Deadly Despite Chinks

- Naseer Ganai

OF all the news being broadcast from Jammu and Kashmir, growing instances of ‘home-grown’ militants have recently headlined the most. But the rising number of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed militants being killed in counter-insurgency operations over the past couple of years in this restive state often gets hidden behind reports that evaluate militancy on old anvils that fail to soak the hits. The statistics— body count, to be precise—shows a generational shift in the way the outlawed group has regrouped and revitalised its resources in the Valley after lying on the fringes for 14 years since executing several attacks that were the bloodiest in the state’s history.