Jammu and Kashmir:  Return to Normalcy; New Delhi should not make Mistakes

Asia News Agency

Jammu and Kashmir:  Return to Normalcy; New Delhi should not make Mistakes

Faced with vanishing support from a crisis-mired Pakistan, and the loss of legitimacy among young people, Praveen Swami (National Security Editor, ThePrint) writes “Kashmir’s jihadist movement is disintegrating. The number of ethnic Kashmiris active in jihadist groups, intelligence officials have told ThePrint, is down to 28, the lowest in a decade. The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen—once the numerically largest jihadist group in Kashmir, with thousands of cadres—has all but disappeared.”

However, “this isn’t the first time Kashmiri jihadism has faced such a crisis. And on each of those occasions, it was rescued by missteps and misjudgements by India.”

For example, the choke-hold New Delhi obtained on politics in Kashmir in the past, “came at the cost of all opposition space to Islamists. The political despotism built by the National Conference, with Congress support, pushed many young people to take up arms. Islamist-led youth protests had begun breaking out in southern Kashmir from as early as 2003—with fateful consequences…..

“From 2001 on, the jihad in Kashmir has often been perched on the edge of the abyss—only to claw its way back because of the failure to build a durable and democratic political order. Today, as New Delhi seems to hunt down the Hizb’s last men standing, it must be aware about not making the same mistakes.”


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