In Indian Kashmir, angry youth flirt with armed militancy, by Frank Jack Daniel

'Ishfaq first threw a rock at an Indian policeman six years ago. Now he's thinking about arming himself with a gun.
The 21-year-old is the human face of a trend that is worrying security sources, politicians and a rights group spoken to by Reuters - the revival of violent anti-Indian sentiment among the Kashmir Valley population just as New Delhi fears a renewed onslaught from Pakistan-based militants.
Ishfaq and his friends were among thousands who took to the streets across the Muslim-majority Himalayan state following the July 18 killing of four men by Indian border police during a day of protests against an alleged desecration of the Koran.
Three weeks on, hiding from police in a crowded bazaar of the lakeside city of Srinagar, Ishfaq said several years of unarmed struggle against India's rule had been met only with violence.
"If the same situation persists, the day is not far away when we go back to the gun," said Ishfaq, who asked for his second name to be withheld. "We cannot fight without weapons."
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