Why Tral Is Emerging As A New Base For New Breed Of Kashmiri Militants?

 

Sam’eer Muhammad

India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had recently visited Jammu and Kashmir. He was concerned over the increasing number of local boys joining the militant ranks and asked the Mufti Muhammad Sayeed led ruling dispensation to address the grave issue that could tomorrow turn into a big rebellion.

He also held separate meetings with the Corps Commander of 15 Corps, Director General of police who apprised him that the issue of growing unemployment in J&K ‘is a factor responsible for youth joining militant ranks’. Doval asked the government to create more job avenues for youth to stop them from taking up guns and assured ‘full support’ of the Centre in it.

             Burhan Muzaffar Wani (L) carries a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.  Zakir Rashid Bhat (R) was an  engineering student before                    he joined militants.


But the question arises if unemployment is really a reason?

In last couple of years, local youth have started a fresh wave of militancy in Kashmir. For the first time in last one decade, the local youth have swelled up the ranks of militant and constitute a whopping 62 percent of the total militants present in the valley. If it continued at the same pace, the situation will turn back to 1990’s, when a massive armed rebellion erupted in the state.

The very big challenge for the government and other security agencies is to keep local youth away from militancy, which they have largely failed to do so far. Top police officials and Army commanders keep reiterating that unemployment and lack of avenues are the main reason behind the rapid increase in militancy.

But on the ground the reality is somehow different, there are boys who joined the militant ranks after either leaving their luxurious jobs or have meritorious educational background.
Ishaq Ahmad (19), who earned the sobriquet of ‘Newton’ for his meritorious academic performance after scoring 98.4 per cent in the class X result, joined militancy in March this year.
             Ishaq Ahmad

Similarly, Nisar Ahmad Pandit, the personal security officer of Jammu and Kashmir Minister Altaf Bukhari, fled with two service weapons and three magazines earlier this year. There are many such cases which are enough for the people at the helm of affairs to cross check and rethink if unemployment really is a reason.

How to keep  youth away from militancy?

Mufti’s ‘healing touch’ policy which he had coined in 2002 after taking over as the chief minister also failed. The only policy the state has in place is repression- to harass the families of militants and those boys whom they doubt or are on the security radar.

This repressive policy has so far yielded no results. Repression has in no way worked.

The man who presently heads the new breed of militants in Kashmir is also a product of police’s brutal repression. During 2010 unrest, Burhan Muzzafar Wani (21) along with his slain elder brother were brutally beaten up by cops in his home town Tral-also known as Kandhar of Kashmir. It was on that day, Burhan had reportedly vowed to take its revenge. He had even reportedly shouted to the cops that time…’mai isska badlaa lunga’.

Burhan is now the Divisional Commander of militant outfit Hizbul Mujahidin. His latest picture along with some 9 other local militants which circulated on Facebook two weeks ago has put the whole security apparatus on tenterhooks. Wani hails from volatile Tral area. His elder brother Khalid Muzzafar was recently killed by Army in a ‘staged’ encounter.

              It is rare for the militants to expose their faces. 

‘Pak trained’ and ‘home trained’ militants

During 1990’s armed rebellion, Kashmiri youth would cross LoC (the line that divided J&K and Pakistan administered Kashmir into two parts) to take up the arms training. Now they are doing the training in the forests of Kashmir valley. They don’t need to cross the LoC and has in turn lessened their chances of getting killed. Locally, they are called ‘home trained’ militants, while their Pakistani colleagues, who are lesser in number are ‘Pak trained’- considered to be more trained in fighting guerrilla wars.

But training is in no way a concern for the government. The only concern is to stop local youth from joining militancy.

According to the census of active militants done by the J&K police, local boys constitute 62 per cent of the total militants present in the valley. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) tops the list with most number of recruits in the valley, relegating Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to the second place.

Among the three regions, south Kashmir tops the list with 60 militants presently active in the region, all local youths and most with Hizb-ul Mujahideen . The data released by the J&K police says that 33 youths have joined militants this year alone, of whom 30 are from south Kashmir. Most of the new recruitments belong to the restive Tral township of Pulwama district.