Militants are frequently recruiting “young men with a clean slate” to hurl grenades, plant improvised explosive devices, commit target killings and then get back to their normal lives. Because many of them have no record, they are not on the security radar and, therefore, more difficult to track down.
“Outsourcing of grenade and IED attacks,” Director General of J-K Police Gopal Sharma told The Indian Express, “has changed the complexion of militancy substantially. It’s now a very local affair and can only be handled via a localized response.”
Sharma said what makes militants outsource is that these new “actors” are insiders. “They do not cross the border for arms training nor do they go underground to commit violent acts. In a majority of cases, their motivation is the macho image associated with violence or pure indoctrination,” he said. Money is also a factor given that many of those arrested are from poor, divided families.
“There are instances where we are supporting the families of these young men after they were arrested only because we don’t want militant groups to come, support them and set up new networks,” said Sharma.
Police said they recently got a tip-off that 39 boys were recruited in Sopore. “We didn’t arrest them but identified them and called their parents so that they can get to their children before the militants can,” said Sharma.
In fact, this shift in militant operations in Kashmir is visible on the ground as well. The official number of militants active across the state, by most security and intelligence estimates, is 1,000-1,200. In the Valley, most of them are concentrated in hubs like the Bandipore forest in north Kashmir, the upper reaches of Tral and Shopian, Panzgam-Wachi-Nain Batpora in Pulwama in South Kashmir or the mountains of the Lolab valley near the Line of Control. Only a few operate in towns and Srinagar city.
Consider these recent arrests which confirm this trend:
Azad Ahmad Wani, 18, a resident of Gojwara in Srinagar, worked as a salesman and was arrested with a pistol after investigations revealed that he had allegedly killed seven policemen across Srinagar last year. In all these cases, Wani had driven across Srinagar city centre on a bicycle and returned home after shooting the policemen. Police allege Wani ferried money, weapons and even militants from Bandipore and Tral to Srinagar.
Wani had drop out of school in Class IX because of poverty. His parents divorced leaving his mother and his sisters to fend for themselves. In 2002, His mother Hamida Bano, a cancer patient, rented a room in her house in downtown Gojwara to a man who claimed to be a fruit merchant. This tenant, however, was a Pakistani militant, Ansar. He got Wani, then 14, in touch with Jaish militants without exposing their identity.
Soon, Ansar was arrested by the police, who raided Wani’s house and recovered arms from the room. His ailing mother was booked because there was no other adult in the family. Wani was hired by Jaish after they visited him several times at a shop where he worked. Angry over police action against his mother, Wani agreed to carry out the strikes on behalf of Jaish. After his arrest, the family lost the only source of their income. Although Wani was sent to jail, the police support the family so that “militants do not come and exploit their situation.”
Mohammad Afzal Rather, 20, was arrested while trying to hurl a grenade at a vehicle near Srinagar’s Tourist Reception Centre. A Class XII student, Rather got acquainted with a Pak-trained militant who used to frequent his neighbourhood. Police say he was soon given arms training and assigned to hurl grenades in Srinagar. He was also allegedly involved in a target killing in Sopore. His father Nazir Ahmad Rather, police say, suffers from brain cancer and the family crisis meant nobody kept a vigil on his activities.
Similar is the story of Naseer Haqani, 18, from Sheikhpora in Budgam. Arrested with a grenade in Nowgam, Haqani is serving time in a Jammu prison. Police say his family is poor, divided by a dispute between parents. After Haqani’s arrest, police cracked a bigger militant network and recovered IEDs rigged to mobile phones. Police said the militant strategy was to “outsource” planting of these bombs, too.
Tariq Ahmad Baba, 22, a resident of Pattan, was arrested after militants sent him to Srinagar to throw grenades at selected targets. Baba has no previous record of any involvement in militancy. Police say he wasn’t even on their radar because of his “absolutely good behaviour” in his village. Now he’s in custody at Karan Nagar police station.
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