Post-Burhan Wani killing, Kashmir has seen a rise in youth joining terrorist rank and the Jammu and Kashmir Government has as usual been on denial mode. Government has taken this trend as a social malady and hardly there is any correctional steps taken. The changing and dangerous trend has been the demographic bulge comprising the youth is hyperactive on social media and unlike earlier terrorists groups of 1989 era the new crop is not afraid of revealing their identity using social media, which in fact had made ilk like Wani as youth icon of terrorism in Kashmir Valley. The ground reality in Kashmir is changing slowly but surely and it can be gauged even from plain statistics. If in 2013, 31 local youths joined militancy, the number for 2015 (till September-end) jumped to 66, according to police records. Scores of homes – mostly in south Kashmir which is also the stronghold of the ruling PDP – scout the net for posts that may bring some news of their sons. These youth have vanished into the dense forests in south Kashmir’s Tral area, adding muscle to a new trend in which young Kashmiri boys are giving up jobs and the comfort of their classrooms and choosing the path of violence. The growing resentment among the youth overall in the State is not a good sign and it does not talk about all that happy things like development, jobs and avenues in trade and tourism. To say they are innocent it is a misnomer. One who knows to use social media, gun is no innocent and Govt needs to rework its strategies of wooing youth away from the gun culture and mix them well with the main stream. Sloganeering and appeals though sound easy and simple have not till date yielded any positive results like Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appealing to police to bring back all the wayward youth to the State. Had it been so easy it would have been the best remedy, which in reality is not. Militancy is generally associated with politico-socio-economic problems but in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan factor (now fully backed by China) outweighs other factors.
