Since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani, almost half the militant recruitments in the Valley came from within 10 km of the residences of killed militants or gunfight sites and these recruitments took place within 40 days of the encounters, reported the Indian Express.
These are among the findings of security agencies in J&K, part of a report on militancy and recruitment in the region that set the stage for the Ramzan ceasefire.
However, on Wednesday, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the Government of India had announced a temporary suspension of operations, not a truce.
The report analysed 43 encounters since November 5, 2016, until April 26 this year, in which 77 militants were killed. After the death of Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, 121 militants have been killed and 216 local youths joined militancy. Of these, 104 were directly linked to the killing of militants in their area or a killed militant belonged to their area.
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The key findings of the report, which analysed the circumstances around these 104 recruits:
* Each encounter sets off a surge in recruitments and new inductions into militancy far exceeds militants killed in operations rendering even successful counter-insurgency a zero-sum game.
* Militant killings anywhere trigger emotions across the Valley but in most cases, there is a strong correlation between the area of recruitment and number of militants killed from that area.
* No wonder then that 67 of the 104 recruitments took place within 15 km from a killed militant’s residence, 48 of these were within a radius of 10 km.
* 41 per cent of all new recruits were within 10 km of the encounter site, 27 per cent within 11 and 20 km and 18 per cent between 10 and 15 km.
* Recruitments between 2010 and 2018 into different militant organisations came from 354 villages, including nine from one village – Brath Kalan Sopore and seven militants each from three villages – Heff Zainpora, Redwani Bala and Arwani Bijbehara.
* 94 local militants were active in the Valley in early 2016, which rose to 113 in 2017 and at the beginning of 2018, there were 149 active militants.
* In 2016, 33 militants were killed while 88 youths were recruited and in 2017 while 80 militants were killed, 131 were recruited into militancy.
* Of the 461 local youth who joined militancy since 2010, 331 came from South Kashmir.
Inspector General of J&K Police, Kashmir zone S P Pani told The Indian Express that the increase in local recruitment into militancy has been the “biggest challenge”.
“We have been trying to dissuade local recruitment. Until now, 11 youngsters (who had joined militant ranks) have come back. Five (new recruits) were caught alive during encounters,’’ he said. “It is imperative that local recruitment is contained.”
