Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq says, “It is very evident that there is a lot of anger and alienation as far as the ground situation is concerned, especially among the youth, and these are some of the occasions when they can actually come out on to the street and pelt stones to vent. Otherwise the way things are controlled and managed here, their emotions are suppressed. As a result, people are associating themselves with the sacrifice, commitment and ideology. More and more people feel that Government of India is not going to resolve issues related to Kashmir through dialogue or discourse. This is the reason why young boys are coming and challenging the might of the Indian government despite knowing that they may not win; and they are displaying their resistance and resilience.
“Besides, it used to be earlier said that Pakistan or others are involvement in Kashmir turmoil but Burhan perhaps never went across the border (for training). So one has to understand why the youth are getting drawn to this path without crossing the Line of Control because many of them see it as a cause for the nation or ideology, something which is Islamic. This is something new that is growing in the Valley. They are not the militants of the 1990s when a section also joined for social status or recognition without any conviction. They just followed the herd blindly. But this is not the case this time.”
“Also, there is a change in the situation now. In the 90s, militants had full support of the people; they could remain underground for long, they had full support of the people with money, shelter, safety measure. In the 90s, the militancy had an upper hand. But now the militants are on their own because the security agencies have their sources/informers everywhere. Besides, those joining militancy now are from good financial and educated backgrounds which means they believe in it and not blindly joining. As people say that Burhan perhaps never fired at the security agencies himself. So, his becoming a symbol of resistance despite not firing a shot, speaks a lot and he became very important which is why people from all ideology are pouring out from posh colonies to galis,” said the Mirwaiz.