Anantnag July 14,Militant recruitment that had come down in the valley this year is showing signs of picking up as more youth continue to join their ranks, despite the life span of a local militant having decreased manifolds.
Young students, brilliant scholars, engineers, doctors and many more young boys have picked up the gun after the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016, which many experts believe is due to the growing denial of space for political dissent.
However the Indian side has been arguing that more youth continue to join the Militant ranks because of its glorification through many proxy social media accounts, which remain faceless and are operated on behest of Intelligence agencies in Pakistan.
The undermined narrative in this battle of narratives is, the narrative on the ground, that most of the youth who join Militant ranks have been victims of the state’s crackdown against Kashmir’s youth who have been part of peaceful or stone throwing protests since the outbreak of a civilian uprising in 2010.
Today, photo of one more missing youth have appeared on the social media in which he is seen brandishing an assault rifle and has joined the Militant outfit, Hizb ul Mujahideen.
The youth has been identified as Raafi Ahmed Rather, son of Abdul Rashid Rather, who is a resident of Manihal in Batpora area in South Kashmir’s Shopian District.
Sources informed that Raafi who was pursuing graduation had went missing from his home since late in June this year.
Officials have recently said that 700 Militants have been killed in the past three years in Jammu Kashmir.(kashmiryat)
