An Exiled Kashmiri Pandit Tells Why Pakistan Remains A Factor In Current Crisis In The Valley

The current round of violence in Jammu and Kashmir has left the people with the horrors of many unresolved armed conflicts that are going on in many parts of the world. Things were not like this a year back. The valley was limping back to stability, but the sentiment of separation from India has surfaced more openly now than ever before. Nobody should have any illusions about it.

Post Burhan Wani phase of terrorism has pronounced it more explicitly and with clarity than any time in the history of terrorism. The toxic and hate India campaign, therefore, has a plan and that is to use spectacle of violence to stir up Religious fervour among all the conceivable areas of the civil society to ensure that it remains in a war mode. This has surely resulted in the firing of an arrow of Azadi from the bow of Kashmir.

That is the Kashmir of today. Its politics is overshadowed by religion. The thin line that existed between the two has ceased to exist and it is no more a place of compassion, co-existence and understanding among its citizens.

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As we move deeper into the whirlpool of the crisis in Kashmir, we are confronted with the new realities there which find its righteousness in Islam and build its legitimacy on the majoritarian religion consistent with Pakistan. This has changed the situation fundamentally by making Azadi a core expression of the movement. At the heart of this expression is the building of the religious centric edifice of anti-India sentiment of the movement.

This has changed the democratic space for dissent and expression by writing a different story in Kashmir. This is done to give an unceremonious burial to the politics in Kashmir and dominate the valley. Pro-Pakistan sentiment, emotional rants and vision of violence has taken a Centre stage which has further poisoned the climate with recurrent offensives and grave provocations. This generation is heavily influenced by radical Islam which has succeeded only in altering the Islam in practice in the Valley of Kashmir.

Islam in Kashmir was closer to Hanafi school of thought which had ample space for other religions to co-exist with it. With the emergence of Jamait-i-Ahlehadis registered as a non-political religious organisation, it has grown many folds and increased its influence not only that but is catching the youth when they are young and their minds easily impregnated.

One can imagine it from this that they have a full control over 700 mosques in Kashmir with almost 15 lac followers and are running about 125 Schools there.

These places are proving to be Islamic seminaries which churn out Religious warriors highly influenced by Wahhabi School of thought better known as desert Islam.

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Kashmiri Muslims world over are known as Asthan parsat because its shrines derive their name from asthapan. The connotation is that the Muslim Asthans are more of centers of pilgrimage. It is this mode of religious worship in Kashmir which has fostered nonviolence, vegetarianism on the anniversaries of Muslim Reshis popularly known as urs. Darud khwani and Naat khwani which is a distinct feature of Kashmiri Islam at the urs venues but uncommon in the religious assemblies of Muslims elsewhere, holding of Fateha ceremony in memory of deceased is a peculiarity of Kashmiri Islam not only that veneration of sufi saints, tombs and graves constitute its important component.

Muslim mosques though constitute fundamental places of worship in Kashmir but came to be known as Khankah¡¯s because these places were not used for offering prayers only but served as basic Muslim institutions for imparting the Muslim Sufi education and practices. Consequently, gutting down of the prominent sufi shrine of saint patron of Kashmir Nund Reshi at Chrarisharief in 1995 by Haroon Khan R/O Khurram Agency popularly known as Mast Gul is seen as the entry of hardline Islam and the jubilation thereafter by his supporters by chanting in his praise that chrar banie hanie hanie Mast Gul Katie banie, which means that Chrarsharief can be rebuilt brick by brick but wherefrom will we get Mast Gul again.

To establish its writ in the Valley of Kashmir, it did not stop at that only but gutted many more venerated shrines of Kashmir over a period like Dastgir Sahib. In this long war of attrition, we come to a stage when Zakir Musa the most prominent hardline terrorist of the largest Anti-India group declared that his fight is exclusively for Islam, so that Sharia is established here. Both him and Hurriyat Conference place Islam central to the Kashmiri Muslim struggle.

Putting it into the right frame, Islam has been brought into the picture to achieve the larger goal of Azadi to carry hard liners and almost all the conceivable areas of the society with them.

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Stone pelters therefore represent the new age and generation of religious warriors who allowed their land to become a fertile breeding ground for extremism. These Kashmiri youths were transported across the border only to become self-proclaimed freedom fighters with the objective to prolong the combat and keep the Kashmir issue alive. The principle role in this regard has been played by Pakistani jihadi outfits by providing them with appropriate doctrinal and operational support.

