July 20
The Indian Government Forces have been trying their possible best to keep youth away from Militancy with verbal pleas, however it does not seem be making any impact on the ground, as more youth continue to enter the Militant ranks, in fact the Militant outfits that had gone invisible have too been attracting educated youth from well to do with exams.
This year Ph.D Scholars including Manan Wani of Kupwara, Waseem Rather of Kulgam, Mohammed Rafi M.Phil Scholar Zubair Ahmed from Islamabad, M.A Urdu Nawaz Ahmed Wagay from Shopian, three men from Government forces have also joined militants ranks this year, taking the number of youth joining Militant the ranks beyond 100.
The Kashmiriyat has been constantly covering the Militant recruitment which has taken a swift pace post the three encounters that raged in Kachdoora, Dragad ( Sugan) and Dialgam areas of South Kashmir ending with the killing of 13 Militants and 4 Civilians on April 01.
On May 22, A Doctor from Sugan area in Shopian went missing allegedly after Forces went berserk in the village and caused damage to more than a hundred households, a few days later he released his photograph over the internet announcing that he had joined the Militant outfit, Hizb ul Mujahideen, another doctor from Islamabad town Burhan Ahmed Ganie, single male child of his parents went missing on 24 June and the very next day, he released his photograph declaring that he has joined Militants.
On 25 May, Waseem Ahmed of Ashmuji Kulgam who was also doing his research in English joined Militant outfit Hizb ul Mujahideen, Nawaz Ahmed of Reban Shopian who is an M.A in Urdu also joined Al Badr on 01 June, Shakeel Dar from Chilipora Shopian, a graduate took up Arms on 28 June, 3 UG Students have also joined LeT this month already.
Since May 25, the recruitment as per records available to The Kashmiriyat stands at 20 for Hizb, Lashkar e Taiba 15, Jaish e Muhammad 9 and Al Badr 4 out of which most of the youth have been recruited from South Kashmir, the year has also seen mainstream Politicians loosing fertile grounds like Damhal belt which had seen a turnout of 75% in 2014 polls and now is a home to massive pro Freedom gathering and 4 Active Militants, Drabgam, once the alcazar of PDP, now a home to dozens of Anti Militancy operations.
The Government Forces recently met in South Kashmir to formulate a strategy to curb the Militant recruitment. The Police, Army and other agencies met to discuss all the possible ways they could shape to end the cycle of violence, however the policy ‘iron fist’ that the Indian Agencies had used earlier surely does not seem to be working on the ground, at least as per stats.
220 Active Militants in 2o17 January, 213 were Killed in the year till December 31 2018, still in June 2018 the number of active Militants had surpassed 250 which includes a vast majority of locals.
Militancy has been filling the Political void in the restless South Kashmir, analysts believe. As the political gap widens between local politicians and masses, it remains to be seen if Indian Government uses any fresh measures to lessen the ridges or does it continue to use the measures that have widened the gaps in the past few years? (The Kashmiriyat)