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‘Give us jobs or we’ll pick up guns’, says J&K youth seeking employment

The rate of unemployment is way more in Kashmir than compared to all India unemployment rate

On Thursday when three armymen were martyred in a fidayeen attack at a camp base in Kupwara region of  Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the very same day, about 2,400 boys appeared for the physical ability test for the recruitment in J&K police.

For 483 vacancies in Srinagar, as many as 2800 youths applied and 443 qualified the exam. In a report published in The Times of India, during the physical exam, GH Bhat, DIG Police, Srinagar said, “Some of you probably pelt stones on us. But now you will have to take it from others”.

The rate of unemployment is way more in Kashmir than compared to all India unemployment rate, as per the reports. One of the pass-outs on the situation said, “If we don’t get jobs, we will be forced to pick up stones or guns”.

Meanwhile, the centre is all set to increase the number of women police battalion in Jammu and Kashmir, about 1000 women help the state police primarily to deal with the stone-pelting incidents in the Valley. They will be part of five India Reserved Battalions (IRBs). This decision came after the Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting to review the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, an official in the Home Ministry said, “The battalions are tasked by the state but a major chunk of the expenditure is borne by the Centre. The Centre has now told the state government in Kashmir to make one among the five an all-women battalion”.