One Stone Too Many
WhatsApp messages are being used to recruit, mobilise and incite hatred and fan communal trouble in Jammu and Kashmir
INJammu and Kashmir, police and intelligence officials say elements in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) use the messaging service to “actively stage civil unrest”.
Although there are only about 250 militants active in the Valley, officials say there is ample evidence to show that they and their handlers in Pakistan are acting in tandem with a huge cadre of over-ground workers (OGWs) whose numbers may be anything between 4,000 and 6,000.
Police say administrators in Pakistan and PoK control some 60 or more WhatsApp groups with an average membership of 250—all invariably alienated and angry Valley youth. Discounting for members across groups, officials say there is a huge, highly motivated youth cohort spread across the Valley and constantly in touch with each other.
A senior Jammu and Kashmir police officer, who has served a term as inspector general in charge of the Valley, says “it is all highly organised”. According to him, many WhatsApp and other social media groups on platforms like Facebook and Telegram, that started out as fan clubs for militants like the Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, have, since his killing in July 2016, been deployed to mobilise stone-pelters to locations where encounters are under way.
Officials say the massive gathering of ‘mourners’—some estimates say 200,000—in Tral for Wani’s funeral, was also mobilised via social media. They say attempts to block access to specific platforms during periods of unrest haven’t really worked because
tech-savvy Kashmiri youngsters easily circumvent temporary firewalls set up by the authorities.
Besides fueling militancy in the Valley, like elsewhere in the country, WhatsApp is also being employed to stir communal trouble. The situation has become such that on June 30, Angrez Singh Rana, district magistrate of communally sensitive Kishtwar, directed administrators of all WhatsApp groups operating in the district to register themselves within 10 days.
The orders were issued following SSP Abrar Choudhary’s report that the platform was being used to “circulate rumours and baked information”. Police said objectionable material, including pictures of gun-wielding militants and videos of anti-India protests, were being circulated with a clear aim to incite trouble.