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Recruitment of locals into militancy on decline in Kashmir

From 109 active local ultras in 2018, number comes down to 29 in 2022
Last Updated 29 November 2022, 07:40 IST

For the first time in recent years the number of local militants active in Kashmir fell below 30, which is nearly 73 per cent lesser than at the end of 2018.

According to J&K police records, only 29 local militants are active in Kashmir presently while the number was 109 four years ago. However, there are still 52 Pakistani militants operating in Kashmir.

As per police data, there is no local militant in north Kashmir’s Kupwara and Bandipora districts and central Ganderbal district, while only one local ultra each is active in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district northern Baramulla district and central districts of Srinagar and Budgam.

While 201 locals had joined militancy in 2018, the number has come down to 99 this year. Out of the 99 locals who joined militant ranks this year, over 60 have been neutralized while a few were persuaded by their families to leave the terror ranks. Overall 169 militants, including 42 foreigners, have been killed in Kashmir this year.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Vijay Kumar, believes that reduced shelf-life and parents of neo-terror recruits coming forward to report them to police are some of the reasons for decline in local recruitment into militancy.

“Refusal of homeowners to give shelter to terrorists due to fear of attachment of property and a strong counter-infiltration grid as the other reasons for the sharp decline in number of local terrorists,” he said and added not handing over bodies of terrorists to their families since April 2020 for funeral, which often became a hub for terror recruitment has worked.

As per a 2018 confidential CID report, after the 2016 unrest in Kashmir, people swarmed in large numbers to the funerals of militants, providing a boost of sorts to militancy through the glorification of the killed ultras. It further cited many instances of youths joining a militant group after attending the funeral of a killed militant.

However, recently Northern Command chief Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi said that around 300 militants were present in J&K, while 160 others were waiting along the launch pads along the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan for an opportunity to sneak into this side.

According to army data, 82 Pakistani terrorists and 53 locals are active in the hinterland while another 170 others who are not identified and are usually bracketed in ‘hybrid militant’ category.

According to police, ‘hybrid’ militants are not listed as militants, but radicalized and trained enough to carry out terror attacks and then slip back into the routine life. As most of them are teenagers and highly motivated, they do not cross the border for arms training nor do they go underground to commit violent acts.

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(Published 29 November 2022, 07:40 IST)

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