Kashmir Will Be Like Syria If Radicalisation Picks Up, Says Interlocutor

New Delhi: Dineshwar Sharma, the centre's interlocutor for Kashmir who has spoken about radicalisation of the youth there as his big challenge, says he was worried that if radicalisation picks up, "the situation will be like Yemen, Syria and Libya" and "finish the Kashmir society itself". "So, it is very important that everybody, all of us, contribute so that suffering of Kashmiris end," Mr Sharma told news agency Indo-Asian News Service.

For someone who has watched the violence in Kashmir at its peak back in the nineties, the former intelligence chief was instrumental in the central government's assessment that has looked at the evolving situation in Kashmir from the prism of radicalisation as well.

The decision to appoint Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor, formally called the centre's special representative, was also taken against this backdrop by the NDA government.
 In a recent interview to NDTV also, Mr Sharma had kept his focus sharply on reaching out to the Kashmiri youth, blaming Pakistan for playing a major role in alienating them.

"The youth and people of Kashmir have to realise what is good for them... I will make them realise that whether they should be working at the behest of some foreign power or they should be working for their own future," Mr Sharma had said.

The government believes creating employment for the Kashmiri youth was going to be an effort. Every fourth Kashmiri, which makes 25 per cent of the population in the 18-29 age group, is unemployed, in contrast to the corresponding national average of 13 per cent.

Just how exactly he intends to reach out to the youth, Mr Sharma has told IANS, is something that he was yet to firm up.

Mr Sharma, who met Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti during her Delhi visit on Thursday, is expected to travel to Jammu and Kashmir soon.