From 200 in 2018 to 1 in 2025: Kashmir’s local militant recruitment wiped out

Srinagar: From nearly 200 local youth picking up guns in 2018 to just one in 2025, militant recruitment in Jammu and Kashmir has undergone a dramatic transformation — the steepest decline in more than three decades of conflict.

In 2018, nearly 200 Kashmiri youths joined militant ranks, a sharp rise from the previous year’s 126. The surge came in the wake of the killing of Burhan Wani — the poster boy of new-age militancy in Kashmir — in July 2016, which triggered a wave of local enlistment.

Social media clips of gun-toting recruits, mass funerals for slain militants and an entrenched network of recruiters made joining the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammad appear both accessible and heroic to a section of disenchanted youth.

At the time, militant funerals themselves became potent recruitment hubs. Thousands would gather, gun salutes were fired, fiery speeches delivered and young mourners often pledged on the spot to join the ranks.

The reversal began in 2019, with local recruitment numbers shrinking year by year. The change coincided with the government’s muscular security posture after the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 on August 5, 2019.

Official data reveals 160 local boys joined militancy in 2020, dropping to 125 in 2021, 100 in 2022, 22 in 2023, and just seven in 2024. This year, the J&K police’s special intelligence units have identified only one case — a young man from Kulgam reported missing in January and later confirmed to have joined militants.

Between 2019 and 2024, around 1,050 militants were killed in roughly 700 militancy-related incidents in the region. Security agencies credit the collapse in recruitment to intensified intelligence-led operations, tighter surveillance of at-risk youth, and the systematic targeting of recruiters.

“Families were approached by police to dissuade their children, while newly recruited militants were often tracked and killed within days or weeks of picking up the gun,” a senior police officer told DH.

He said a major turning point came in April 2020, when — citing COVID-19 protocols and security concerns — authorities began burying slain militants away from their native villages, often in remote parts of north Kashmir, without handing over bodies to families.

“It ended the spectacle of massive funerals that had doubled as recruitment drives. Now only a handful of officials and close relatives attend, cutting off a powerful emotional trigger,” the officer added.

Cross-border infiltration has also been squeezed through enhanced fencing, drone surveillance and tighter counter-infiltration grids along the Line of Control, reducing the flow of arms and handlers who played a key role in radicalising local recruits.

With local recruitment at historic lows, the nature of militancy has shifted. Fewer locals mean outfits increasingly rely on small, mobile groups of battle-hardened, well-equipped Pakistani terrorists, as seen in ongoing prolonged encounters in Kulgam and previous such incidents in Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua and Reasi districts of Jammu region. These militants operate with minimal local support — making them harder to detect but limiting their community reach.

Security experts caution that while near-zero recruitment is a tactical win, it does not equal peace. “The challenge is sustaining this without fuelling resentment through heavy-handed measures,” they said.

Civil society groups call for political outreach, economic opportunities, and rehabilitation programmes for at-risk youth to ensure the militant recruitment pipeline remains dry.