DNA Edit: For peace in the Valley, Centre must focus on youth

The security forces in Kashmir managed to secure another major victory by neutralising six terrorists in an encounter that took place in North Kashmir’s Hajin area on Saturday. The operation is a great success for the Indian Army’s offensive in the Valley as two out of the six shot down in the encounter were designated commanders within the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Additionally, Owaid alias Osama, 25 years old and more importantly nephew of the 26/11 mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, was also killed in the gun-battle.

Meanwhile, Majid Khan, a budding footballer from the Valley who had succumbed to the propaganda of LeT but chose to return to the societal fold is being offered a position in one of India’s premium football training academies. In Owaid and Majid, the Kashmiri youth can see two starkly different paradigms. On Owaid’s path lies the unshakable belief that a wrong can be avenged with another wrong; that freedom will come from the barrel of a gun; that a fair, just and equitable society can be built on the foundations of guns and grenades. Majid’s path, on the other hand, is of incremental change; of the belief that one is never beyond pardon if one comes clean on the folly of his ways; of the understanding that only when one redeems himself is one ever truly capable of salvaging others.

These two represent the two extreme models of aspiration for the Kashmiri youth. It is up to each and every one of them to decide which way they would like to steer the course of their lives. For their sake, and for the sake of the Valley, one hopes that wisdom prevails and nudges them to opt for Majid over Owaid. It is here that the Indian government can play a delicate role. In the aftermath of the killing of the commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen chief Burhan Wani, recruitment by terrorist agencies has seen a hockey stick growth. Partly to blame for this uptick in recruitments is the heavy-handed treatment that security forces have meted out to youth in the Valley, scores of whom have been rendered permanently blind because of the use of pellet guns.

The persistent use of such repressive crowd control tactics will continue to alienate the Kashmiri youth from the Indian mainstream and draw him closer to the insidious motivations of Pak-sponsored terrorist organisations. Ipso facto, the government must focus its strength on winning over the youth. To that end, J&K interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma’s attempts to meet Kashmiri students is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, this will help create an impression that the Indian government is keen on listening to their grievances, and acting with immediacy to resolve them. This is easier said than done given that leaders of some of the most prominent student groups in J&K have reportedly gone underground as they are facing charges of engaging in acts of sedition and participating in local protests. Additionally, Union Home Ministry’s efforts to involve religious groups to check radicalisation of the youth is also a step in the right direction.