The JK Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in a 74-page confidential report has profiled local youth who have become militants, reported the Indian Express.
“The new age militant comes from a middle-class family with all the ingredients of a normal Kashmiri family. He has Hanafiya inclination and not Salafi (or Wahabi), has been educated in government schools and not madrasas. This militant is not a child from a broken family. His age is between 15 and 25 years, is unmarried, has no substantial criminal antecedents and has behaviour as normal as a guy next door. There is hardly any early indication of him being drifted towards armed militancy,” is how the report titled ‘Radicalisation and Terrorism in J&K — A Study’ describes the boys who have joined militant ranks.
CID says that the aim of the study was “to gauge the existence and extent of radicalisation in the youth of Kashmir”. The report is based on an elaborate study of “156 local youths of the Valley who have joined militancy between 2010 and 2015”.
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The report also points out the the surge in militancy is not ‘ideology driven’.
“One noticeable outcome of this study is that this wave of fresh recruitments is not based or driven by ideology as the surge is only seen in South Kashmir and there too in identifiable areas. If it would have been ideology driven, then pan-Kashmir footprints would have been seen.”
The report also debunks general perception that madarasas are where the boys get radicalized.
“This study was done in the background of certain perceptions and notions. On analysis, we may conclude that not all of those perceptions/notions are true. For example, the perception that well-educated youth and from economically affluent families are joining militancy does not seem true. Quite interestingly and contrary to the set beliefs, he is not the product of madrasas. Majority of these militants are government school read, negating the general perception that madrasas are beds of radicalisation.”
