Teen girls with stones are the new threat in India’s Kashmir conflict

The first stone was heavy in her hand before she let it fly. It arced through the smoky air and hit the khaki leg of a soldier. She barely stopped to watch the man grimace before she picked up another. In India’s restive Kashmir territory, the weapon of choice among separatist youths targeting Indian security forces is a stone — or a brick, if they can get one. Indian soldiers have slingshots — as well as conventional weapons and pellet guns that have killed and maimed scores. Last month, a round of fresh violence broke out in the valley. A dozen people were killed in clashes with Indian security forces, sparking days of student protests across Kashmir. Large numbers of girls in headscarves and school uniforms have been joining male protesters for the first time in recent memory. “A lot of these boys have been killed,” said Nisha Zahoor, 18, a senior who took up “stone pelting” during a standoff with paramilitary forces in a market square last month. “Now girls will go out and protest for freedom.” Officials, hoping to avoid a repeat of five months of violence that paralyzed the region last year, have appealed for calm. The state’s leader, Mehbooba Mufti, flew to New Delhi recently to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold talks with separatists. A new female police battalion has been established to deal with the schoolgirls and other public safety issues. Mufti’s government on Wednesday also instituted a month-long ban on social networking sites WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and others to slow the spread of incendiary viral videos among young people — including one in which the army strapped a man to the hood of a jeep as a human shield. “I can’t say how difficult it will be, but we’re very confident it will be contained,” said S.N. Shrivastava, the special director general of the Jammu and Kashmir Zone of the Central Reserve Police Force. Yet some see the presence of the girls in protests as a sign that the security situation in the valley is spiraling out of control. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted last week that student protests are the “new worry” and posted a photo of a girl in her school uniform kicking the side of a police vehicle. Her left arm cradled a basketball while her left hand clutched a brick.