Upsurge in boys drawn into Kashmir conflict

In the village of Vagera, where many of the rescued cricketers live, the boys' families proclaim ignorance at the presence of militants and are even wary of answering questions about their own sons.

The mother of Mumtaz Ahmed Dar says she was worried when her son didn't return on that night of July 18 because she had heard rumors that the boys were being taken across to Pakistan.

"I was worried that he might have gone across, but when he returned the next day I was extremely happy," she says. She doesn't necessarily think that her 18-year-old son wanted to become a militant, she quickly adds, but "we often hear of people from other areas going across and that is why I guessed the same had happened to Mumtaz."

Even though she says she is not worried about either the Army or the militants harassing her son, she refuses to give her name to a reporter. "You will have to record all the names of the other mothers who have lost their sons, and then you can come record my name," she says.

The father of Pervez Ahmed Dar says he was also relieved that his 19-year-old son didn't join the militants. "I was worried, but I have relatives in the village where they went, so I thought he might have stayed there overnight," he says, picking at a sickle to remove pieces of rice stalk from the ongoing harvest. Like other parents, he refuses to give his name.

"Militancy is in progress," he shrugs. "I'm an illiterate farmer. They can take my son across. Worrying is not a solution."

At this point, an elderly lady comes out, holding a small paring knife. "Why are you harassing us?" she shouts at a visiting reporter. "The ones with the guns are released and nobody bothers them. But you won't leave us alone."

BANDIPORA, INDIA - Two years ago, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat went out to buy a candle. Nine months later, he returned a militant.

The story of this 18-year-old's capture in Kashmir and training in Pakistan will give discomfort to both sides of this 14-year-old struggle over the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir. Mr. Bhat believes he was trained in Pakistan, not by private guerrillas but by civilian officers of Pakistan's intelligence agencies. His story could not be independently corroborated and contradicts Pakistan's consistent assertions that it offers only "moral and diplomatic support" to the Kashmiri militants. But other youths tell a similar story. The profound support these militants receive inside Indian Kashmir also contradicts India's claim that the insurgency enjoys no local support.

"We lived in the homes of tribal people, we lived like families, cooked meals together," says the friendly, green-eyed teenager. "There were only militants in the mountain heights, but in the lower areas, we mixed with the local people [in Indian Kashmir], and they helped us."

Bhat's brief entry into the Kashmir militancy movement began on the dark streets of his hometown, Sopore. Gunmen from Harkatul Jihad-e Islami, a small but disciplined militant group, approached him on the main street itself, and told him they were taking him to Pakistan. If he resisted, or if he told his family, the gunmen said they would kill them.

Getting across the Line of Control into Pakistani-administered Kashmir was easy, Bhat says, since Indian Army or security forces go to the mountainous border only at rare intervals, perhaps once a week. On his arrival in Pakistan, Bhat says, the militants handed him over to Pakistanis.

"They wore civilian clothes like you," he tells a reporter, "and they asked me the same questions you are asking. They wanted to find out if I was an Indian spy." But the big tip-off that they were Pakistanis, not Kashmiris, is that they did not speak the Kashmiri language.

Bhat was then taken to a training camp in the mountains where he stayed for three months, along with 150 other young Kashmiris. They were trained, he says, by men in civilian clothes who had expert knowledge of weapons and military strategy that surpass that of typical militants.

Bhat also received some political and religious indoctrination, including speakers who would tell of the atrocities of the Indian forces in Kashmir and the need to protect Islam. "They were motivating us for carrying out military attacks," says Bhat.

He left the group, then under threat tried to return. He was arrested by Indian troops en route.

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