Dangerous trends have started surfacing on the militancy front in Jammu Kashmir with nearly 130 youth joining various militant outfits this year, the highest since 2010, and a majority of them affiliating themselves with groups ideologically aligned with the Al-Qaeda, officials said here.
According to data compiled till July 31, around 131 youths have joined various militant outfits with south Kashmir’s Shopian district contributing the maximum of 35 so far.
The number of local recruits last year was 126.
The officials say that many youngsters are joining the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a group which claims support of Al-Qaeda and is headed by Zaqir Rashid Bhat alias Zaqir Musa, who hails from a village in Tral area of Pulwama district.
The 24-year-old engineering college drop-out has been able to capture the imagination of youth, especially after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen poster boy Burhan Wani, who was killed in 2016.
He was good at studies as well as sports and had represented the State in inter-state carom championship, recalls a senior police official, adding this is one of the reasons that he has started emerging as a hero to many youth in the Valley.
Believed to have been influenced by Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemini-American preacher killed by allied forces attack in Afghanistan in September 2011, Musa has been mainly focusing on recruitment for his outfit and urging youth to pick up arms.
Awlaki too was considered the brain behind recruitment for Al-Qaeda.
His motivational skills left militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba also in a fix when he was able to draw Abu Dujana into his group, the officials said. Abu Dujana was killed.
Though the Jammu Kashmir Police has time and again termed Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind as a non-starter in the Valley, the growing popularity and graffiti of his name and slogans have taken maximum spaces of towns and villages.
ISJK, an affiliate of the banned ISIS, was also a source of attraction for youth but after the killing of its chief Dawood Sofi, the group does not find many takers.
The officials of security agencies said the highly-volatile south Kashmir comprising Shopian, Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam and Awantipora districts continued to contribute more youth to the militant groups and together these five districts had contributed over 100 youth to various militant groups operating in Kashmir valley.
This year’s figures were the highest since 2010, according to a recent data presented in the State assembly and the Parliament.
There has been a steady rise in the number of youth taking up arms in the Valley since 2014 onward as compared to the period from 2010 to 2013 when the figure stood at 54, 23, 21 and six.
In 2014, the number shot up to 53 and in 2015, it reached 66 before touching the highest mark of 88 in 2016, the data showed.
Locals joining militant ranks across Kashmir highest since 2010, Ghazwat-ul-Hind gaining ground, says data
