Jammu & Kashmir’s security forces are winning battles. Foreign terrorists have been neutralised in Kishtwar. Explosives have been seized in Rajouri. Pakistani-linked operatives are being cornered within Jaish networks. The statistics are impressive; the intelligence machinery, sharpened post-370, delivers results that generals celebrate and governments publicise. Yet, something stubborn persists. Every recovered AK-47 raises an unavoidable question: why does the supply not stop? It is because weapons find hands only where hope runs short. The unemployment rate among J&K’s educated youth now exceeds 28%. Government school classrooms run without teachers, and primary health centres operate without doctors. Fast-tracked development projects stall in bureaucratic corridors while daily wagers remain unpaid for three years. Even the recent Assembly session ended without a single binding resolution on jobs or healthcare. Security without governance is a holding pattern, not a peace dividend. Pakistan’s handlers in Rawalpindi do not need popular support, they need popular despair. Every unfilled vacancy, every unanswered grievance, and every private-school-turned-money-collection drive is recruitment material dressed in civilian clothes. Soldiers cannot shoot that. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah must understand: an arms bust without a job fair is only half a strategy. Counter-terrorism without “counter-Livelihood Generation” delivers temporary victories on permanent fault lines. J&K’s youth are not asking for much; a fair exam, an honest government job, a functioning hospital, better rates for horticulture produce, more sports centres to engage the youth and a helping hand in times need. Give them that, and Pakistan’s handlers run out of raw material. Security wins battles. Governance wins futures.
