As Indian security agencies have been making major gains in their anti-terrorist operations in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the nature of terrorism is showing a marked shift, with new recruits usually being highly educated and coming from good backgrounds.

As reported by The Tribune, the recruits are now made up of PhDs, MPhils, MBAs, post-graduates and graduates. However, the militants lack training and equipment. Police data says that in the last two years two PhDs, two MPhils, four postgraduates and 10 youths with various graduate degrees have picked up the gun.

Local militants earlier used to comprise of youth from poor backgrounds but used to undergo much more rigorous training, sometimes across the border. They also used possess expertise in firing assault rifles and bomb making. Recent recruits, most of them locally trained, lack these.

The report states the case of one Khurshid Ahmad Malik of Pulwama district, who after taking to militancy was gunned down last week. Malik had an engineering degree, had cleared GATE and his name was also in the list of sub-inspectors in the state police.

“The day he left home on 31 July, he said he will go to submit the form for the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) but he did not return. Four days later his body returned. We are completely shocked,” said Qayoom Malik, the militant’s elder brother.

“We tried to convince him to surrender when he was trapped, but he refused,” he added saying that the family had no indication that Malik would take up the gun.