Terrorist organisations and fundamentalists have adopted a new tactic to step up violence in Jammu & Kashmir. They are pushing more and more gullible juveniles into the forefront of agitations and stone pelting, especially near encounter sites, posing serious problems for forces engaged in anti-terror operations.

Concerned over the new trend, security forces are now resorting to swift Intelligence-based operations to avoid disruption by agitators besides collateral damage and ensure people friendly anti-militancy drills. The new strategy includes minimal Cordon and Search Operations (CASO) and Seek and Destroy Operations (SADO) so as not to cause discomfort to peace loving citizens.

Admitting that the new trend of juveniles now becoming the face of stone pelting phenomenon and agitation is alarming, security establishment sources said here on Saturday. The terrorist organisations and fundamentalists are doing this with a design, they said.

Elaborating upon it, they said if a gullible juvenile is caught while throwing stones at security forces, s/he is treated as an offender under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act. However, if a juvenile is killed in police or security forces firing, the terrorist ‘tanzeems (organisations)’ blame the law enforcement machinery of human rights violations. Such incidents, wherein a boy or girl below 18 years is killed, lead to further agitation and this cycle continues for days together, they said adding in one instance earlier this week a 16-year-old girl died in firing in South Kashmir.

On the main reason for the juveniles resorting to stone pelting, officials said given the impressionable age these youths get swayed by the atmosphere around them. Fundamentalists and ‘tanzeems’ are always on the look-out for such gullible juveniles and are now exploiting them by pushing them in the forefront of protests.

Claiming that the security forces exercise utmost restraint, officials said the focus is now on ensuring minimum discomfort to the local populace during anti-terrorist operations. The Army is now conducting short and swift operations based on real time intelligence to avoid mass protests. It so happens that if the terrorist organisations get a whiff of the operation, they galvanise the misguided youths, including the juveniles, to converge on the encounter site and agitate in order to give a chance to terrorists to escape.

Learning from experience, the security forces have thus reduced the “window” of such operations to not more than 15 to 20 minutes from the time of getting Intelligence input about a hiding terrorist. Small teams swoop down on the targeted hiding place and after nabbing or neutralising him get out fast from there.

As regards dealing with the phenomenon of stone pelting in a compassionate manner, the State and Central Governments announced general amnesty twice in the last seven years. Then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had announced general amnesty in the month of August 2011. A total number of 1,811 youths involved in 230 cases of stone pelting during 2010 and 2011 were granted amnesty in the State by the alliance Government headed by Abdullah.

The scheme was meant for youths arrested since March 2010 in connection with stone pelting and other related violence. Since majority of youth arrested or booked in the cases were pursuing their higher education, the Government had decided to take a lenient view to allow them to study further and join the mainstream. The objective behind granting them amnesty was to ensure their involvement in these cases did not affect the verification of their character and antecedents for obtaining passports, jobs and loans.

Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also ordered the withdrawal of first-time cases of stone pelting against 4,327 youths to create a positive and conciliatory atmosphere in the State in November 2017. Jammu and Kashmir Police chief S P Vaid headed a committee that recommended the withdrawal of cases. Every police station was asked to send a list of stone pelters who have only one case registered against them.

Meanwhile, Vaid on Friday in Srinagar appealed to people not to go near the encounter sites and pelt stones at security forces in order to avoid loss of lives. “We are saddened if someone dies in this way. That is why we have been appealing that wherever there is an encounter, people should not go there to pelt stones on the army. This is our own army,” he said.

“The family that loses its child, we can feel their pain. How difficult it is! We again appeal to everyone that this should not happen and they should not come to the encounter sites and stone-pelting should not happen on army,” he said. Vaid said police have discussed the issue of avoiding deaths during stone pelting incidents with the Army and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Ultras using minors to stoke J&K unrest