Kashmiri youth forced into militancy: KCSDS
Srinagar, Nov 29: Kashmir Centre for Social and Developmental Studies (KCSDS) Thursday asked the Centre to adopt “sympathetic” approach to deal with the youth who join militant ranks “out of compulsion”.
Addressing media at a local hotel here, KCSDC chairperson Prof. Hameeda Nayeem said India should treat Kashmiri youth as its own children if Kashmir is its integral part.
She accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government of killing Kashmiri youth under a “genocidal policy” saying on one hand India claims Kashmir as its integral part and on the other hand its youth are killed with maximum effort.
“Our youth take arms out of compulsion; they are given third degree torture, abused and humiliated in jails on pretext of being stone-pelters, even their parents are being looted to get them released,” she claimed.
Nayeem said after being released from jails these youth are left with no option but to join the militant ranks.
“Once they are released from jails they join militant groups because the treatment meted out to them in jails accrue poison in their minds. It is the state which pushes them to the wall and forces them to take arms,” she added.
The KCSDS chairperson further said the previous Congress governments caught then “topmost militants like Yasin Malik and Javaid Mir alive, and put them behind the bars rather than killing them.”
She said the current government does not know how to treat the militants “who are innocent and untaught”.
She said the Government of India has never treated Kashmiri youth as its own children despite its claims that Kashmir is its integral part.
“Is this a way to treat to them? These children are innocent and untrained. They don’t know how to handle guns. Instead of handling them with affection they get readymade excuse to kill them,” she said adding people of Kashmir too have right to live a respected life.
