Around 300 local youth have joined ranks of militancy in last three years
The ghost of Burhan Wani, labelled as the poster boy of Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit in Kashmir valley, continues to haunt security establishment across Kashmir valley.
The security forces were able to achieve major success during the operation ‘all out’ due to pinpointed human intelligence from ground zero
Resting inside his grave he is still inspiring a large number of local youth to pick up guns and wage ‘jihad’ against the security forces.
According to official sources after the killing of Burhan Wani more than 250 local youth have joined ranks of different militant outfits.
During the recent security review meeting chaired by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Srinagar, senior army and state police officers shared their serious concern over increasing number of local youth joining the ranks of militant outfits.
Even the top brass of the state police and paramilitary forces were directed to maintain tight vigil ahead of the second death anniversary of Burhan Wani on July 8.
The gruesome killing of police constable Javed Ahmed Dar in Shopian is a recent example of revenge killing by the local cadre of militants.
According to local police Javed was recently posted in Srinagar and had returned to his home to look after ailing mother. At the time of his abduction by a group of unidentified militants, he was returning home after purchasing medicines for his ailing mother.
He was targeted by the militants because he was one of the top commandos who participated in anti-terrorist operations along with SSP Shopian Shailendra Kumar Mishra.
In the past one year, a large number of local security personnel have been targeted by the militants to spread panic in the area and avenge the killing of top local commanders.
In the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani when security forces had launched operation ‘all out’ to flush out militants their handlers changed their strategy and started attacking local police/army personnel in retaliation. The objective behind killing local security personnel was to spread their reign of terror and send a tough message to the ‘informers’ to avoid sharing information about the movement of militant commanders else they too would meet the same fate. The security forces were able to achieve major success during the operation ‘all out’ due to pinpointed human intelligence from ground zero. Even when Burhan Wani was eliminated by the security forces in a surgical operation not many people were aware of the presence of hiding militants but security forces achieved a major success by eliminating him.
South Kashmir -Hot Bed of Militancy
The four districts of South Kashmir namely Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag continue to remain the hotbed of militancy.
Burhan Wani, through his regular appearances on the social media, had earned notoriety and due to continued unrest in the region, he managed to inspire more and more radicalised youth to take up guns.
The maximum number of youth from these districts had joined the ranks of militant outfits. Compared to this the North Kashmir districts of Kashmir valley remain populated with foreign terrorists who manage to infiltrate inside the Indian territory after breaching the barged wire fence.
Soon after the killing of Burhan Wani in the surgical operation on July 8, 2016 parts of South Kashmir witnessed a sudden surge among local youth joining ranks of militants.
As the cycle of violence continued for over three months the situation on ground zero worsened during the same period.
Several local militant commanders, who are closely associated with Burhan Wani exploited the surcharged atmosphere and successfully coerced more and more youth to join their ranks and pick up guns in order to avenge the killing of their local commander.
Burhan Wani, through his regular appearances on the social media, had earned notoriety and due to continued unrest in the region, he managed to inspire more and more radicalised youth to take up guns.
According to official sources, after the killing of Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, more than 50 youth joined militancy and in 2017 at least 126 youth joined ranks of militancy and in the first six months of 2018 more than 50 locals have already joined militancy.
According to army officers the life of these young militants is not more than 6-12 months as they get neutralised easily during encounters
According to the security forces, the most worrisome trend is greater participation of highly qualified youth in the ranks of militant outfits. According to security forces, both Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit has managed to rope in a large number of local youth to join their ranks and using them to induct more cadre. The sudden rise in incidents of weapon snatching and looting of bank ATM counters was attributed to this new phenomenon. The new recruits are given this task of looting a weapon before formally joining the ranks of a militant outfit.
During the operation ‘all out’ security forces had eliminated a PhD scholar who was working as a faculty member in the Kashmir University.
Scholars studying in prestigious Aligarh Muslim University also came on the radar of militant commanders and purposefully joined them to wage ‘jihad’ in Kashmir Valley.
Even students studying in professional degree colleges in the state and children of state govt employees, school teachers and relatives of policemen and separatists have also joined the ranks raising question marks over the degree of penetration of radicalised elements across Kashmir valley.
Security forces blame social media for more radicalisation of youth as the medium allows them to network with like-minded people without coming on the radar of security forces.
In a majority of cases, police investigations have revealed that majority of youth were motivated by their close friends or some turn of events related to the killing of hardcore militants in the close vicinity of their villages provoked these youth to take up guns.
Recently the central govt had also suggested discouraging assembly of a large number of local residents during funerals of militant commanders to prevent these youth from playing into the hands of radicalised forces.
According to army officers the life of these young militants is not more than 6-12 months as they get neutralised easily during encounters.
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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Correct!!
Mr. Maurya
Let us not overdo this.
Most young men are driven by the testarones, not any great intectual motivation.
It impressses the girls or rather the ” bacchas” towards which the gun- toting poster is targeted( the girls are for later, in groups of 72, and only available after ‘ shahidpana’ is achieved).
These are young men, brainwashed from birth, over generations going back for 1,500 years.
No logic can or will prevail.
They have commited petty crimes, they must pay for that.
The punishment they understand.
It is not Wanis ghost that is haunting security forces, it is ghost of Nehru. One political incorrect decision can cause havoc to future of a country and many blunders were committed by our rulers in 1947 including framing constitution of india. India has poured crores into kashmir with no return on money spent. There are limited options left, one remove article 370 and second apply R Venkatraman plan. The fact is ahimsa and secular fed hindus are much weaker than jehadi fed muslim mindset.
Main attraction for joining militancy by Kashmiri Muslim educated youth is NOT due to unemployment. It is incentives like easy money, free sex, sumptuous meals & drinks available being a NOTORIOUS & celebrated Terrorists, with motivation to kill kafirs – Hindus with impunity. The remedy is to give sweeping powers to Indian Army to recklessly wipe out the Militants / Terrorists / their sympathisers and their handlers. Then only peace can be restored to Kashmir valley. Any talk of outdated Kashmiriyat, Insaniyat, Jhamburiayat slogans will NEVER work – mark it.
Yes. Mr. Jayasankar, That is going to happen now. The Army is going to be given a free hand henceforth
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BJP is most likely to form a new Government in J&K failing which the current Governor’s rule will continue
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In either case, the deciding power will be in the hands of the center who is for giving free powers to the Army
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Like Khalistan Movement was totally demolished in Punjab through brutal State power, militancy in Kashmir too will be extinguished
True to each letter…
Mehbooba Mufti as CM and BJP as her partner in all terrorist acts is highly reprehensible.BJP has one most nonsense Idiot Drinker Ram Madhav,south Indian loaned to BJP by RSS has made J&K problem a hell.He has dealt blunders and blunders by giving free hand to Mufti madam.He erred by bring one Sharma as negotiator who failed which was known to all.BJP would have asserted its power from beginning but it was suppressed by Mufti.Now when army retaliated and point blank said that It will go back to barracks in J&K as MUFTI is clipped their hands suddenly Amit Shah interfered and withdraw the support and bring down Mufti Govt.Now in Governors rule army has free hand to deal with stone pelters and terrorist.But situation would hav ebeen saved if HM was Swamy and Modi and Ajit NSA has free hand.
Hindu fools do not know the difference between Terrorism n Jehad !!
How many would have joined militancy if Wani is not killed.