Srinagar: About a two months ago in the February, group of Kalashnikov wielding militants on motor bicycles stomped through a massive funeral for a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist in a village graveyard of Pulwama in south Kashmir. Several rounds have been fired by them and left the venue immediately, leaving many in funeral also the incident was in headlines for several days.

Among the 200 militants, most of them concentrated in south Kashmir, security agencies acknowledge that for the last one year. "If there is a militant holed up in congested parts of the city today, I will think several times before taking any action against him. Most likely, I will just let it go. That is because I know that the scene today is different from a few years ago. Today, I have to deal not only with the militant in a hideout but local residents who will come out cheering for him or pelting stones on my men," a senior police officer in Srinagar said.

Militancy in Kashmir is mostly home grown now, due to a major plug in infiltration. From the 200 militants only 30 may be Pakistani. According to foreign mercenaries, mostly are in north Kashmir. "An armed militant is a visible and known threat and we know how to fight him. But an unarmed militant is camouflaged in public. We don't know who he is and what threat he and his supporters can pose," a police officer lamented.

Lawyer sitting at a police station said- "Look, all this unrest is essentially conveying the same old message of 1990—they want separation. They don't want to be part of India,"