Irfan Hussain
The militancy in Jammu and Kashmir has left many children orphans, many women widows and also shattered the dreams of thousands of families too, who not only lost their dear ones, but also the sole bread earners as well.
The killing of Kashmiris by the hands of Kashmiris has become order of the day in Valley where the youngsters are finding solace in the arms. Picking up arms can be bravery for some people but killing one innocent is not any bravery rather a cowardice act and against the principals of Islam.
Killing anyone for having different way of thinking is even prohibited in Islam. But, the youngsters are being prepared to fight against the people having different ideology, which cannot be acceptable and also is not permitted in the Islam. The youth, who pick up arms and call themselves fighters of Islam, are obviously not on the right path as they don’t even bother to follow the principals of religion.
Once taking up arms, the youngsters indulge in attacking and killing the local Kashmiris, who are having different ideologies. In recent, a number of attacks took place in which a large number of people including political leaders, policemen and other civilians were killed.
It seems that the youngsters are being prepared to become thirsty of the blood of Kashmiris. One fails to understand the level of radicalization, which is not even allowing these youngsters to understand these killings would never prove fruitful to them, but is only adding to the number of martyrs.
The guns are roaring here in Kashmir since long, but the situation vis-à-vis recruitment of the youth in militant ranks is worsening the situation with each passing day as the directives they have been receiving from their handlers are quite worrisome as in the end of the day, it is Kashmiris who are losing their dear ones for the desire and dream of someone else.
The weapon can never bring any solution as such movements have witnessed a defeat in the past as well. Although, there has been a decline in the number of recruitment of local youth joining militant ranks since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 05, 2019, however, a few youth have picked up the arms here since then while half of them have surrendered before the government forces as well.
To help and assist the local youth joining militant ranks, the government in Jammu and Kashmir has come up with a ‘surrender policy’ through which many have joined mainstream again while many have been deprived from taking the advantage.
There are many instances when the youth who had picked up arms were not allowed to surrender either during the gunfights or before that. In one such example, a 16-year-old youth from south Kashmir was killed during the gunfight even after being offered surrender multiple times by the security forces as well as the family itself. However, the young boy was not allowed to come out and surrender to join the family again.
The security forces although provided a whole night to the young boy to surrender, but he was forced to reject the offer by the militants accompanying him.
This was not the only case wherein the youngsters wanting to return were not allowed to drop the guns. The heart wrenching videos wherein appeals have been made to the youngsters by their families to return and join them again, have shaken the conscience of the people and clearly shown the right face of the movement before the world.
Such a situation would never serve anyone’s cause and to put an end to such a situation, the parents and the society as well has to ensure that the youngsters remain under a contestant vigil so that they can be prevented from picking up the arms and help someone to fulfill his desires.
With such a situation, the gun culture in Jammu and Kashmir especially in the Valley has ended up with a clear image that picking up weapons is a war crime and has nothing to do with the narrative that is being made since decades and has so far claimed thousands of lives in the newly carved Union Territory of J&K.
If the youngsters are facing any difficulties or issues, there are hundreds of peaceful means to fight for the rights, but holding the guns would not only result in the loss of lives, but also won’t bring any solution to the problems, thus joining the mainstream to end up the gun culture becomes imperative especially to the youth, who are sensitive and can easily get radicalized by the people especially from those across the border.
(The writer is Executive Editor Lake City Times)
