Reflections on Pahalgam, the fight against terror

‘If we want to truly fight terror, we must start by reimagining our education system’ 
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In the serenity of Pahalgam, where green meadows once hosted school picnics and innocent games of cricket, blood has been spilled again. The terrorist ambush, targeting innocent people, is not just another headline in Kashmir’s long and pained history.

It is a voice — one that asks us to stop treating terrorism as just a border issue. It is one that begins in the mind, a mind that is unemployed, uneducated, and unexposed to the world beyond an echo chamber.

What turns a young boy from a small town into someone capable of pulling a trigger and attacking civilians? The answer is not always about radical preachers or foreign handlers. Sometimes, it is because of a void created by poverty, poor schooling, broken homes, and communities that never intervened when they should have.

Where the focus must be

In all the political noise, including tweets of condemnation, blame games, and “high-level reviews”, we forget that there is an important battlefield: the classroom. And beyond it, the neighbourhood.

If we want to truly fight terror, we must start by reimagining our education system and expanding our grassroots vigilance.

This fight starts with the curriculum. We need more than math and history. We need moral courage, empathy and stories of shared humanity. Schools should introduce conflict resolution, peace-building, and media literacy early on. Children must be taught how to disagree without violence and how to challenge dangerous narratives with critical thinking.

The curriculum should include peace studies from middle school on; monthly story sessions on interfaith harmony and diversity, and practical ethics through community service projects.

But this is something that cannot be left to teachers alone. Governments must get more involved at the local level, beyond policing, into prevention.

Imagine every district having a youth outreach council as a joint force of social workers, teachers, local police, mental health professionals, and (former) offenders who are now mentors. These councils can identify deviant behaviour early; intervene with counselling and guidance, and track absenteeism, peer group patterns, and sudden shifts in behaviour.

There must be adequate budgetary allocation for intervention camps for ‘at-risk’ youth. These camps should not be punitive but rehabilitative. Having sports, vocational training, theatre therapy and supervised social engagement at such camps can reset a young mind before it is too late.

For example, in Telangana, tribal welfare schools host “good touch-bad touch” workshops and empathy-building sessions every year, with great success. In Kerala, panchayats work with anganwadis and primary schools to track youth dropout rates and mental health patterns. Why not scale these models to conflict-sensitive regions such as Kashmir?

Governments must provide digital de-radicalisation tools not just through surveillance but also education. There should be mobile-friendly platforms that teach media literacy, conspiracy theories must end, and children must have access to verified information.

And, finally, there should be funds given to those who are closest to youth — school principals, sports coaches, and local non-governmental organisation workers. Empower them with training and resources, not just paperwork.

The question is not just how we stop the next terror attack. It is about how we stop a teenager from becoming tomorrow’s news.

Having a good teacher, mentor

Pahalgam has shown us the consequences of neglecting emotional education and community vigilance. The cure to extremism is not always a drone strike or a military operation. Sometimes, it means having a good teacher. A timely mentor. A government that does not just build roads, but also outlines a road map for its young.

Let us give our children pens instead of guns. And classrooms instead of commandos.

Because peace is not just a treaty. It is a syllabus.

Apsara Reddy is official spokesperson, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam