Interlocutor's visits underline need for constant govt engagement with public

All eyes were on Centre’s special representive on Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, when he visited Tral earlier this week on Wednesday. Security officials in Delhi said Sharma’s visits to places like Tral, Shopian and Pulwama are being closely watched by security agencies as well as the Separatists. In February, Sharma had visited Shopian and last December he was in Pulwama.

While Sharma’s visits may not yield any immediate results, given that there are no demonstrative outcomes of his meetings with local groups, traders, youth and other small leaders but Sharma is expected to draw the government’s attention to the issues concerning these areas when he briefs the government.

In the immediate context, his visits to these districts demonstrated the presence of government machinery to tackle law and order problems and showed its willingness to engage with the youth.

Tral, the native town of the 22-year-old poster boy of Hizbul Mujahideen, Burhan Wani, has witnessed the biggest gathering of separatists marking his death anniversary, after he got killed in an encounter with the security forces in 2016. Rebel Hizb leader, Zakir Musa also hails from Tral. He had recently launched the so called Kashmir unit of the Islamic state after he split from Hizbul Mujahideen. Known as the Ansaar Gazwat-ul-Hind, the outfit has openly been provoking locals to join them through a campaign that is widespread on social media platforms, a home ministry official pointed out.

The security agencies do not not want the security situation to slip back to the scenario in the 1990s. In the 1990s, when terrorism was at its peak in the valley, Shikargah, which is near the town area in Tral had become a safe sanctuary for militants where they used to get training and launch deadly attacks on security forces. Security sources said the “sneak attacks” on security personnel in Srinagar in that era were carried out by Jaish militants coming from Shikargah in Tral.

An encounter with the CRPF in 2008 had seen Jaish militants being killed , prompting the outfit to lie low in the years to come. This citadel of Jaish-e-Mohammed, witnessed some semblance of peace with occasional incidents between the year 2008 till 2015, but that trend soon vanished later on. Intelligence officials pointed out that with the advent of other groups like Hizb, Lashkar and AGH, in areas where only one particular group was active earlier, the security situation has become more complicated.

“The interlocutor’s visits will need to be embalming for the youth whose sentiments are against the security forces' atrocities. On any given occasion and rallies, they chant Burhan Wani’s name,” an official said.

The primary reason for the tipping point in Tral in recent years was the encounter between Burhan Wani’s elder brother and the security forces, where the former was allegedly bullied and beaten that prompted Burhan to join militancy to avenge the incident. Security officials concede that Wani continues to have a huge following in Tral and other parts of the valley even today.

“This itself demonstrates the importance of constant engagement by the government with different sections of people in the valley,” said a government official.

And there could be no better time to engage. In January this year, 16-year-old Fardeen Khanday had launched a fidayeen attack on CRPF camp – the first of its kind by a local tennager Jaish militant after a decade. It was symbolic of the radicalisation that was taking place in the valley once again. The son of a policeman, Khanday also hailed from Tral.