Youth with family history of militancy becoming militants: J&K police

INTERNATIONAL DESK: While the number of active militants in Kashmir has come down below 200 for the first time in the last three decades, youth having a family history of militancy and stone-pelting background are still becoming potential recruits for the terror outfits.

According to Kashmir police chief, Vijay Kumar, youth whose one family member had been killed as a militant are becoming new recruits for terror outfits.

“Also those with a background of stone-pelting, and those who come under the influence of online propaganda, pick up arms,” he said.

Kumar’s assertions have been corroborated by a recent sociological study published in the Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) which revealed that in 21% of cases the second member of the family/extended family joined militancy after the killing of one member as militant.

The researcher, who surveyed 100 families of slain militants across Kashmir for the paper, says of this 21%, in four cases father and son or two brothers were militants and both got killed.

The Kashmir Police chief said that families whose children go missing have faith in the police “as they directly approach the police station for lodging missing reports and work jointly with police to bring back misguided youth.”

“(Even) those who don’t come back, we give them ample chances in live encounters to surrender. Those who refuse to get killed,” the police chief added.

He said the overground worker (OGW) network of militants was a big challenge for the police.

“OGWs carry out militant activities and then remain silent for many months. It becomes difficult for us to identify them even though we have arrested 150 among them this year so far,” Kumar added.

The police categorise “anybody who supports the militants” as an OGW. A person providing a safe house, passage, information or acting as a messenger for suspected militants automatically comes under the radar of the police as an OGW.

Of late the word “hybrid or part-time” militants have become a serious challenge for the security agencies in Kashmir. The ‘hybrid’ militants haven’t been categorised anywhere nor do they have any police records.

(Deccan Herald)