Working to prevent youth from joining terror ranks: J&K police

Parents' support in stopping local youth from joining militancy was very crucial, the police said

As local recruitment into militancy continues in the Valley, Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday said they were working on a multi-dimensional fronts to prevent youth from joining terror ranks.

The spate of local recruitment suggests that the counter-offensive of security forces is proving to be a zero-sum game, as for every militant killed, a new one is being recruited or infiltrated. On December 31, 2021, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar had said that 160 militants were active in the Valley.

While nearly 90 militants have been killed since then, the number of active militants reached the 200-mark again, sources said. Nearly 70 local youths have joined militancy in the first five months of this year while some infiltration has also taken place along the Line of Control (LoC) from the Pakistani side.

The IGP Kumar said those who motivate and lure youth towards militancy were being booked under Public Safety Act (PSA). “The police have succeeded to a large extent to prevent youth from taking up arms. We are working on multi-dimensional fronts to prevent local militant recruitment,” he said. However, the IGP said parents' support in stopping local youth from joining militancy was very crucial. “Parents have played a vital role in bringing a large number of youth back. Besides, we were also tracking new recruits through technical surveillance and bringing them back,” he said.

Though the local recruitment continues into militant ranks, official data depicts a significant downgrade in militant operations. The data suggests that militants in Kashmir were witnessing a dearth of weaponry and logistics, which is severely denting their capacity to carry out big, lethal attacks.

The pistol-wielding hybrid militants are not capable of carrying out attacks against the military establishment. This also explains why there weren’t any major terror attacks in 2022. The nature of the attacks carried out in 2022 was mostly targeted killings of civilians and stand-off attacks on cornered soldiers.