SRINAGAR: The twitter-happy, English speaking young men from various Kashmiri villages have disappeared over past months, triggering suspicions that they might have joined militant ranks. Media reports on Monday suggested a “new face of Kashmiri Jihad” was emerging and the death of militants during prolonged gunfights had been igniting a militant streak among certain sections of Kashmiri youth.
.Worryingly, most those gone missing are pass outs of J&K’s top universities An introvert boy, Sameer Ahmad Wani, 24, form Dooru in Sopore, left home early last month to buy a pair of jeans. He never came back.
Wani’s parents are in a state of shock but they reject the notion that their son might have joined the militancy. “He’ll return soon, they hope. But that does not stop the villagers who talk in whispers about Wani joining the renewed face of militancy in Kashmir, a sparse but deadly new trickle,” says Sameer Yasir, a young scribe.
If the security agencies are to be believed, says Sameer, Wani is among a many young men who have reportedly joined the militancy in Kashmir.
A report by Sameer Yasir, while quoting security agencies, has identified a number of suspects.
“In the nearby village of Brath Kalan, Adil Ashraf Mir and Reyaz Ahamd Mir, both in their late twenties, left home one evening last month. Both said they would return soon from a nearby market. They were never seen again.
Almost 40 kilometers from Sopore, Ishfaq Farooq Lone, an M Phil student in a Bhopal university, and Mehraj-ud-Din Bhat, a post-graduate in Science, left their home last month for a nearby plateau in the Andargam village, Pattan. No one has seen them after that day. Another youngster, Ashiq Hussain Wani, completed his law degree recently from the Central University of Kashmir. He too is missing,” the report adds.
In south Kashmir, over the past few months, several young boys belonging to upper middle class Kashmiri families have reportedly gone missing. The youngest among them is Tariq Ahmed Malik, a class XII student from Chandgam Tahab in Pulwama district. He too is missing.
“The young are choosing this dangerous path with a conviction and, as anybody in Kashmir will tell you, its ultimate end is death,” says Sameer in his report.
Pertinently, funerals of militants who die while fighting Indian soldiers and Kashmir’s Police force, attract large gatherings. Youth are seen celebrating the martyrdom, Hena is applied on bare hands of the body as most of these boys die bachelors. “These funerals become local legends and on the next day someone else is missing from his home.”
Kashmir, says Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (MoS) for Defence, is under control and has improved over the years. He credits the armed forces for not letting the situation to go out of hand.
What he doesn’t admit is that this control’ is seen by many young Kashmiris as the raison d’etre for many to join a new face of militancy, even though many who started the movement and laid its foundations are now returning home, fatigued and seeking out a normal life.
Most often, analysts say, what leads to young men disappearing and joining militants’ ranks is the killings, human rights violations and intolerance for dissent in Kashmir. What slowly translates into anger finally leads towards the path of militancy.
Past week an indefinite curfew was imposed in Sopore town following the death of a youth named Arshad Ahmed in firing by the security forces. Since then, police and para-military forces have blocked all roads leading to Sopore with coils of concertina wires.
There is heaps of evidence to suggest that the killing of protesters actually indoctrinates the young, it has been evident following every killing in Kashmir since 2008, when the Valley was in flames.
Mehbooba Mufti, the opposition leader and President of the Peoples Democratic Party, says people get emotional after encounters. She has expressed her concern over reports that educated youth are joining militants’ ranks in both north and south Kashmir.
I think of this incident (the killing of Arshad Ahmed) and the Tral incident where a militant’s mother came on record saying her son was forced to pick up guns because of atrocities and I know all of us should be concerned and think whether we are pushing our youth toward the path of militancy due to excesses, she said.
On Monday, during the Sopore encounter in Krankshiven colony, police brought the mother of Javaid Ahmad Matoo, a local militant, to persuade her son to surrender.
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