The recent terror attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama came as a massive shock to the entire nation. Also, the fact that the ghastly attack was carried out by a 22-year old Kashmiri youth, is even more distressing. It is a matter of grave concern that an Indian youth has committed this abominable crime against his own country. The youth in Kashmir is becoming vulnerable to the cross border terrorist outfits, with each passing day. These outfits employ dubious tactics to radicalize the young Kashmiris, and use them to further their ulterior motives.
The terror organizations have been trying to indoctrinate the local youth to fight against India, in the name of religion. They convince youth to sacrifice their lives by valorizing martyrdom, in a misleading manner. These outfits incite the impressionable young minds, against the government and ask them to lift arms against their own brethren. Many terrorists infiltrate into India and train them to use explosives and other deadly weapons. A local support network is also provided to these terrorists in Kashmir so that they can easily penetrate the border.
They also use technology to spread their hate propaganda. Videos and posts are circulated on social media to lure youth into joining them(the terror outfits). This has enabled terrorists to successfully increase membership without direct, physical contact. In this way, they don’t even need to come to India to execute their plan. Such recruitment by terrorist organizations like ISIS, Taliban and Jaish e Mohammed target mainly college and university students, across the country, who are active on social media, and susceptible to their extreme ideologies. Recently, an engineering student of Noida joined militants, to perpetuate terrorism thriving on violence and hate in the guise of religion.
Such radicalization of youth is a matter of huge concern for India, due to its young demography. More than half of the population of India is below 25 years of age. This is exacerbated by the rising unemployment, poverty, failure of political machinery, which makes the youngsters feel deprived of the fruits of ‘glorified’ mainstream development. The lack of development in the state of Kashmir, followed by continuous disruption of law and order and blatant human rights violation makes the Kashmiri youth more vulnerable to such extremist organizations.
India has a productive young population, which can be the harbinger of growth and development, but this can backfire if we are not able to channelize this potential in the right direction. How shameful it is that terrorists sitting in another country are executing such killings, so easily, by using Indians against Indians? Instead of a one on one, these cowards are employing these youth as proxies against India. There is a dire need to engage our youth in the right direction, by keeping them connected with the ethos of the Indian constitution and its democratic credentials.