The killing of a juvenile militant in an encounter with security forces on Sunday in south Kashmir’s Shopian district has once again put the spotlight on how children are becoming the casualty of the armed conflict.
The romance of Faisal Gulzar (15) — a student of 10th standard from village Chitragam-Kalan in Shopian — with militancy, according to local media reports, began sometime Tuesday and ended Sunday morning.
The newly recruited juvenile militant was shot dead along with two other ultras by security forces in the same district on Sunday morning. After the police came to know that a juvenile militant was trapped in the cordon, they quickly sent a team to his home asking his parents to convince their son to surrender.
But according to the Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar, the other two militant associates of Faisal didn’t allow him to come out and surrender despite “sincere efforts” by the security forces to persuade him.
Faisal is not the first juvenile militant who was killed in recent years. 15-year-old Faizan Bhat, from Tral area of southern Pulwama district was a student of 10th standard before joining militancy. He died in a gunfight in May 2017 three months after he had picked up a gun.
Similarly, Fardeen Khanday, another class 10 student, was part of a fidayeen (suicide) squad of Jaish-e-Mohammad, which launched a pre-dawn attack on the CRPF’s training-cum-induction centre at Lethpora in Pulwama in December 2017. Khanday and his two associates were killed in that attack. Fardeen survived as a militant for just three months.
In December 2018, Mudassir Rashid from Hajin town of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district became the youngest slain militant in the three-decade insurgency in Kashmir. He was killed along with another juvenile militant Saqib Bilal Sheikh (17) on the outskirts of Srinagar city.
Though international laws prohibit the recruitment of juveniles into any armed conflict and seek their protection, the number of juvenile militants being killed in Kashmir is rising. The United Nations Convention on the rights of children (UNRC) 1989, of which India became a signatory in 1992, talks about the protection and care of children and states even a child who joins militancy needs to be rescued.
Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, “conscripting or enlisting children into armed forces or groups constitutes a war crime in both international and non-international armed conflicts.”
Dr Asima Hassan, a member of Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Srinagar, says not only the state, but militant organizations in Kashmir too should give serious thought and ensure that children, who are becoming the casualty of the armed conflict, are saved.
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She said as per Section 83 (1) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, any non-state, militant group or outfit that recruits or uses any child for any purpose shall be liable for rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh.
However, a police officer blamed the impact of doctored social media, lack of parental guidance, glamour, and ‘hero’ worship, as reasons for young boys in Kashmir joining militancy.
“The idea of owning a gun and enforcing their will had somehow taken hold of many young minds in Kashmir and radical groups are taking advantage of it. Radicalization is more effective in south Kashmir, where socio-politico-religious organization Jamaat-e-Islami has a huge influence,” he revealed.
The officer added that some of the children, who were involved in stone-pelting and other forms of protests, were eventually lured into the ranks of militancy.
A US State Department report on human trafficking in India had last year stated that non-state armed groups continue to recruit and use children as young as 14 years in direct hostilities against the government in Jammu and Kashmir.
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