Cross-border sponsors of militancy do not need to smuggle in assorted Afghans, Sudanese and Chechens to do their dirty work in Kashmir. Misguided, vocal and violence-prone young people in the Valley have become the vanguard of separatism, even if they are actually in a minority

Cross-border sponsors of militancy do not need to smuggle in assorted Afghans, Sudanese and Chechens to do their dirty work in Kashmir. 

Misguided, vocal and violence-prone young people in the Valley have become the vanguard of separatism, even if they are actually in a minority

Read the following by Chandan Mitra :-

" Last week I also participated in a laudable effort ...to initiate a dialogue with young Kashmiri students and teachers. In collaboration with the Islamic University of Science and Technology, Avantipora, more that 60 Kashmiri youth, including some Hindus studying outside the Valley, came for a two-day dialogue with intellectuals, politicians, Ministers and other members of the Establishment in Delhi. In my brief interaction with them I was distressed to find their minds were rigid and unwilling to accept even logical explanations from non-Kashmiri Muslim interlocuters. They talked of azadi, plebiscite, unconditional withdrawal of Indian security forces and other demands that are anathema to people outside the Valley.

Many were openly supportive of stone-pelting as a legitimate weapon in the hands of “oppressed and unarmed” people. .. The dialogue allowed us to get a perspective of their minds and they too were happy at the chance to vent their pent up grievances. But it also brought home to me the extent of the gulf that has opened up between the Valley’s New Generation and the rest of India — a gulf that now seems almost impossible to bridge.

Exaggerated and imagined grievances are feeding real angst and the collapse of the political leadership in the Valley has created a vacuum that is fast being occupied by separatists fanning an Intifada-type uprising. Militants have managed to raise a hysteric pitch that glorifies ‘martyrdom’; housewives are prodding their young children to take on security forces; individual State police officials are being subjected to social boycott in their villages. The ISI and other masterminds across the border are delighted by the turn of events. Politicians of all hues are scurrying for cover....

Cross-border sponsors of militancy do not need to smuggle in assorted Afghans, Sudanese and Chechens to do their dirty work in Kashmir. Misguided, vocal and violence-prone young people in the Valley have become the vanguard of separatism, even if they are actually in a minority.

Given this grim reality, is there a way out? ... The rest of India will have to reconcile itself to the fact that the Kashmir Valley is now an internal conflict zone where a mini-Intifada is in progress ".