‘ISIS failed to attract youth from Kashmir’

New Delhi: Despite sporadic instances of support by flag-waving sympathisers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Kashmir, the terror organisation, that dreams of a global jihad, has failed till now to attract Kashmiri youth in a significant way if one goes by the choices made by the latest recruits to the militant outfits.

From the beginning of July to mid-October, Indian Army officials have compiled definite information of 19 youth who have joined the militants’ ranks. While at least 10 of them have joined the Hizbul Mujahideen and seven others are reported to have joined the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba with no known case of recent recruitment to the ISIS ranks.

Of these 19, six are from Pulwama, five from Shopian, four from Bandipora, two from Awantipora and one each from Kulgam and Anantnag districts. It is understood that the final numbers will be more as these are just the cases that have been identified.

In a further continuation of a trend of educated youth taking to the gun, among the 19 are two B.Tech graduates, a graduate in computer applications, a science graduate and an arts graduate. This newspaper is holding back the names and other details of the new recruits.

By and large, the recruitment by the militant organisations is in line with the security forces’ assessment of about eight youth joining the militancy movement every month.

This is despite the tough line taken by the government in combating militancy in the Valley which has resulted in more than 200 hardcore militants being gunned down this year averaging more than 17 militant kills a month. This is the highest kill-figure since 2010 when 270 militants were gunned down.

A top security official that this newspaper spoke to revealed that one reason why the number of kills have increased is also due to the fact that freshly recruited young boys are pushed to the forefront of terror activities by their leaders without adequate training and preparation.

“Crossing over to Pakistan for training and then re-entering India is getting more and difficult with better Indian security mechanisms in place. With most of the training in weapons and explosives being rudimentary and being imparted in the mountainous jungles in Kashmir, these youngsters are the first to fall to bullets,” said an official familiar with counter-insurgency operations in the state.

In a major tactical change in counter-insurgency operations since May, the Army had toughened the rules of engagement in Kashmir and had started operations in a “seek and engage” mode besides bringing back cordon and search operations (CASO) operations that were abandoned in 2002 after a public hue and cry over rights violations.