buying a pencil battery for your radio or wall clock could land you in trouble since these batteries were also used in the wireless sets. These youth, who you think are radicalised, were raised when militants used to make rounds of the villages laden with AK-47 and Kalashnikovs, seeking shelter and meals. The fear of armed forces undoubtedly loomed around, yet people opened their doors to feed the militants or Mujahids as they call them. The fantasy behind this courtesy was the hope to see their wailing vale liberated. These youth, I may tell you were born coinciding with this agonising period in Kashmir’s history.

This generation has also witnessed the skirmishes between militants of different organisations also. These clashes were ideological in nature as we came to learnlater. One group, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was pro-independence and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) was alleged to have links with the state of Pakistan.

Both JKLF and HM were trying to create a space for themselves and thus, mend the public sympathy in their favour. However, JKLF, which raised the pro-independence slogans broke as an organisation and was pushed to oblivion. This does not end here as they also saw some of the militants who surrendered to the Indian Army later, form a counter-insurgency group called the Ikhwan (pro-government militia, who were in no way accountable for whatever they did).

This sanguinary group, which was a nightmare for every Kashmiri, young and old, was created so as to use ‘militants against militants’ and they were successful to a very