Watch: Jan Sena members from Uttar Pradesh to take on stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir from May 7

A group of saints from Uttar Pradesh is reportedly gearing up to take on stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir. The group, named Jan Sena, was founded by one Balyogi Arun Puri Chaitanya Maharaj with the express reason of combating stone-pelters in J&K. It will send 1,000 people to Jammu and Kashmir on May 7 to give a fitting reply to stone-pelters. 

Arun Puri, the head priest of the Siddhnath temple in Kanpur, had said at the time of the incorporation of the group that 13,000 people had joined it.

He was also quoted by Hindustan Times as saying: "I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to permit the Sena to go to Kashmir and teach the separatist forces there a lesson."

The menace that is stone-pelting

Stone-pelting has become a serious menace for the armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Even the Supreme Court has had to weigh in on the subject, saying that stone-pelting in the state has to stop in order for peaceful talks to take place. 

Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid had said that those youngsters who disrupt police operations — especially anti-terrorist operations — by pelting stones would be "committing suicide." He had said: "A lot of provocation is there from the other side, which is instigating young boys and misleading them to pelt stones and reach the site of encounters. Even security forces in an encounter take the cover of a vehicle or a house. Youths coming to encounter site are committing suicide."

Counter-attack?

Now, the Jan Sena is saying it will send to Jammu and Kashmir 1,000 people it has trained to combat stone-pelters by giving them a taste of their own medicine: pelting stones at them. The group has received no formal permission from the local administration, but Arun Puri has said: "We are determined to go, regardless of the consequences. If our members are stopped, we will travel in our individual capacity and regroup once we get there."

The question now is even if they manage to do so and pelt stones at the stone-pelters, will it be of any help to the security forces? Or could it only exacerbate matters? Here are some ways their well-intended actions could go horrifically wrong. 

1. Members of the group can be mistaken for the original stone-pelters and be at the receiving end of appropriate action.

2. Their ranks could be penetrated by the actual stone-pelters, and the group could end up being blamed for more stone-pelting. 

3. There is a high possibility that stone-pelters may target the Jan Sena group. Since stone-pelting is used these days in Jammu and Kashmir to disrupt anti-terrorist operations, such an attack on the Jan Sena group would only be a strain on and a scattering of focus of the security forces, giving the terrorists the advantage. 

But that does not seem to be deterring the Jan Sena from sending the group to J&K. Watch the video of their training: