Pakistan based terrorist outfits are using school boys and women in Kashmir to strike at the targets and carry arms and ammunition to their cadres without being detected by the security forces.
The recent incidents in the state indicate that the terror outfits were using young boys and women for this purpose as they were in a position to move around without being suspected by the security forces.
A schoolboy, having been sent 300 km away to Jammu last week from the Kashmir valley to toss a grenade at the crowded general bus stand, has exposed the strategy of terror outfits. Two persons were killed and 32 injured in the grenade explosion.
During interrogation, the boy is learnt to have admitted that he was paid Rs 50,000 by the Kulgam district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen. The terror outfits had used this strategy in the early years of terrorism in the 2000s when young boys would toss grenades in crowded areas of the valley, but using minors for this purpose was abandoned later.
The security forces in Srinagar had recently arrested a woman who was carrying 20 grenades and a large cache of ammunition that was to be delivered to some terrorists. The police, on the basis of credible information, intercepted the car of the woman who was coming with the ammunition from Baramulla in North Kashmir. The ammunition was to be delivered to the terrorists in the Pulwama area of South Kashmir.
Reports of terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and other outfits indoctrinating minor and teen-aged boys have been coming from time to time.
A 14-year-old boy was among three terrorists killed in an encounter with the security forces in Hajin of Bandipura three months ago. Pakistani terrorists, belonging to LeT, have influence in the area and were reportedly indoctrinating the youth.
Reports of women being used as Over-Ground Workers (OGWs) of terror outfits to carry arms and ammunition and foodstuff for them in the districts of Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch and Rajouri of the Jammu division were also received when terrorism was at its peak but the menace has been somewhat controlled with the passage of time.
Several teenagers were involved in incidents of stone pelting at security forces in various parts of the Kashmir valley. The trend of stone pelting suddenly increased after the killing of local terrorist Burhan Wani in 2016 as several teenagers received pellet injuries when security forces opened fire to chase away the stone-pelting mobs.
The Army, CRPF and J&K Police have been counselling teenagers, youth and minors to help them get back into the mainstream.