Since 1989 Pakistan¡¯s ISI has promoted jihad in Kashmir and used the successive generations by indoctrinating, arming and training them for the purpose. This generation is coming under the influence of radicals in questionable madrassas to make them the most radicalized form in its ideological make up which advocates the prominence of Jihad for greater islamization. These people dominate the Valley using erosion of psychological and emotional ties between India and Kashmir as an instrument. A deeper look into the rapid changes brought about by them and their ilk reveals the altered social behaviour of Muslims considerably. Dresses like Naqab and hijab alien to Kashmiri Muslims till a few decades ago have become prevalent.

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Pakistan accorded centrality to Kashmir by viewing it as an unfinished agenda of partition. This brings into sharp focus Mohd Ali JInah¡¯s statement that ¡°Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan and no Nation or country would tolerate its Jugular vein remains under the sword of enemy¡±.

Zia¡¯s doctrine of thousand cuts to bleed India is an extension of the same ideology and Kashmir banega Pakistan is a manifestation of internalizing the slogan for its domestic consumption as well as to use it as a source of inspiration to its well-oiled constituency in Kashmir. Pakistan sponsored fighters therefore fuelled Anti India jihad in the Valley and ceaselessly waged an asymmetrical war on multiple fronts by embracing radical ideology and combining the same with extremism, terrorism and freedom movement to achieve the political objective of azadi. Burhan wani factor helped Pakistan consolidate in Kashmir.

It is he who brought it back into the Political frame. The fact is that the turbulence in Kashmir in which Pakistan has acted as an agent provocateur has certainly played an important role in fomenting trouble there. Pakistan after independence has exploited the situation there to their advantage by sowing the seeds of discord between the Valley and New Delhi. It has spent much of its existence trying to wrest Kashmir from India, using both the cards political as well as religious adroitly and has succeeded in creating a constituency for Pakistan in Kashmir.

It gave them a larger space which over the years fostered an ideology where Indian state and the security forces are seen as enemies of the people of Kashmir. Consequently, seventy years should be a long enough period for Kashmir to affect its social and political life.

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History is witness to the fact that the cycle of chaos is not new to Kashmir. It flows from the Pakistan¡¯s persistent support to the separation of Kashmir from India. The current situation also follows a familiar pattern. The resultant confrontation led to four wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

It is a different matter that Pakistan had to lick the dust every time, not only that but lost Bangladesh more than half of its territory in the process. Despite all that Tashkent agreement and Shimla agreement reached between the two countries offered a hope and promise for Pakistan.

Lahore declaration was yet another goodwill gesture from India in addition to the numerous track 2 diplomatic attempts but its ceaseless contestation for a pursuit on arbitrary and conflicting claims put forth by it continued. To satiate the thirst of dialogue seekers GOI entered numerous accords with tall and influential political leaders of Kashmir.one such accord known as Delhi accord of 1952 between Shaikh Sahab and Pandit Nehru. Another between Shaikh Sahab and Mrs Indira Gandhi known as Beg Partharsarthy accord of 1975 and another between Rajiv Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah in !986 known as Rajiv Farooq accord.

Thereafter, round table conference, all party visit to Kashmir, appointment of Interlocutors and all that was possible was done by India but the people in Kashmir were unmoved by such gestures instead continued to be in war mode.

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Comprehending the compelling circumstances and new inhospitable ground realities, India is waking up to its destructive potential and intense political polarization as a consequence, whose underlying objective remains not only to liberate Kashmir but be part of international jihad. The realization therefore that terrorism has become a distinctive feature in the evolving situation has become more pronounced.

Consequently, India has chosen to pursue a policy of battle against terrorism in Kashmir is winnable. This policy is essentially based on the twin objective of stabilizing the internal situation and controlling the external factors. Major elements of this policy include the tackling substantial core of Kashmiri separatism and de-escalation at the same time intensify its campaign to isolate Pakistan at the regional level first and then at the global level. Post 9/11 made things easy for India to convince and show the world their true face. Not only that Bangladesh and Afghanistan too are victims of the use of terrorism as its state policy.

Cancelation of important SAARC Summit in Pakistan last year and surgical strikes against the terrorist bases in POK and the refusal of India to talk to Pakistan on the basis that terror and talks cannot go together, therefore constitute a fundamental shift in the strategic thinking of India. Resultantly the level of threat analysis and magnitude of its consequences has focused on the entire State machinery, employing a full complement of diplomatic, political and counter terrorism measures to achieve short term and long-term objectives.

Given the state of hostility between India and Pakistan, it is a tall order for us to contest the explosive insurgency but we must realize that the threat posed by it is real and will not go away by ignoring its damage potential. It is however reassuring that a beginning has been made.