despite the ongoing conflicts in Kashmir). However, he became very a ruthless and vengeful person in nature after witnessing his family's demise caused by police officers to take down a terrorist group and that Senior Superitendent Inayat Khan was the one who caused it (despite Inayat's extreme remorse over this as he had no intention of killing Altaaf's family). Taken in by Hilal Kohistani (a Pathan leader of a group of terrorists), Altaaf was willing to exterminate anyone that serves as an obstacle of himself or to Hilal's plans, as he managed to take down several BSF officers without getting a scratch. He also proved himself to be quite intelligent as he managed to arrange several of Hilal's men to pose as a team of electricians to sabotage the local TV tower.
Despite his crimes, Atlaaf is shown to have an inner gentle nature as he genuinely loves his childhood friend Sufiya Parvez (even feeling guilty for using her in his plans) and his adoptive mother Neelima (even crying out in agony over her death that he accidentally caused). He also proved himself to have a conscience as he vehemently opposed Hilal's true plan of blowing up the local Hindu and Muslim temples; even hesitating to shoot Inayat in the head when the latter was willing to accept his fate after apologizing for killing his family. Because of this, it finally inspired Altaaf to take responsibility for his actions by putting aside his feud against Inayat to stop Hilal in his plot.
Biography[]
In 1989 at age 11, Altaaf was living in the village of Dalgate with his parents and sister, developing a habit of creating beautiful artworks. However, it wasn't until he met a wanted terrorist named Malik Ul Khan, who, along with his men, were offered shelter by Atlaaf's parents. Several Kashmiri officers, led by their Senior Superintendent Inayat Khan, have taken note of the terrorists' current location and prepare to wipe them out without taking innocent lives. This was on a personal motive that Inayat took upon, due to a certain accident that caused the life of his son Irfaan, since the doctors refused to treat Irfaan due to a fatwa instigated by Malik threatening to kill any doctor and his family if he should ever treat a policeman.
After closing in to the terrorists' location, Inayat and his men start to shoot them down to their deaths. Unfortunately, Atlaaf's parents and sister are caught in the crossfire and they accidentally end up being killed along with the terrorists, all witnessed by a screaming Altaaf as he watches the scene in complete horror. He is then haunted by the masked policeman (who is none other than Inayat) looking at him before passing out. Traumatized by the loss, Altaaf ends up being jailed by Inayat's subordinate officer Avinash, but was later freed after Anivash ends up being berated by an angry Inayat for imprisoning a traumatized (yet innocent) child. Inayat's wife Neelima, having lost Irfaan and feeling sorry for Altaaf, convinces her husband to help her adopt Altaaf. Despite his fear that Altaaf may discover the truth and get revenge for it one day, Inayat reluctantly agrees as he holds extreme remorse for killing Altaaf's family.
Upon arriving at Inayat's house, Altaaf becomes haunted by recurring nightmares of the masked policeman, and started drawing gruesome pictures of it, but later on, he is comforted by both Inayat and Neelima. Just when Altaaf seemed to have settled down in his new home and accepted Inayat and Neelima as his new parents, he finds Inayat's mask and realizes that Inayat was one of the policemen who killed his family. After an unsuccessful attempt on Inayat's life, Altaaf runs away. He was later found by Hilal, who seemingly showed pity on the traumatized boy and took him under his wing and raised him to become a terrorist, brainwashing him into believing that he is acting on behalf of the name of Islam.
10 years later, Hilal was given the task to complete a terrorist operation called Mission Kashmir, which involves killing the Prime Minister during his visit to Srinagar, or as Altaaf was seemingly told. Hilal assures to his fellow men that the operation will go well as long as he has Altaaf's loyalty and cooperation. While helping out his fellow terrorists, Atlaaf reunites with Sufiya, who has become a TV personality. Despite falling in love with Sufiya and helping her out with her shows, Altaaf was more focused in completing Mission Kashmir's first task, which is to blow up the local TV tower of Srinagar on Inayat's birthday. Thought the task was a complete success, this resulted an upset Sufiya to break up her relationship with Altaaf after learning that he's a wanted militant, and for Inayat and Neelima to have an argument.
