Security officials have started groundwork to find out what prompts teenagers to join militant outfits in Kashmir.
The exercise comes after a 14-year-old boy and his 17-year-old neighbourhood pal were killed by the forces in a gunfight in the outskirts of Srinagar on Sunday. Two more teenage militants had been killed since last year.
Top security officials say it is high time for a “collective approach” from parents, elders, teachers and the forces to ensure teenagers are kept away from “treading the path of violence.”
Mudasir, a class 9 student, and his neighbourhood friend, Saqib Bilal, 17, were killed in an encounter with the forces at Mujgund area in Srinagar outskirts on Sunday.
They were accompanied by top Lashkar commander Ali Bhai of Pakistan, who according to police, had recruited the both the teenagers into militancy in August this year.
A photograph showing Mudasir posing with an AK-47-rifle and a knife went viral on the social media sites, with netizens discussing merits of such a young boy’s plunge into militancy.
“We lost a budding flower. He should have been holding a bat or pen in his hands. One needs to understand what forced him to pick up gun,” wrote a social media user, Shezad Rashid.
In response to his comment, a user wrote: “Ultimate repression taking away our teenagers…Brave soldiers deserve rewards….”
Talking to Greater Kashmir, inspector general of police Kashmir range, Swayam Prakash Pani said: “We are ascertaining facts. I have called for a report as far as the case of Mudasir is concerned. Teenagers joining militancy is not a trend. It is more of an aberration.”
Inspector general of CRPF Ravideep Singh Sahi said both the teenagers were given ample opportunity to surrender before the gunfight started at Mujgund.
“To my information both were accompanied by a hardcore militant and they refused to surrender,” he said.
The IG CRPF said it was responsibility of parents, teachers and the elders to keep a watch on their children so that they are kept away from picking up arms.
“The forces will also play a part,” he said.
Before Mudasir and Saqib, Kashmir saw the killing of two more teenagers, who had picked up arms since 2017.
Faizan Ahmed Bhat, a resident of Tral, Pulwama, who quit his studies in March last year to join Kashmir’s new-age militancy, had become the youngest militant.
Aged 15 years and a little over three months, Faizan had joined the ranks of the militants on March 4, 2017, the day two militants including a local HizbulMujahideen commander, AqibMoulvi, got killed in Hyun, a village in Tral in Pulwama district.
Faizan was killed on May 27, 2017 in an encounter with forces in Pulwama.
Before Faizan, a 17-year-old Fardeen Ahmed Khanday, who went missing in September 2017, was killed on January 1, 2018, in a fidayeen attack on a forces’ camp at Pulwama.
After the killing of Fardeen, a video went viral on social media wherein Fardeen was seen saying, “When people would be watching this video, I would be resting in heaven.”
According to the police, Fardeen had been lured into militancy by Jaish Muhammad commander Noor Muhammad Trali.