Alarm bells: Stone-pelters join militant ranks

Srinagar: Police and security personnel are reporting a sudden surge in militancy in the Valley with a large number of local boys, who were part of the stone-throwing mobs just months ago, joining the ranks of militant groups, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

This is ringing alarm bells in the security establishment. For, one, this shift to the gun comes after a sharp fall in militant violence over the last few years. And, two, because these boys are not crossing over for training — but being trained here — there is an apprehension that groups fighting the Pakistani state across the border may also set up shop here, changing the very dynamics of the conflict.

Police say 150 militants are currently active in north Kashmir alone and in addition to the new local recruits, foreigners are also sneaking in.

Since last summer, police say, there have been 45 infiltration bids and 140 new militants have sneaked in. In fact, the Sopore police is searching for two militants from Chechnya, identified as Usman and Umar — the first time, police claim, Chechens have come to operate in Kashmir.

A confidential report compiled by J&K Police — a copy of which is with The Indian Express — shows how many of the boys arrested were part of the stone-throwing mob.

It reveals that a Lashkar commander Sajad Khan alias Shamas of Batamaloo who operates in Thannamandi, Rajouri, set up a module this October in his native locality in Srinagar.

And 14 youngsters joined it. Police claim that 18 grenades were recovered from them when the module was busted earlier this month. These young boys had no previous connection with militancy, said police, but actively took part in the stone-throwing.

The report has detailed intercepts of phone conversations and call details between Shamas and four of the youngsters who have been arrested. Shamas is still at large.

Police said grenades were recovered from Imtiyaz alias Arsalan, a school dropout and an auto rickshaw driver, who received “training in handling and operating hand grenades, pistols and IEDs” in a Rajouri camp.

Arsalan has three cases of stone-throwing against him registered in the Batamaloo Police Station. Between October 11 and 14, Shamas and Arsalan spoke as many as 22 times.

Another youngster, Aadil, police say, had grenades in his possession when he was arrested. He was in touch with Shamas too and was involved in grenade attacks on the CRPF at Safakadal and Reck Chowk, Batamaloo on July 4 and July 24.

Sources said 23 youngsters in the age group 15 to 25 have gone missing in the Sopore Police Station area alone. Police claim they have “credible inputs” that 15 of them have joined militant ranks and three of them have been killed in security operations.

Sources said several teenagers have been recruited in the volatile Zaingir belt where militancy is on a steep rise after the pro-Azadi protests. The Army set up a new camp at Pazalpora after occupying a newly constructed school building. The Army maintains a very high level of presence across the Zaingir belt with a major camp at Watlab on the Wular banks.

Sources said militants have made arrangements to train recruits in the handling of arms and ammunition. “There is no input suggesting that these new recruits are exfiltrating across the border for training. Those of the new recruits who have come under our radar are mostly teenagers and the youngest one is just 15 years old,” a senior police officer told The Indian Express.

police are also looking at the case of a separatist politician from Bahrampora, in neighbouring Rafiabad, who has been arrested. He has allegedly been in touch with Furqan, the Lashkar’s most wanted commander in the Valley.

In adjoining Bandipore, however, police say there are no inputs suggesting fresh recruitments but a group of 25 new militants have arrived and are in the Vewan, Panaar and Sumlar-Chontimulla area.

Sources said Lashkar has sent new commanders identified as Abdullah, Ayoubi and Rehman in Bandipore, which came up as the Lashkar’s headquarters in Kashmir before 2007.

New recruitments are going on in the Awantipora Police district where reports of five youths joining Lashkar and

Hizbul Mujahideen have been confirmed. Police say that Manzoor Sheikh of Tengpora, Dadsar; Syed Ashiq of Panzgam have joined Lashkar while Adil Mir of Dadsar, Burhan-ud-din of Shariefabad and Showkat Dar of Bachipora, Panzgam have joined the Hizbul.

This new development, security officials say, comes against the backdrop of the widely circulated rhetoric of Al-Qaeda’s Ayman Al Zawahiri who issued a 10-page policy statement on Pakistan and Kashmir on August 10, 2008 in which he called for the urgent need to “liberate (the) Kashmir Jihad from (the corrupt) ISI.”

Courtesy:Indian Express