Jammu, July 19: The reports that local Kashmiri youth are joining militant outfits in huge numbers due to alienation needs to be viewed seriously before the situation goes out of control of the government in Jammu and Kashmir.
The latest reports of militants recruiting local educated youth into militant fold due to strict vigil on borders and the increasing incidents of waving of Pakistani and ISIS flags in Kashmir valley indicates that all is not well within the Kashmir valley which needs immediate and focused attention of the powers that be before the clock turns back to 1990’s when the government hardly existed on ground and militants were ruling the roost.
The time and the situation demands that the new government focuses its attention towards this alarming situation and curb the alienation of the youth well in time so that the progress made on the security situation during the past more than two decades does not go in vain.
The regular waving of Pakistani and ISIS flags is also a matter of grave concern even though army commanders and other security related people believe that these are just fringe elements and not the actual footprints of the terror group but the question arises how long will it remain just a photo opportunity for the youth and who can guarantee that these very fringe elements are not recruited properly to establish the foot prints of barbaric ISIS in Kashmir valley.
According to a top army commander Lt Gen DS Hooda, the recruitment of youth is taking place inside the valley as no infiltration has taken place this year and he has also expressed concern over the issue but what a common man wants to know is whether the government is taking enough measures to nip the evil in the bud or waiting for a big strike to occur before it initiates the defensive measures.
As they say offence is the best defence in war or game, the same adage needs to be adopted in Jammu and Kashmir where Pakistan is continuously waging a proxy war through various militant groups and the government needs to initiate measures to end the alienation of the youth before they turn offensive.
While union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also said that such acts need action and not talks the army commander has also indicated that some drastic measures need to be taken to contain militancy and bring the youth back to main stream as joining of educated youth in active militancy is a matter of grave concern.
The ground situation however seems quite different which can be gauged from the fact that social media is being grossly misused by the anti-national elements to whip up the emotions in Kashmir and persuade youth to join anti-India forces, a fact which has also been accepted by the army saying such methods have found acceptability among the youth.
The concern here is how to bring youth to national mainstream when majority of them swear by Pakistan and militant outfits by not only indulging in anti-India sloganeering, stone pelting and waving of Pakistani and ISIS flags brazenly while the government turns a mute spectator.
It is time the newly elected government uses its public representatives to convince the youth and their parents to join mainstream for a better future as army or security forces cannot do the job which needs diplomacy and local political initiatives.
What the new government can do as a first step is to start delivering what it has promised to people whether in Kashmir or Jammu which however seems a distant dream as yet because no developmental initiatives are visible on ground and people are complaining.
The attack on a Rajya Sabha member recently in Bugam area of Kulgam district by agitated youth is an indicator that political representatives have not been able to minimize the alienation of youth who rejected the pleas of these elected people saying they would not allow anybody representing India in the area.
These trends are disturbing and need immediate steps lest we reach to a point where situation gets out of the domain of the elected government like in early nineties and we have to begin afresh. Sooner we do the better it is.