03 Nov 2017/Friday

The current fervor in the valley of social media being used as a perfect tool for romanticizing militancy and galvanizing youth has undoubtedly played the trick of hoodwinking to some extent. However, the flooding of morphed pictures and doctored audios & videos indicate a very juvenile mindset; which is very natural because these young boys flashing weapons online are not hard core terrorists; they are mere puppies tricked into living cold days in hell. This new breed of tech savvy terrorists is undoubtedly good at photo ops, but that’s all!! They can’t fight a trained soldier, their field craft is no match to that of a soldier. Their breeders are aware of this fact; still they are thrown into the face of SF only to get killed at an innocent age of 15-20.

The photo op does provide instant publicity, like in the case of Burhan Wani , who became the poster boy of the valley. But what was he reaching at? A young boy was primarily seeking attention of girls, a desire to be loved that he could have most naturally nurtured had he led a normal life and not got into this vicious circle.

Calling for Jihad, false propaganda and some silly photo ops doesn’t make “men out of boys”. Real men are protectors and providers. But are these photo op boys doing that? By leaving their family scarred, headless and putting the burden on female members (wife, mother, and sister) these boys are failing in their real duties.  The sooner this virtual bubble of being recognized as a hero bursts and realization of real manhood and ability to  shoulder responsibilities that come along with it strike these young men, they would certainly stop playing these child like games online.