While taking refuge in one of terrorists' hideouts (due to being branded as a wanted criminal by the authorities), he plans another attempt on Inayat's life by having several of Hilal's men to plant up a bomb in Inayat's briefcase. Unfortunately, Neelima falls victim to it by accident, much to the complete distraught of both Inayat and Altaaf, with the former having lost his chance to apologize for his earlier argument with her and the latter being wracked with complete remorse for killing her.
Following Neelima's funeral, Inayat and his men manage to track down one of the hideouts after capturing the men who planted the bomb, and soon uncover evidence regarding to Mission Kashmir. After going through several tapes with Sufiya, Inayat soon learns of a horrible realization: the true goal of Mission Kashmir was not to kill the Prime Minister, but actually to blow up the local holy shrines of Srinagar with missiles to escalate Hindu-Muslim conflicts around Kashmir and turn it into a war zone. It also turns that the attack on the TV tower was planned by Hilal and his fellow conspirators to spread the rumor of assassinating the Prime Minister to cover up their goal. Inayat also learned that Hilal has deliberately kept the true goal of Mission Kashmir as a secret from Altaaf, for he feared that the young man wouldn't approve of it when being told; this was confirmed of when Altaaf prepares to leave for the launches, Hilal secretly tells one of his men to keep an eye on Altaaf and kill him if he doesn't consent over what the true targets will be.
Though Inayat manages to track down Hilal, he is shocked to realize that Altaaf and the rest of Hilal's men have left to prepare for the launches. Deciding to play wise on this, Inayat offers a deal to Hilal: he will allow Hilal's men to continue with their mission in exchange for killing Altaaf to avenge Neelima's death. Hilal accepts the deal and bring Inayat over to the swampy hideouts, where Altaaf and the other terrorists are preparing the launchers. Upon being told of Inayat's current whereabouts by Hilal, Altaaf unleashes his rage onto a weary Inayat to exact revenge for his family's demise. Despite enduring the awful beatings, Inayat reveals to Altaaf about the true goals of Mission Kashmir and that Hilal has lied to him the entire time. Inayat also stated that thousands of people will be attending the shrines for congregation and will suffer the same fate that Neelima and Altaaf's family have endured if Altaaf lets Hilal complete the operation. Having enough, Hilal angrily orders Altaaf to shoot Inayat in the head. Expressing his dear love for Altaaf and remorse for killing his family, Inayat is willing to accept his fate, but begs Atlaaf to stop Hilal in his tracks. As Altaaf struggles to shoot Inayat, he soon remembers that he once went to the shrines since Neelima took him there as a child. He also remembers the importance of choosing sides that she told him during her earlier visit.
Realizing now that destroying the shrines is not worth it as it is far more worse than losing his family, Altaaf angrily turns the gun on Hilal and shoots him (though not fatally). Deciding to give up his goal for revenge and redeem himself for his crimes, Altaaf allows Inayat into getting to the launchers. He then berates Hilal for his lies and treachery he has done in the name of their religion, and is about to put him out of his misery. Before Altaaf shoots Hilal to his death, Hilal (with an evil smile) sets off a bomb to distract him and Inayat before he dies, allowing Hilal's men to regain the launchers and prepare launching the missiles at the holy shrines. As Inayat shoots several of the terrorists to the deaths, Altaaf spotted a spare launcher and used it to destroy the other launchers and kill the remaining terrorists to save the shrines, at the cost of being shot in the torso. Losing consciousness, Altaaf falls into the swamp, but is rescued by Inayat, who takes him to shore, evading the explosions of the hideouts.
As Mission Kashmir ends up being revealed to the media following the deaths of Hilal and his men, Atlaaf is having a beautiful dream based on one of art paintings as a child before waking up in Inayat's house. He then reconciles with Sufiya and Inayat, forgiving the latter by accepting him as his father after 10 years.