The new phenomenon of hijab-wearing girls resorting to stone pelting at security forces on the streets of the Valley is worrying Kashmir observers. Since last week on the streets of the main towns, including Srinagar, women students have come out of their colleges to pelt stones at security forces and seek justice for the eight-year-old girl who was gang-raped and brutally murdered in Kathua district of Jammu. The students have been boycotting classes and coming out on the streets with stones in their hands as the summer tourist season begins in Kashmir. They are targeting personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and J& K Police and have injured a couple of them in the process.

Stone pelting was so far confined to boys and cases against 9750 of them were recently withdrawn under the amnesty scheme that Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti charted out for those who indulged in stone pelting for the first time. There were allegations that the separatists and certain other pro-Pakistan elements were instigating the youth to indulge in stone pelting.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recently arrested some influential people whom it accused of creating unrest in the valley with money received through hawala and other channels.

Pakistan had till recent years tried to keep the Kashmir issue alive by indulging in shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control (LOC) and International Border (IB), but it has now started influencing the youth in Kashmir for this purpose, sources said.

The Army and other security forces have to exercise restraint during encounters with terrorists when stone-pelters in large numbers assemble at the encounter spot and try to divert attention of the security forces to enable the terrorists to escape from there. Many civilians have been killed as they defy orders of district magistrates who have ordered that curfew restrictions would automatically come into force within a 5 km radius of the encounter spot. During a recent encounter, stone pelters succeeded in rescuing three holed up terrorists in  South Kashmir.

Meanwhile, people across J&K have condemned the heinous rape and murder of the eight-year girl in Kathua and demanded exemplary punishment for those involved in the incident. J&K’s senior minister and chief spokesman of the government, Naeem Akhtar, in an appeal to the students to return to their classes said; “What is the occasion for protests, stone-pelting when the case is solved, accused in jail and trial on? Shouldn’t they be attending classes instead”.

However, several factors have come into play. Deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh has asked the intelligence agencies to probe a viral audio clip in which two persons are heard discussing how cash was collected by exploiting the issue of the Kathua victim and the money never reached her family. The demand for transferring the case to the CBI is growing louder in Jammu whereas those in the Valley are satisfied with the investigation done by the state’s crime branch.

BJP’s Lal Singh, who along with Chander Prakash Ganga was recently dropped from the J&K cabinet, is continuing his campaign for  CBI a probe into the case. He organised a march from Jammu to Kathua and then a ‘justice march’ here in support of his demand.