The ongoing major offensive by security forces against the terrorists is being attributed as one of the main reasons behind the decrease in the number of local Kashmiri youths joining terrorist groups, of late. Compared to seven-eight locals joining the terrorist ranks every month till a couple of months ago, it is now four to five a month.
According to the assessment of the security establishment, this is a welcome trend indicating that impressionable minds are getting disillusioned by the current state of affairs in J&K, wherein the worst affected is the common populace.
Elaborating upon the current situation, the sources said on Saturday, as compared to nearly 100 youths picking up the gun last year, the figure stood at 60 as of now. last year there was a spurt in youths joining terrorist groups after the killing of Hizbul Mujaindeen commander Burhan Wani, they said.
Following Wani’s death in July, the State witnessed large scale protests for nearly five months.
However, this year following intense operations by the security forces against terrorists and National Investigation Agency (NIA) initiating probe against separatist leaders two months back resulted in decline in number of youths opting for terror groups.
Growing disillusionment with separatist leadership and continuing turmoil in the last two months resulted in better inflow of Intelligence about terrorists, they said. In fact, the number of operations doubled in the same period as compared to earlier two months and security forces managed to neutralise 132 terrorists. Moreover, over 50 terrorists trying to infiltrate into Kashmir valley from across the line of Control (loC) were also killed.
In this backdrop, the number of new recruits also dropped and the figure stands at 4-5 every month as compared to 7-8 in the last many months. Officials said the lesser number of locals joining terrorist organisations like Hizbul Mujahideen is manageable adding with the security forces maintain the tempo of operations, this figure is likely to further come down.
Short of fighters and in the absence of top commanders, the second rung leadership of terrorist groups in the Valley is desperately trying to motivate local youths. The pressure is now on these groups after security forces were able to eliminate the top commanders of laskhar-e-Tayyeba (leT) and Hizbul Mujhaideen.
Due to deep penetration of security forces in South Kashmir districts of Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian — labelled as hotbed of home grown terrorists, not many youths are getting the opportunity to join the terrorist outfits, they said.
Some of local youths managed to join the terrorist ranks in these districts but their number is not alarming at the moment, officials said. One of the reasons for a large number not attempting to cross the line is due to intensity of operations in the areas and better human Intelligence network.
There are reports from central Kashmir including Srinagar that some young men have gone missing and the police suspect they could have been lured away by terrorists.
The recent incidents of weapon snatching in Charar-e-Sharief and Shopian indicated desperation on the part of terrorists to force local youths to snatch weapons before coming to their fold. According to sources, at least 38 leT and 37 Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed in last seven months till August 9.