The Shopian district in South Kashmir has emerged as the new recruiting hub for local terrorists as 11 of the 13 ultras killed in Sunday’s encounters with security forces were fresh recruits from the area.

Most of these boys had not completed one year in terrorism but were involved in several attacks at security forces.

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This indicates that the repeated appeals of shunning terrorism by Army and other security forces to the boys picking up the gun have not yielded the desired results.

During “Operation All Out” launched by the security forces to flush out terrorists from the valley, most of the militants killed belonged to Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama and Kulgam of South Kashmir, but the high death toll of boys from Shopian has alarmed the authorities.

Four of the five terrorists killed in the encounter at Kachdoora were from various villages of Shopian and one was from Kulgam.

The longest stint in terrorism among the ten killed was of Ishfaq Thoker of Paddarpora village in Shopian who had picked up the gun in 2015, police said.

Other killed terrorists belonging to Shopian district were, Gayas-ul-Islam Thoker of Paddarpora, Ubaid Shaffi Malla (joined terrorism in February 2017), Zubair Ahmad Turrey, Nazim Dar, Rayees Ahmad Thoker (May 2017), Yawar Itoo (July 2017), Adil Ahmad Thoker (November 2017) Ishfaq Ahmad Malik (January 2018), Aitmad Hussain Dar of Amshipora village (November 2017) and Sameer Lone of Hillow village (February 2018).

Shopian has produced a large number of stone-pelters and the CRPF officers said that the Sunday’s stone pelting by mobs was the worst ever witnessed in Kashmir.

Shopian was recently in the news when three persons were shot while they tried to lynch an Army officer in a convoy that was passing through the area.

Several top terrorists of A++ category killed in earlier encounters also belonged to Shopian and the two militants eliminated in on Sundaywere involved in kidnapping and subsequent killing of a 22-year-old Kashmiri Army officer, Lt. Ummer Fayaz last year in Shopian. Fayaz was on leave and had come to Shopian to attend a marriage in his family.

The district is strategically located on the Mughal Road that provides a direct access to the valley with the Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu, located along the Line of Control (LOC) with Pakistan. The terrorists move towards mountainous areas of these districts whenever security forces step up anti-terrorism operations.

The Victor Force of the Army has established its headquarters in South Kashmir to tackle with terrorism. The CRPF has also made its footprints in the district with large deployment of its men.